Age and origin of upland sand-sheets in south-eastern USA

A thick sand mantles envelops much of the landscape of south-eastern USA. This research is investigating fundamental processes of post-depositional disturbance of sedimentary sequences with a view to establishing a scientific protocol for differentiating between in situ weathering and mixing processes from intact sediments which contain a palaeoclimate signal. Where sediments are sufficiently unaffected by bioturbation their age, depositional context and relationship to archaeological finds can be used to establish past changes in landscape sediment dynamics. This work is being carried out in collaboration with a number of US based geoarchaeologist and has received funding from contract geoarchaeological work and a NERC studentship. To date the work has formed the basis of 9 journal articles.

Key outcomes

• The potential for the sediment record to be disturbed by bioturbation is great but technological advances in single grain luminescence combined with detailed particle size analysis can provide key information on sediment and site integrity.
• The research is elucidating regional landscape dynamics during the known climatic fluctuations of the past 25,000 years.
• The research is providing key information on potential buried archaeological site integrity and aiding the establishment of archeological models.

 

Recent papers

• Boulter, C., Bateman, M.D. and Frederick, C.D. (2010). Understanding geomorphic responses to environmental change: a 19,000-year case study from semi-arid central Texas, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science, early view online.
  doi:10.1002/jqs.1365
• Bateman, M.D., Boulter, C.H., Carr, A.S., Frederick, C.D., Peter, D. and Wilder, M. (2007). Preserving the palaeoenvironmental record in Drylands: Bioturbation and its significance for luminescence derived chronologies. Sediment Geology, 195(1-2), 5-19.
  doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2006.07.003
  SHERPA Archive version (open access)
• Bateman, M.D., Boulter, C.H., Carr, A.S., Frederick, C.D., Peter, D. and Wilder, M. (2007). Detecting Post-depositional sediment disturbance in sandy deposits using optical luminescence. Quaternary Geochronology, 2(1-4), 57-64.
  doi:10.1016/j.quageo.2006.05.004
• Wilder, M., Frederick, C.D., Bateman, M.D. and Peter, D.E. (2007). Geoarchaeological Investigations in the Flats of the Osceola Plain, Highlands and Polk Counties, Florida. The Florida Anthropologist, 60, 97-116.
• Bateman, M.D., Frederick, C.D., Jaiswal, M.K. and Singhvi, A.K. (2003). Investigations into the potential effects of pedoturbation on luminescence dating. Quaternary Science Reviews, 22, 1169-1176.
  SHERPA Archive version (open access)
  doi:10.1016/S0277-3791(03)00019-2
• Frederick, C.D., Bateman, M.D. and Rogers, R. (2002). Evidence for Eolian Deposition in the Sandy Uplands of East Texas and the Implications for Archaeological Site Integrity. Geoarchaeology, 17, 191-217.
  doi:10.1002/gea.10010