Holocene landscape change in the southern Levant in the context of dust deposition and land use

关于南莱万特全新世期间的景观发展，以及景观变化、人类活动和气候波动如何相互作用，人们知之甚少。研究充分的以色列南部内盖夫的黄土沉积物主要记录了更新世期间的环境变化，约旦南部的黄土已经被假设，但几乎没有被调查。尽管在内盖夫进行了径流梯田的试验工作，但南黎凡特古代农业梯田系统的目的和设计概念仍然很大程度上是未知的。该项目通过一项比较研究来解决这些问题，该研究将不同的地质考古档案连接到一个区域样带上。在Horvat Haluqim和Jabal Haroun遗址附近，对保存在不同考古结构(山顶遗址、蓄水池和梯田)中的沉积物和集水区规模的自然沉积物进行了系统的比较，重点放在铁器时代到拜占庭时期，这是地质考古结构很好地代表的时期。此外，还比较了不同景观背景和区域尘埃轨迹不同位置的沉积物特征，并与特定沙尘暴的现代尘埃和晚更新世黄土进行了比较。为了更好地了解过去的土地利用和梯田系统，通过研究梯田设计、地貌、沉积物特性和土壤发育背景下的场外物质文化分布，对选定的梯田系统进行了全面的调查。通过对这些档案的比较，将能够在选定的时间范围内部分重建流域范围内的沉积过程，并将导致更好地评估是否可以利用基于更新世沉积的气候重建来模拟全新世的变化。利用景观考古学的方法对选定的梯田系统进行全面调查，将使人们能够更好地了解所研究的梯田系统的建设周期、设计理念和用途。

Little is known about the landscape development of the southern Levant during the Holocene, and how landscape changes, human activity, and climate fluctuations interacted. The well-studied loess deposits of the Negev in southern Israel documented mainly environmental changes during the Pleistocene, and loess in southern Jordan has been postulated, but hardly been investigated. Despite the experimental work on runoff terraces in the Negev, the purposes and design concepts of ancient agricultural terrace systems in the southern Levant are still largely unknown. The project approaches these questions with a comparative study connecting different geoarchaeological archives along a regional transect. Systematic comparisons of sediments preserved in different archaeological structures (hilltop ruins, cisterns, and terraces) and natural sediments along catenas on catchment-scale areconducted near the sites of Horvat Haluqim and Jabal Haroun, focusing on the Iron Age till Byzantine period that are well-represented by geoarchaeological structures. In addition, sediment characteristics are compared in different landscape contexts and on divergent positions regarding regional dust trajectories, with modern dust from specific dust storms, and with late Pleistocene loess. In order to better understand past land use and terraces systems, comprehensive surveys of selected terrace systems are conducted by studying off-site material culture distribution in the context of terrace design, the geomorphology, sediment properties, and soil development. The comparison of these archives will allow for partial reconstructions of sedimentation processes on catchment scale during the selected time-frames, and will lead to better assessments whether climate reconstructions based on Pleistocene sediments can be utilized for modeling Holocene changes. The comprehensive survey of selected terrace systems using the approach of landscape archaeology will make it possible to better understand the construction periods, design concepts, and purposes of the studied terrace systems.