Marta Fiacconi
Liverpool John Moores University, Natural Sciences and Psychology, Graduate Student
- I'm currently a PhD student at School of Natural Science and Psychology at John Moores University (Liverpool) looking... moreI'm currently a PhD student at School of Natural Science and Psychology at John Moores University (Liverpool) looking at pollen stratigraphy at taphonomy at the archaeological site of Shanidar Cave (Kurdish Iraq). The main aim of the project is to address the fundamental issue of pollen taphonomy in caves and to reconstruct the Late Quaternary vegetation history of the Zagros Mountains area.edit
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Caves provide important locations for the study of ancient human activity and environment. One important strand of this ancient environmental work is palynology, yet the taphonomy of pollen in caves is locally contingent and often... more
Caves provide important locations for the study of ancient human activity and environment. One important
strand of this ancient environmental work is palynology, yet the taphonomy of pollen in caves is locally contingent
and often complex. Shanidar Cave in Kurdish Iraqwas the site of important Neanderthal finds and early palynological
research, but pollen taphonomy in the cave has not been previously studied, so it is difficult to judge
what these ancient pollen assemblagesmight represent. In this paper, we present pollen from a transect of surface
samples within the cave and from comparative surface samples from outside the cave. These show that at
present there is a reasonably close correspondence between assemblages accumulating within and in the external
environs of the cave, and with the local vegetation. Thismay suggest that stratigraphic samples may also reflect
past local vegetation.
strand of this ancient environmental work is palynology, yet the taphonomy of pollen in caves is locally contingent
and often complex. Shanidar Cave in Kurdish Iraqwas the site of important Neanderthal finds and early palynological
research, but pollen taphonomy in the cave has not been previously studied, so it is difficult to judge
what these ancient pollen assemblagesmight represent. In this paper, we present pollen from a transect of surface
samples within the cave and from comparative surface samples from outside the cave. These show that at
present there is a reasonably close correspondence between assemblages accumulating within and in the external
environs of the cave, and with the local vegetation. Thismay suggest that stratigraphic samples may also reflect
past local vegetation.