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Antarctica as a ‘natural laboratory’ for the critical assessment of the archaeological validity of early stone tool sites
Metin I. Eren, Michelle R. Bebber, Briggs Buchanan, Anne Grunow, Alastair Key, Stephen J. Lycett, Erica Maletic, Teal R. Riley
Journal:

Antiquity / Volume 97 / Issue 392 / April 2023

Published online by Cambridge University Press:

31 January 2023, pp. 472-482

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April 2023
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Lithic technologies dominate understanding of early humans, yet natural processes can fracture rock in ways that resemble artefacts made by Homo sapiens and other primates. Differentiating between fractures made by natural processes and primates is important for assessing the validity of early and controversial archaeological sites. Rather than depend on expert authority or intuition, the authors propose a null model of conchoidally fractured Antarctic rocks. As no primates have ever occupied the continent, Antarctica offers a laboratory for generating samples that could only have been naturally fractured. Examples that resemble artefacts produced by primates illustrate the potential of ‘archaeological’ research in Antarctica for the evaluation of hominin sites worldwide.

Roundtable - Brian Russell Roberts and Michelle Ann Stephens (eds.), Archipelagic American Studies (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017, $30.95). Pp. 496. isbn978 0 8223 6346 0.
HESTER BLUM, LESLIE ELIZABETH ECKEL, MARIA CRISTINA FUMAGALLI, YUAN SHU, BRIAN RUSSELL ROBERTS, MICHELLE ANN STEPHENS
Journal:

Journal of American Studies / Volume 53 / Issue 2 / May 2019

Published online by Cambridge University Press:

21 June 2019, E18

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May 2019
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Controlling factors for differential subsidence in the Sonoma Foreland Basin (Early Triassic, western USA)
GWÉNAËL CARAVACA, ARNAUD BRAYARD, EMMANUELLE VENNIN, MICHEL GUIRAUD, LAETITIA LE POURHIET, ANNE-SABINE GROSJEAN, CHRISTOPHE THOMAZO, NICOLAS OLIVIER, EMMANUEL FARA, GILLES ESCARGUEL, KEVIN G. BYLUND, JAMES F. JENKS, DANIEL A. STEPHEN
Journal:

Geological Magazine / Volume 155 / Issue 6 / September 2018

Published online by Cambridge University Press:

18 April 2017, pp. 1305-1329
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Sediments deposited from the Permian–Triassic boundary (~252 Ma) until the end-Smithian (Early Triassic; c. 250.7 Ma) in the Sonoma Foreland Basin show marked thickness variations between its southern (up to c. 250 m thick) and northern (up to c. 550 m thick) parts. This basin formed as a flexural response to the emplacement of the Golconda Allochthon during the Sonoma orogeny. Using a high-resolution backstripping approach, a numerical model and sediment thickness to obtain a quantitative subsidence analysis, we discuss the controlling factor(s) responsible for spatial variations in thickness. We show that sedimentary overload is not sufficient to explain the significant discrepancy observed in the sedimentary record of the basin. We argue that the inherited rheological properties of the basement terranes and spatial heterogeneity of the allochthon are of paramount importance in controlling the subsidence and thickness spatial distribution across the Sonoma Foreland Basin.