Prof Christopher Ramsey

Abstract:

The Younger Dryas Stadial (YDS) was an episode of northern hemispheric cooling which occurred within the Last Glacial Interglacial Transition (LGIT). A major driver for the YDS climate was a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). It has been inferred that the AMOC began to strengthen mid-YDS, producing a bipartite structure of the YDS in records from continental Europe. These records imply that the polar front and westerlies shifted northward, producing a warmer second phase of the YDS in Europe. Here we present multi-proxy data from the sediments of Lake Suigetsu (Japan), as evidence that a related bi-partition of the YDS also occurred in East Asia. Besides showing for the first time that the bi-partition was not limited to the North Atlantic/European region, the data also imply a climatic dipole between Europe and East Asia since the cold-warm characteristics are reversed at Lake Suigetsu. We suggest that changes in eastward moisture transport from the North Atlantic are the primary mechanism by which the teleconnection can be explained.

Abstract:

© 2017 The Author(s) Starting from questions about the nature of cultural diversity, this paper examines the pace and tempo of change and the relative importance of continuity and discontinuity. To unravel the cultural project of the past, we apply chronological modelling of radiocarbon dates within a Bayesian statistical framework, to interrogate the Neolithic cultural sequence in Lower Alsace, in the upper Rhine valley, in broad terms from the later sixth to the end of the fifth millennium cal BC. Detailed formal estimates are provided for the long succession of cultural groups, from the early Neolithic Linear Pottery culture (LBK) to the Bischheim Occidental du Rhin Supérieur (BORS) groups at the end of the Middle Neolithic, using seriation and typology of pottery as the starting point in modelling. The rate of ceramic change, as well as frequent shifts in the nature, location and density of settlements, are documented in detail, down to lifetime and generational timescales. This reveals a Neolithic world in Lower Alsace busy with comings and goings, tinkerings and adjustments, and relocations and realignments. A significant hiatus is identified between the end of the LBK and the start of the Hinkelstein group, in the early part of the fifth millennium cal BC. On the basis of modelling of existing dates for other parts of the Rhineland, this appears to be a wider phenomenon, and possible explanations are discussed; full reoccupation of the landscape is only seen in the Grossgartach phase. Radical shifts are also proposed at the end of the Middle Neolithic.

Abstract:

Why were large collectivities of the dead a widespread feature of the later fourth millennium cal BC in western Europe? The hypogée or artificial cave of Les Mournouards II in the Marne region, northern France, where remains of 79 people were deposited in two chambers, is used to address this and related questions. Bayesian modelling of 29 newly obtained radiocarbon dates places the construction of the tomb in the 34th or 33rd centuries cal BC, with a use-life which could be as little as 100 years. The results indicate that the two chambers were used concurrently, distinctions between them being attributable to their use by different social groupings, as hypothesised by the excavator, André Leroi-Gourhan. The probably short life of this tomb suggests that clusters of hypogées in general could reflect the use of successive tombs by the same groups. The character of the tomb is discussed in general terms of anxieties about territory and numbers of people, threats of dispersal and the maintenance of community. Diversity within collective burial practices in the Paris basin is examined, and a series of specific differences between hypogées and allées sépulcrales are explored.