ABSTRACTPolitiko-Troullia has generated the largest radiocarbon (14C) dataset from a Prehistoric ... more ABSTRACTPolitiko-Troullia has generated the largest radiocarbon (14C) dataset from a Prehistoric Bronze Age settlement on Cyprus. We present Bayesian modeling of 25 calibrated AMS ages, which contributes to an emerging multi-site 14C chronology for Cyprus covering most of the Prehistoric Bronze Age. Our analysis places the six stratified phases of occupation at Troullia between about 2050 and 1850 cal BCE, in contrast to a longer estimated occupation inferred from pottery analysis. We provide a rare 14C determination for the transition from Prehistoric Bronze Age 1 to 2 just after 2000 cal BCE, associated with a major architectural dislocation at Politiko-Troullia in response to local landscape erosion, possibly due to increased regional precipitation. We present a regional 14C model for Prehistoric Bronze Age Cyprus combining the chronology for Politiko-Troullia with modeled 14C ages from Sotira Kaminoudhia and Marki Alonia, which is bolstered by individual ages from five other set...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021
Significance The oral history for Amerindian migration through The Bahamas was lost after Columbu... more Significance The oral history for Amerindian migration through The Bahamas was lost after Columbus’s arrival in 1492 CE and Lucayan enslavement in the early sixteenth century. The Lucayans encountered unique prehuman reptile-dominated terrestrial food webs (i.e., tortoise and crocodile), with palm and hardwood forests that were resilient to regional oceanographic cooling and hurricane perturbations. New evidence indicates that Lucayans arrived in the northern Bahamas by about 830 CE after expanding rapidly throughout The Bahamas in less than 100 y. Following subsequent burning, reptiles were extirpated, and pyrogenic pine forests took over Great Abaco Island. Compounded perturbations, including forecasts of future hurricane intensification, may continue to alter Bahamian ecosystems, particularly pine forests, which are less resilient than precontact tropical hardwood ecosystems.
We propose a revised map of plant geographical regions for the Southern Levant (most of Israel, t... more We propose a revised map of plant geographical regions for the Southern Levant (most of Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan). Since this region has been heavily impacted by human activity over millennia we have created a detailed natural vegetation map using GIS, remote sensing and a species distribution model (MAXENT). We created an extensive database of over 1800 historical and field observations for the region, incorporating plant species presence-only data, as well as environmental variables, including temperature and precipitation. Vegetation was modeled according to plant geographical regions and vegetation types. Our revised map generally agrees with previous vegetation maps done for the region, but provides more detail regarding the distribution of various forested communities that have been significantly disturbed by millennia of human activity. Given its digital format, this new map can be used for conservation and other applications that require a vegetation su...
We present the first Bayesian 14C modeling based on AMS ages from stratified sediments representi... more We present the first Bayesian 14C modeling based on AMS ages from stratified sediments representing continuous occupation across the Early Bronze III/IV interface in the Southern Levant. This new high-precision modeling incorporates 12 calibrated AMS ages from Khirbat Iskandar Area C using OxCal 4.4.4 and the IntCal 20 calibration curve to specify the EB III/IV transition at or slightly before 2500 cal BCE. Our results contribute to the continuing emergence of a high chronology for the Levantine Early Bronze Age, which shifts the end of EB III 200–300 years earlier than the traditional time frame and increases the length of EB IV to about 500 years. Data from Khirbat Iskandar also help direct greater attention to the importance of sedentary communities through EB IV, in contrast to the traditional emphasis on non-sedentary pastoral encampments and cemeteries. Modeling of AMS data from Khirbat Iskandar bolsters the ongoing revision of Early Bronze Age Levantine chronology and its gro...
ABSTRACTWe present two new Bayesian 14C models using IntCal20 that incorporate 17 new calibrated ... more ABSTRACTWe present two new Bayesian 14C models using IntCal20 that incorporate 17 new calibrated AMS ages for Early Bronze IV Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Middle Bronze Age Tell el-Hayyat, located in the northern Jordan Valley, Jordan. These freshly augmented suites of carbonized seed dates now include 25 AMS dates from Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and 31 AMS dates from Tell el-Hayyat. The modeled founding date for Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj strengthens an emerging high chronology for Early Bronze IV starting by 2500 cal BC, while the end of its habitation by 2200 cal BC may exemplify a regional pattern of increasingly pervasive abandonment among late Early Bronze IV settlements in the Southern Levant. In turn, our modeled date for the Early Bronze IV/Middle Bronze Age transition at Tell el-Hayyat around 1900 cal BC pushes this interface about a century later than surmised traditionally, and its abandonment in Middle Bronze III marks an unexpectedly early end date before 1600 cal BC. These inferences, which c...
Charcoal and charred seeds at five Bronze Age archaeological sites discern ancient land use in th... more Charcoal and charred seeds at five Bronze Age archaeological sites discern ancient land use in the eastern Mediterranean. Seed frequencies of orchard crops, annual cereals and pulses, and wild or weedy plants are used to characterize plant utilization at different archaeological sites on the island of Cyprus, in the Rift Valley of Jordan, and in the Jabbul Plain and along
ABSTRACTPolitiko-Troullia has generated the largest radiocarbon (14C) dataset from a Prehistoric ... more ABSTRACTPolitiko-Troullia has generated the largest radiocarbon (14C) dataset from a Prehistoric Bronze Age settlement on Cyprus. We present Bayesian modeling of 25 calibrated AMS ages, which contributes to an emerging multi-site 14C chronology for Cyprus covering most of the Prehistoric Bronze Age. Our analysis places the six stratified phases of occupation at Troullia between about 2050 and 1850 cal BCE, in contrast to a longer estimated occupation inferred from pottery analysis. We provide a rare 14C determination for the transition from Prehistoric Bronze Age 1 to 2 just after 2000 cal BCE, associated with a major architectural dislocation at Politiko-Troullia in response to local landscape erosion, possibly due to increased regional precipitation. We present a regional 14C model for Prehistoric Bronze Age Cyprus combining the chronology for Politiko-Troullia with modeled 14C ages from Sotira Kaminoudhia and Marki Alonia, which is bolstered by individual ages from five other set...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021
Significance The oral history for Amerindian migration through The Bahamas was lost after Columbu... more Significance The oral history for Amerindian migration through The Bahamas was lost after Columbus’s arrival in 1492 CE and Lucayan enslavement in the early sixteenth century. The Lucayans encountered unique prehuman reptile-dominated terrestrial food webs (i.e., tortoise and crocodile), with palm and hardwood forests that were resilient to regional oceanographic cooling and hurricane perturbations. New evidence indicates that Lucayans arrived in the northern Bahamas by about 830 CE after expanding rapidly throughout The Bahamas in less than 100 y. Following subsequent burning, reptiles were extirpated, and pyrogenic pine forests took over Great Abaco Island. Compounded perturbations, including forecasts of future hurricane intensification, may continue to alter Bahamian ecosystems, particularly pine forests, which are less resilient than precontact tropical hardwood ecosystems.
We propose a revised map of plant geographical regions for the Southern Levant (most of Israel, t... more We propose a revised map of plant geographical regions for the Southern Levant (most of Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan). Since this region has been heavily impacted by human activity over millennia we have created a detailed natural vegetation map using GIS, remote sensing and a species distribution model (MAXENT). We created an extensive database of over 1800 historical and field observations for the region, incorporating plant species presence-only data, as well as environmental variables, including temperature and precipitation. Vegetation was modeled according to plant geographical regions and vegetation types. Our revised map generally agrees with previous vegetation maps done for the region, but provides more detail regarding the distribution of various forested communities that have been significantly disturbed by millennia of human activity. Given its digital format, this new map can be used for conservation and other applications that require a vegetation su...
We present the first Bayesian 14C modeling based on AMS ages from stratified sediments representi... more We present the first Bayesian 14C modeling based on AMS ages from stratified sediments representing continuous occupation across the Early Bronze III/IV interface in the Southern Levant. This new high-precision modeling incorporates 12 calibrated AMS ages from Khirbat Iskandar Area C using OxCal 4.4.4 and the IntCal 20 calibration curve to specify the EB III/IV transition at or slightly before 2500 cal BCE. Our results contribute to the continuing emergence of a high chronology for the Levantine Early Bronze Age, which shifts the end of EB III 200–300 years earlier than the traditional time frame and increases the length of EB IV to about 500 years. Data from Khirbat Iskandar also help direct greater attention to the importance of sedentary communities through EB IV, in contrast to the traditional emphasis on non-sedentary pastoral encampments and cemeteries. Modeling of AMS data from Khirbat Iskandar bolsters the ongoing revision of Early Bronze Age Levantine chronology and its gro...
ABSTRACTWe present two new Bayesian 14C models using IntCal20 that incorporate 17 new calibrated ... more ABSTRACTWe present two new Bayesian 14C models using IntCal20 that incorporate 17 new calibrated AMS ages for Early Bronze IV Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Middle Bronze Age Tell el-Hayyat, located in the northern Jordan Valley, Jordan. These freshly augmented suites of carbonized seed dates now include 25 AMS dates from Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and 31 AMS dates from Tell el-Hayyat. The modeled founding date for Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj strengthens an emerging high chronology for Early Bronze IV starting by 2500 cal BC, while the end of its habitation by 2200 cal BC may exemplify a regional pattern of increasingly pervasive abandonment among late Early Bronze IV settlements in the Southern Levant. In turn, our modeled date for the Early Bronze IV/Middle Bronze Age transition at Tell el-Hayyat around 1900 cal BC pushes this interface about a century later than surmised traditionally, and its abandonment in Middle Bronze III marks an unexpectedly early end date before 1600 cal BC. These inferences, which c...
Charcoal and charred seeds at five Bronze Age archaeological sites discern ancient land use in th... more Charcoal and charred seeds at five Bronze Age archaeological sites discern ancient land use in the eastern Mediterranean. Seed frequencies of orchard crops, annual cereals and pulses, and wild or weedy plants are used to characterize plant utilization at different archaeological sites on the island of Cyprus, in the Rift Valley of Jordan, and in the Jabbul Plain and along
The presence of two species of Agave growing on trash deposits downslope from the site, and charr... more The presence of two species of Agave growing on trash deposits downslope from the site, and charred agave remains (stems, fibers, and heart fragments) in several features, should have been a clue to the agave cultivation hypothesis which started to come together about a year after this paper was written. Since the two agaves weren't far outside their natural range, I didn't think it was too unusual. I visited the site in the summer of 1979, completed the analysis and sent off the report in the summer of 1980. The chronology continued to be refined over the next few years, and after Charles Di Peso passed away in 1982, Anne Woosley took over the project. I am not sure how closely the chronology I was working with in 1980 resembled the final sequence published in this volume. This is a more complete version of the 1980 Mogollon Conference Paper.
Complete reference:
Miksicek, Charles H. and Patricia L. Fall 1996 Wind Mountain Macrobotanical Plant Remains. in Mimbres Mogollon Archaeology by Anne I. Woosley and Allan J. McIntyre, Appendix 1, pp. 295 - 306. An Amerind Foundation Publication, Dragoon, AZ; University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM.
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Papers by Patricia Fall
Complete reference:
Miksicek, Charles H. and Patricia L. Fall
1996 Wind Mountain Macrobotanical Plant Remains. in Mimbres Mogollon Archaeology by Anne I. Woosley and Allan J. McIntyre, Appendix 1, pp. 295 - 306. An Amerind Foundation Publication, Dragoon, AZ; University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM.