Excellent references!!! Thanks a lot Geesdke, they are of great help!!
 
Verónica Lema
 
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:05:20 +0200
Subject: Re: Soil and preservation
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]

Dear Veronica,
Please see references below. Cheers,
Geeske
Goldberg, P., Macphail, R.I. 2006. Practical and theoretical geoarchaeology, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. (the chapter on soils and preservation)
Caple, C. 2001. Degradation, investigation and preservation of archaeological evidence in: Brothwell, D.R., Pollard, A.M. (Eds.), Handbook of Archaeological Sciences. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp 587-593.
Cronyn, J.M. 2001. The deterioration of organic materials in: Brothwell, D.R., Pollard, A.M. (Eds.), Handbook of Archaeological Sciences. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp 627-636.
Raiswell, R. 2001. Defining the burial environment in: Brothwell, D.R., Pollard, A.M. (Eds.), Handbook of archaeological sciences. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp 595-603.
(In the book there might be a chapter on charcoal, but I can't remember).
Braadbaart, F., Poole, I., van Brussel, A.A. 2009. Preservation potential of charcoal in alkaline environments: an experimental approach and implications for the archaeological record. Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 1672-1679. (probably Otto's paper)
Nichols, G.J., Cripps, J.A., Collinson, M.E., Scott, A.C. 2000. Experiments in waterlogging and sedimentology of charcoal: results and implications. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 164, 43-56.




On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 2:00 PM, Veronica Lema <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
Thanks a lot Otto!! I hope Dr. Braadbaart could send you his paper, this reference is really useful to me!, thanks again
 
Veronica Lema
 
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:12:46 +0200
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Soil and preservation
To: [log in to unmask]

Dear all,
 
Freek Braadbaart, a Dutch researcher studying archaeobotanical remains in relation to chemical processes (among which carbonisation) has also studied the effect of varying pH in relation to the preservation of charcoal, and he has discovered that high pH (alcalinous conditions) have a negative effect on the preservation of charcoal. It seems likely that this is also of influence in Veronica's site(s)! I have mailed Freek if his work on pH has already been published, I'll mail the reference when available.
 
oTTo

Van: The archaeobotany mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Namens Dr. M Kajale
Verzonden: woensdag 26 augustus 2009 4:55
Aan: [log in to unmask]
Onderwerp: Re: Soil and preservation

Dear Veronica (If I may!),
 
Is this an open air site, or a cave site?  Coastal or inland site ? If this Is it a  well stratified site,you can try with other contexts from excavated portions of the site.
 
Thanks in anticipation or your response.
 
Best wishes,
 
Mukund Kajale

On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 11:00 PM, Veronica Lema <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi to all,
My name is Veronica Lema and I am a Ph. archaeologist from Argentina,
I´m writing to you because we are developing archaeobotanical investigation in the central eastern area of the country, specifically in a zone which has calcareous soils. Soil formation started in this area ca. 2000 AP over shell banks, formed after Pleistocene marine intrusions. The problem is the total absence of archaeobotanical macroremains (during excavations hearths are recognized as areas of dark grey sediment with very small bits of charcoal which are very fragile), but we were successful in recovering microremains from mortars and ceramic sherds. I thought that calcareous soil wasn´t a problem for dry or charred macrorremains preservation, but it seems to be. The area is quite humid, but not a lot, and macroremains were recovered from excavations in sites near the area with the same climatic regime. ¿Has anyone idea of why is this happening? ¿or could suggest a paper to read? I will be very glad of any clue about this...thanks!

¡Creá carpetas para todos tus correos! ¡Espacio ILIMITADO con el nuevo Hotmail!


Guardá correos, fotos, archivos, documentos; todo. ¡Con Windows Live tenés 25 GB gratis!



--
Dr G.H.J. Langejans

University of the Witwatersrand
Institute for Human Evolution



Guardá correos, fotos, archivos, documentos; todo. ¡Con Windows Live tenés 25 GB gratis!