Shaqadud Archaeology Project – Reconstruction of environmental changes and food resources availability. Introduction to methods

0583261 - ARÚ 2024 FR eng A - Abstract
Pokorná, Adéla - Hošková, K. - Hošek, J. - Juřičková, L. - Madani Ahmed, I. - Unger, Jiří - Varadzinová, L. - Varadzin, Ladislav
Shaqadud Archaeology Project – Reconstruction of environmental changes and food resources availability. Introduction to methods.
10th International Workshop for African Archaeobotany. 27th-30th June 2023, Paris (France). Abstracts. Oral and poster communications. Paris: AASPE, 2023. s. 60. ISBN N.
[International Workshop for African Archaeobotany /10./. 27.06.2023-30.06.2023, Paris]
Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) LQ300022002
Program: Prémie Lumina quaeruntur
Institutional support: RVO:67985912
Keywords : African Humid Period * food resources availability * Holocene environmental changes * methods * multidisciplinary research * phytolith analysis * reconstruction of humidity and temperature
OECD category: Archaeology
https://iwaa10.sciencesconf.org/data/pages/Program_IWAA_2023_final_5.pdf

Our aim is to detect changes of resources availability in the NW Butana, Sudan, during the African Humid Period (AHP). However, it is still difficult to understand human-environment interactions in Sahelian hinterlands during the AHP, mainly due to generally poor preservation of plant remains in the area (in contrast to hyper-arid conditions to the north, and humid conditions to the south) and due to destruction of the sediments by aeolian erosion. Shaqadud area represents, in this context, a unique prehistoric site with deep, well-preserved, and stratified profiles dating back to the beginning of the Holocene. Prehistoric cultural deposits found in the Shaqadud site during 2021-2023 field campaigns contain, among artifacts, faunal remains (bones), diversity of terrestrial and aquatic snail shells, fragments of charred wood and seeds, as well as abundant and well preserved phytoliths. These finds represent diverse proxies for the reconstruction of ecosystem's development. Moreover, relics of fossil freshwater springs constitute a proxy for reconstruction of humidity and temperature changes. Detailed serial stable isotope analyses, micromorphology and AMS radiocarbon dating of tufa and travertine deposits from these springs provide crucial data for hydroclimatic reconstruction and for in-depth examination of the onset and history of the AHP in the Eastern Sahel. Besides, detailed study of geomorphology, along with botanical and ethnobotanical surveys help to reveal various habitat-types according to their current vegetation composition and diversity. We particularly focused on a specific vegetation-geomorphological phenomenon known locally as el-shataib. The shataibs (steep small canyons draining seasonally rainfall water from the mountain plateaus into lower plains) are associated with the richest vegetation cover and the highest species diversity. These features were selected as particularly important because most of the archaeological sites investigated in the area were associated with them.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0351263