The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2012: the fifth season of investigations of the Haua Fteah cave

Abstract

The paper reports on the fifth (2012) season of fieldwork of the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project. The primary focus of the season was the continuation of the excavation of the prehistoric occupation layers in the Haua Fteah cave. A small trench (Trench U) was cut into Holocene (Neolithic)

Carbon isotope signatures from land snail shells: Implications for palaeovegetation reconstruction in the eastern Mediterranean

“…This study presents a modern carbon isotope calibration on a previously unstudied species, Helix melanostoma. This species is one of the most common land snails in the Mediterranean and northern Africa and one of the most abundant species in Mediterranean archaeological sites from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Roman period (Lubell, 2004;Barker et al, 2010;Lubell and Barton, 2011). Therefore, if this species can be validated as a useful palaeoenvironmental proxy, it can provide valuable information on late Pleistocene to Holocene past environments, in a region with comparatively little palaeoenvironmental data.…”

Radiocarbon Ecology of the Land Snail Helix Melanostoma in Northeastern Libya

“…The outlying sample, UBA 15321, appears to be archaeological material that was present on the landscape at the point of collection, based on comparisons of ages of material from within the Haua Sequence (Hill, 2015) reinforcing the importance of live collected specimens for studies like this. The sampling of live collected modern specimens was carried out during 2010 and 2012 field seasons Barker et al, 2012;Rabett et al, 2012;. The sampling strategy was designed to encompass the widest possible range of modern environments within the study area but focused on five key locations given the constraints of time and security ( Figure 2; Table 2).…”

The chronostratigraphy of the Haua Fteah cave (Cyrenaica, northeast Libya) — Optical dating of early human occupation during Marine Isotope Stages 4, 5 and 6

“…The samples were collected in situ from the cleaned faces of the Upper and Middle Trenches as well as from the newly-opened Trench M. Prior to submission for dating, taxonomic identification of the charred material was undertaken by Caroline Cartwright (British Museum) based on microscopic characteristics (e.g., internal and external physical structure and diagnostic anatomical features revealed through standard techniques of light microscopy) (see also Barker et al, 2008). The ORAU and Beta Analytic charcoal samples were dated using the standard AcideBaseeAcid (ABA) protocol (Brock et al, 2010), as were the five wood charcoal samples dated at Belfast (UBA-16129, UBA-16131e 34).…”

“…In fact, the sequence remains unique for the whole of North Africa east of the Maghreb (McBurney, 1967). However, though in many respects the excavations and subsequent analyses of material were pioneering for their time, techniques in cave excavation, deep-time radiometric dating and archaeological science more generally have all been transformed in the ensuing sixty years; the context for the renewal of fieldwork at the site in 2007 (Barker et al, 2007(Barker et al, , 2008(Barker et al, , 2009. Here we report the initial results of a comprehensive dating program of the geological and cultural sequences that has been one of the primary objectives of the new project.…”