Rockshelter Sediment Records and Environmental Change in the Mediterranean Region

An International Symposium convened by: Jamie Woodward¹, Paul Goldberg² and Ofer Bar-Yosef³

¹ School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
   Email:jamie@geog.leeds.ac.uk
² Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
   Email: paulberg@bu.edu
³ Department of Anthropology, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
   Email: obaryos@husc.harvard.edu

See also http://www.saa.org/Meetings/meetings.html

Context

Much of what we know about the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic is derived from artefacts and faunal remains excavated from cave and rockshelter environments in southern Europe and the wider Mediterranean region. Rockshelter and cave sediment records can provide both stratigraphic control and environmental context for these materials. They also constitute a vital linkage between the cultural record on-site and off-site sources of palaeoenvironmental data. The study of rockshelter sediment records is now an important part of Palaeolithic archaeology, Geoarchaeology and Quaternary Science more generally. Various approaches and methodologies for the scientific analysis and dating of rockshelter sediments have developed over the last four decades. This meeting will focus on sites in and around the Mediterranean region and intends to stimulate debate on the following themes:

1. The utility of rockshelter and cave sediment sequences as records of environmental change.
2. Local versus regional controls on sedimentation style. What can these sequences tell us about local, regional and global patterns of environmental change?
3. Is it possible to differentiate between "natural" and anthropogenic signatures in rockshelter sediment records? Approaches and methodological issues and the role of micromorphology.
4. Dating rockshelter and cave sediment sequences and rates of sedimentation. Issues of resolution, preservation, gaps in the record etc.
5. Sediment sources and depositional environments. On-site and off-site correlations. Rockshelter sediments as an interface (link) between the archaeological record and the climatic changes recorded in the wider Pleistocene and Holocene sedimentary record.
6. Comparisons between rockshelter sediment records and other proxy records of environmental change (e.g. pollen and lake level data, alluvial sequences etc.)