High Kirsty, Milner Nicky, Panter Ian, Demarchi Beatrice, Penkman Kirsty E H
Department of Chemistry, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
Department of Archaeology, University of York, York YO1 7EP, United Kingdom.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Nov 15;113(46):12957-12962. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1609222113. Epub 2016 Oct 31.
Examples of wetland deposits can be found across the globe and are known for preserving organic archaeological and environmental remains that are vitally important to our understanding of past human-environment interactions. The Mesolithic site of Star Carr (Yorkshire, United Kingdom) represents one of the most influential archives of human response to the changing climate at the end of the last glacial in Northern Europe. A hallmark of the site since its discovery in 1948 has been the exceptional preservation of its organic remains. Disturbingly, recent excavations have suggested that the geochemistry of the site is no longer conducive to such remarkable survival of organic archaeological and environmental materials. Microcosm (laboratory-based) burial experiments have been undertaken, alongside analysis of artifacts excavated from the site, to assess the effect of these geochemical changes on the remaining archaeological material. By applying a suite of macroscopic and molecular analyses, we demonstrate that the geochemical changes at Star Carr are contributing to the inexorable and rapid loss of valuable archaeological and paleoenvironmental information. Our findings have global implications for other wetland sites, particularly archaeological sites preserved in situ.
湿地沉积物的例子在全球都能找到，它们以保存有机考古遗迹和环境遗迹而闻名，这些遗迹对于我们理解过去人类与环境的相互作用至关重要。英国约克郡的星卡尔中石器时代遗址是北欧末次冰期末期人类对气候变化反应的最具影响力的档案之一。自1948年该遗址被发现以来，其一个显著特征就是有机遗迹保存异常完好。令人不安的是，最近的发掘表明，该遗址的地球化学性质已不再有利于有机考古和环境材料如此显著地保存下来。已经进行了微观（基于实验室）埋藏实验，并对从该遗址发掘出的文物进行了分析，以评估这些地球化学变化对剩余考古材料的影响。通过应用一系列宏观和分子分析方法，我们证明星卡尔的地球化学变化正在导致宝贵的考古和古环境信息不可阻挡地迅速流失。我们的研究结果对其他湿地遗址，尤其是原地保存的考古遗址具有全球意义。
