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Environmental magnetic indicators of the sedimentary context of archaeological sites in the Shangqiu area of China
Author(s) -
Jing Zhichun,
Rapp George Rip
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
geoarchaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1520-6548
pISSN - 0883-6353
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6548(199801)13:1<37::aid-gea3>3.0.co;2-9
Subject(s) - paleosol , alluvium , geology , context (archaeology) , sedimentary rock , archaeology , environmental magnetism , china , paleontology , sediment , geography , loess
Environmental magnetic techniques provide significant potential for characterizing sediments and soils and inferring their sources. This article discusses the application of environmental magnetic techniques in the study of an evolving landscape in the Shangqiu area, China, an archaeologically important region for investigating the origin of Shang civilization. Two magnetic parameters—anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM) and low‐field magnetic susceptibility (χ)—are employed to discriminate the pre‐Neolithic paleosol from the historic alluvium. In order to quantitatively interpret magnetic measurements, ARM versus χ plots are utilized with rigorous statistical analyses including group comparison and discriminant classification. With the ARM/χ classification model defined by the pre‐Neolithic paleosol and historic alluvium, the sediment sources of three anthropogenic deposits (A‐1, A‐2, and A‐3 from oldest to youngest) are addressed. Magnetic data clearly show that A‐1 and A‐3 are closely associated with the pre‐Neolithic paleosol and historic alluvium, respectively. Cultural mixing processes might be partially responsible for the formation of A‐2. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.