Prof Christopher Ramsey: Publications

Volcanic ash layers illuminate the resilience of Neanderthals and early modern humans to natural hazards

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109:34 (2012) 13532-13537

Authors:

John Lowe, Nick Barton, Simon Blockley, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Victoria L Cullen, William Davies, Clive Gamble, Katharine Grant, Mark Hardiman, Rupert Housley, Christine S Lane, Sharen Lee, Mark Lewis, Alison MacLeod, Martin Menzies, Wolfgang Müller, Mark Pollard, Catherine Price, Andrew P Roberts, Eelco J Rohling, Chris Satow, Victoria C Smith, Chris B Stringer, Emma L Tomlinson, Dustin White, Paul Albert, Ilenia Arienzo, Graeme Barker, Dušan Borić, Antonio Carandente, Lucia Civetta, Catherine Ferrier, Jean-Luc Guadelli, Panagiotis Karkanas, Margarita Koumouzelis, Ulrich C Müller, Giovanni Orsi, Jörg Pross, Mauro Rosi, Ljiljiana Shalamanov-Korobar, Nikolay Sirakov, Polychronis C Tzedakis

Abstract:

Marked changes in human dispersal and development during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition have been attributed to massive volcanic eruption and/or severe climatic deterioration. We test this concept using records of volcanic ash layers of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption dated to ca. 40,000 y ago (40 ka B.P.). The distribution of the Campanian Ignimbrite has been enhanced by the discovery of cryptotephra deposits (volcanic ash layers that are not visible to the naked eye) in archaeological cave sequences. They enable us to synchronize archaeological and paleoclimatic records through the period of transition from Neanderthal to the earliest anatomically modern human populations in Europe. Our results confirm that the combined effects of a major volcanic eruption and severe climatic cooling failed to have lasting impacts on Neanderthals or early modern humans in Europe. We infer that modern humans proved a greater competitive threat to indigenous populations than natural disasters.

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Τesting models for the beginnings of the Aurignacian and the advent of figurative art and music: The radiocarbon chronology of Geißenklösterle

Journal of Human Evolution Elsevier BV 62:6 (2012) 664-676

Authors:

Thomas Higham, Laura Basell, Roger Jacobi, Rachel Wood, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Nicholas J Conard

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Revised calendar date for the Taupo eruption derived by ¹⁴C wiggle-matching using a New Zealand kauri ¹⁴C calibration data set

The Holocene SAGE Publications 22:4 (2012) 439-449

Authors:

Alan Hogg, David J Lowe, Jonathan Palmer, Gretel Boswijk, Christopher Bronk Ramsey

Abstract:

Taupo volcano in central North Island, New Zealand, is the most frequently active and productive rhyolite volcano on Earth. Its latest explosive activity about 1800 years ago generated the spectacular Taupo eruption, the most violent eruption known in the world in the last 5000 years. We present here a new accurate and precise eruption date of ad 232 ± 5 (1718 ± 5 cal. BP) for the Taupo event. This date was derived by wiggle-matching 25 high-precision 14C dates from decadal samples of Phyllocladus trichomanoides from the Pureora buried forest near Lake Taupo against the high-precision, first-millennium ad subfossil Agathis australis (kauri) calibration data set constructed by the Waikato Radiocarbon Laboratory. It shows that postulated dates for the eruption estimated previously from Greenland ice-core records (ad 181 ± 2) and putative historical records of unusual atmospheric phenomena in ancient Rome and China ( c. ad 186) are both untenable. However, although their conclusion of a zero north–south 14C offset is erroneous, and their data exhibit a laboratory bias of about 38 years (too young), Sparks et al. (Sparks RJ, Melhuish WH, McKee JWA, Ogden J, Palmer JG and Molloy BPJ (1995) 14C calibration in the Southern Hemisphere and the date of the last Taupo eruption: Evidence from tree-ring sequences. Radiocarbon 37: 155–163) correctly utilized the Northern Hemisphere calibration curve of Stuiver and Becker (Stuiver M and Becker B (1993) High-precision decadal calibration of the radiocarbon timescale, AD 1950–6000 BC. Radiocarbon 35: 35–65) to obtain an accurate wiggle-match date for the eruption identical to ours but less precise (ad 232 ± 15). Our results demonstrate that high-agreement levels, indicated by either agreement indices or χ2 data, obtained from a 14C wiggle-match do not necessarily mean that age models are accurate. We also show that laboratory bias, if suspected, can be mitigated by applying the reservoir offset function with an appropriate error value (e.g. 0 ± 40 years). Ages for eruptives such as Taupo tephra that are based upon individual 14C dates should be considered as approximate only, and confined ideally to short-lived material (e.g. seeds, leaves, small branches or the outer rings of larger trees).

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Synchronisation of palaeoenvironmental records over the last 60,000 years, and an extended INTIMATE event stratigraphy to 48,000 b2k

Quaternary Science Reviews Elsevier BV 36 (2012) 2-10

Authors:

Simon PE Blockley, Christine S Lane, Mark Hardiman, Sune Olander Rasmussen, Inger K Seierstad, Jørgen Peder Steffensen, Anders Svensson, Andre F Lotter, Chris SM Turney, Christopher Bronk Ramsey

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The INTegration of Ice core, MArine and TErrestrial records of the last termination (INTIMATE)60,000 to 8000 BP

Quaternary Science Reviews Elsevier BV 36 (2012) 1-1

Authors:

SPE Blockley, CS Lane, CSM Turney, C Bronk Ramsey

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Prof Christopher Ramsey

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Volcanic ash layers illuminate the resilience of Neanderthals and early modern humans to natural hazards

Authors:

Abstract:

Τesting models for the beginnings of the Aurignacian and the advent of figurative art and music: The radiocarbon chronology of Geißenklösterle

Authors:

Revised calendar date for the Taupo eruption derived by ¹⁴C wiggle-matching using a New Zealand kauri ¹⁴C calibration data set

Authors:

Abstract:

Synchronisation of palaeoenvironmental records over the last 60,000 years, and an extended INTIMATE event stratigraphy to 48,000 b2k

Authors:

The INTegration of Ice core, MArine and TErrestrial records of the last termination (INTIMATE)60,000 to 8000 BP

Authors:

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Prof Christopher Ramsey

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Volcanic ash layers illuminate the resilience of Neanderthals and early modern humans to natural hazards

Authors:

Abstract:

Τesting models for the beginnings of the Aurignacian and the advent of figurative art and music: The radiocarbon chronology of Geißenklösterle

Authors:

Revised calendar date for the Taupo eruption derived by 14C wiggle-matching using a New Zealand kauri 14C calibration data set

Authors:

Abstract:

Synchronisation of palaeoenvironmental records over the last 60,000 years, and an extended INTIMATE event stratigraphy to 48,000 b2k

Authors:

The INTegration of Ice core, MArine and TErrestrial records of the last termination (INTIMATE)60,000 to 8000 BP

Authors:

Revised calendar date for the Taupo eruption derived by ¹⁴C wiggle-matching using a New Zealand kauri ¹⁴C calibration data set