David Wright | University of Oslo (original) (raw)

Papers by David Wright

Communications Earth and Environment, 2025

Hydroclimatic change in the Asian interior plays a key role in regulating regional environmental ... more Hydroclimatic change in the Asian interior plays a key role in regulating regional environmental sustainability, water security, and human-nature relationships. However, the influence of the summer monsoon and westerly circulation on the evolution of hydroclimate over the arid Asian interior remains controversial. Here we present newly collected hydroclimate proxies from loess in the Asian interior, together with transient model simulations, to address the coevolution of monsoon-induced extreme rainfall and significant westerly-affected drying during the mid-Holocene. Our results suggest that a drier mid-Holocene in the southern Tarim Basin was associated with a poleward displacement of the westerly jet due to relatively warm boreal summer temperatures in the mid-latitudes. Strengthened water vapor fluxes associated with the boreal summer monsoon facilitated extreme rainfall events and enhanced mountain erosion. Our proxy-model comparison reveals a drier westerly regime superimposed with strengthened rainfall over the Asian interior during the warm mid-Holocene. Our findings suggest that more summer flash rainstorm events are likely to occur in a warmer world, with enhanced drying in the hyper-arid Asian interior.

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Apr 1, 2025

The loess-paleosol sequences of Khovaling, southern Tajikistan preserve signatures of prehistoric... more The loess-paleosol sequences of Khovaling, southern Tajikistan preserve signatures of prehistoric human settlement during the Early Paleolithic. Archaeological finds excavated from Early Paleolithic sites located adjacent to the Obi-Mazar River indicate this part of Central Asia served as an early hominin migration corridor between Africa and destinations further east. The region has been reinvestigated by the "Timing and ecology of the Human Occupation of Central Asia" (THOCA) project since 2021, and > 2000 lithic artifacts have been recovered in pedocomplexes (PCs) 4, 5, and 6 with ages spanning ~600-400 thousand years before present (ka). This is the first study to analyze novel biomarkers preserved in the loess-paleosol samples collected from on-site, near-site, and off-site contexts on the Khovaling Loess Plateau (KLP) to study early human occupation in Central Asia. Average chain length (ACL) of straight chain alkanes (n-alkanes) and wood/grass proxies reveal wetter climates with more trees during interglacial periods and drier climates with more grass vegetation during glacial periods. High abundances of total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and high molecular weight PAHs (HMW PAHs) were also found during the interglacial periods of Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 11, 13, and 15 suggesting landscape-scale fires occurred during ~600-400 ka. Based on our results in conjunction with lithic artifacts excavated from Early Paleolithic sites in Khovaling, Tajikistan, we suggest early hominin occupation and existence of pyrotechnology among early groups of hominins in this territory.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2025

Finding biomarkers preserved in loess-paleosol sequences is challenging and rarely undertaken in ... more Finding biomarkers preserved in loess-paleosol sequences is challenging and rarely undertaken in the archaeological studies that occur in these settings. Here, we investigate the preservation of n-alkanes and PAHs collected in association with "Loessic Paleolithic" sites (archaeological sites entrained in fine-grained eolian sediments dating to the Paleolithic era 700,000 to 70,000 years ago) in the Khovaling region of southern Tajikistan. This region has been subject to archaeological inquiry since Soviet research projects in the 1970s found evidence of hominin occupations from Lower and Middle Paleolithic stone tool assemblages in excavations. Questions about the timing and ecological circumstances of putative ancient migrations into the region have prompted new geoarchaeological research at the sites of Lakhuti-IV, Obi-Mazar, Kuldara, and Khonako-II to constrain landscape evolutionary histories better using vegetation (straight-chain [n-]alkanes) and fire (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon [PAH]) biomarkers. We collected sediment samples from on-, sparse on-, near-, and off-site contexts relative to known archaeological sites for biomarker extraction and identification. The homologous series of nalkanes ranging from nC 15-nC 33 are identified and quantified, in which the long-chain length of n-alkanes (nC 27-nC 33) has shown odd-over-even predominance. We found the abundance of PAH compounds with two to five rings in the sedimentary organic matter, in which PAH compounds with four or more rings have shown the highest abundance. The short (≤ nC 21) and mid-chain (nC 22-nC 26) n-alkanes have shown a positive correlation with PAH abundance from study sites. This is likely the result of the combustion of terrestrial plant matter on the landscape at elevated temperatures (≥ 400 • C).

Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 2024

We report new geochronologic and paleoenvironmental data for Mnaraeka 01, a prehistoric site loca... more We report new geochronologic and paleoenvironmental data for Mnaraeka 01, a prehistoric site located in the Kilwa district of coastal Tanzania. The oldest trace of human activity at the site comes from a context dated to 71 ± 6 thousand years ago (ka) where flaked stones but techno-typologically non-diagnostic were uncovered. Stratigraphic units dated to 43.9 ± 2.4 ka and 41.8 ± 2.1 ka have revealed stone artifacts broadly characteristic of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) while a context dated to 10.0 ± 0.6 ka has produced artifacts referrable to the Later Stone Age (LSA). Eight soil samples from the site subject to stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses reflect grassy-woodland habitat during the settlement episodes with δ13C values ranging from −19.3‰ to −27.8‰ (vs. VPDB). The results demonstrate the persistence of coastal woodland vegetation and human foraging populations in coastal East Africa during the onset of the cold Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4, between the cold spells of Heinrich Events 4 and 5, and during the Holocene Climatic Optimum. Our study shows that the Stone Age archaeology of coastal Tanzania has the potential to shed light on the role of coastal ecozones as potential refugia for human populations during variable climate conditions of the late Quaternary. Furthermore, the emergent datasets from Mnaraeka 01 open a window into the deep human history preserved in the Kilwa basin.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2024

Carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), and strontium (87/86Sr) isotope analyses have been applied widely... more Carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), and strontium (87/86Sr) isotope analyses have been applied widely over the past four decades to reconstruct human and animal dietary and mobility patterns. Sulfur (δ34S) has recently shown great promise to further enhance isotope analyses of the geologic and hydrologic contexts in which organic material formed. For this case study we applied this suite of multi-isotopic analyses to a dataset of 45 animal bones and teeth from the urban Viking Age town of Birka located in present-day Sweden. This research falls in line with previous studies as a potential way to bridge the understanding of relationships between centers and hinterlands by tracing socioeconomic networks of subsistence and food provisioning utilizing the animal economy as a proxy. The utilization of δ34S values enables terrestrial, marine and freshwater food niches to be disentangled when δ13C and δ15N values may be overlapping between each of the niches. The incorporation of five 87/86Sr samples further allowed us to carefully interpret the movement of animals across the landscape. We identified cattle potentially originating > 180 km from Birka during the earliest stages of occupation (early 8th century CE), while pigs and ovicaprids were more locally reared, indicating the dimensions of the early market economy in the Viking period was complex and multifaceted.

Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, 2024

Landscapes are formed by long-term interactions between the underlying geology and climatic, edap... more Landscapes are formed by long-term interactions between the underlying geology and climatic, edaphic and biotic factors, including human activity. The Kasitu Valley in the Mzimba District of northern Malawi includes the Kasitu River and its adjacent floodplains and uplands, and it has been a location of sustained human occupation since at least 16 thousand years ago (ka) based on archaeological excavations from rockshelters. We trace the changing ecology and geomorphology of the region through soil stable isotopes (δ13C, δ 15N), microcharcoal and fossil pollen analysed from alluvial terraces dated by Optically Stimulated Luminescence, and wetland auger cores and archaeological sites dated by radiocarbon. Our results suggest that the region was primarily covered in mosaic forest at ca. 22.5 ka. Middle and Late Holocene samples (6.0–0.5 ka) show an increasingly open, herbaceous landscape over time with an inflection toward more abundant C4 vegetation after 2 ka. Significant upland erosion and terrace formation is also evidenced since 2 ka alongside high concentrations of microcharcoal, suggesting more intensive use of fire. Faecal biomarkers simultaneously indicate higher numbers of humans living adjacent to the archaeological site of Hora 1, which may be indicative of an overall population increase associated with the arrival of Iron Age agropastoralists. More recently, the introduction of exogenous commercial taxa such as Pinus sp. are correlated with regional afforestation in our proxy record. These results show increasing stepwise human impacts on the local environment, with deforestation and maintenance of open landscapes correlated with the regional introduction and intensification of agriculture during the Late Holocene.

Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa, 2023

Northern Malawi encompasses the southern extensional graben of the East African Rift System and t... more Northern Malawi encompasses the southern extensional graben of the East African Rift System and the western shores of Lake Malawi (Niassa). The region has experienced significant shifts in vegetation and hydrology throughout the Pleistocene owing to changes in global climate coupled with local feedback mechanisms (Ivory 2012; Ivory et al. 2016; Ivory et al. 2018; Lyons et al. 2015). Between c. 145–125 and 105–85 thousand years ago (ka), Lake Malawi’s water level shrank as much as 700 m below the current level and the biodiversity in the region was severely reduced during these periods (Lyons et al. 2015). However, following this last recorded low stand, the lake’s level has remained consistently stable and relatively high. Overall, humid conditions have continued even as other East African lakes regressed during the last global glaciation event (Marine Isotope Stage [MIS] 2) (Konecky et al. 2011). This made the region an attractive habitat for Pleistocene human populations, for which the first evidence dates to c. 92 ka, during the Middle Stone Age (MSA) (Thompson et al. 2018). In addition to depositing millions of stone artifacts that represent the vast majority of the region’s archaeological record, MSA people here engaged in land management practices, including landscape-scale burning, that fundamentally altered the vegetation ecology of the region (Thompson et al. 2021b). This chapter will review the history of archaeological research in northern Malawi with a main focus on the Karonga District, and contextualize the current state of knowledge of the human settlement record there into regional and continental perspectives.

Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa: Hominin Behavior, Geography, and Chronology, 2023

NOTE: This is a 'post-print' version of the final chapter. Slight differences between this versio... more NOTE: This is a 'post-print' version of the final chapter. Slight differences between this version and published version may exist due to production-related copyediting.

Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa, 2023

This chapter will present a brief historiography of ecological studies and their incorporation in... more This chapter will present a brief historiography of ecological studies and their incorporation into archaeology, with specific focus on how they relate to understanding the Pleistocene archaeology of Africa. Major themes of the subdiscipline will be reviewed culminating with a general call to action for practitioners to think inclusively about the relevance of their studies to serve the people and institutions of the places in which those studies are taking place.

Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa, 2023

Frontiers in Earth Science, 2023

The Amazon Basin currently hosts the world’s largest pool of terrestrial biodiversity and prior t... more The Amazon Basin currently hosts the world’s largest pool of terrestrial biodiversity and prior to European colonization of the Americas there were large human communities living in parkland ecosystems. We examine the formation of archaeological sites in the northeast sector of the Caxiuanã National Forest (CNF) using light stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon, total carbon and nitrogen and Optically Stimulated Luminescence to characterize long-term human landscape management practices. Previous research in the CNF has documented differences in pH, calcium, total organic carbon (TOC) and nitrogen (TN) between terra preta and terra marrom contexts as well as different forest structures based on remote sensing analysis. Therefore, we adopt a comparative approach, examining the formation processes of on-site (terra preta), near-site (terra marrom) and offsite (latosol) contexts. TOC and TN values obtained in our study augment and support previous research demonstrating significantly higher on-site values relative to near-site and off-site. However, the stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N) assayed from terra preta, terra marrom and latosols show statistically overlapping values, indicating the persistence of closed canopy in off-site and near-site contexts and the use of this canopy in the formation of on-site soils (terra preta). Our results corroborate the hypothesis that closed canopy ecosystems and human settlements persisted in the Amazon for thousands of years and formed the foundation of the region’s rich biodiversity.

Herança, Mar 8, 2023

The Swahili word 'kitambo', which refers to occurrences in the past that are understood to be at ... more The Swahili word 'kitambo', which refers to occurrences in the past that are understood to be at least indirectly connected to the speaker, can be used to describe experimental museology through digital cultural heritage. There is a need to improve access and enhance conservation goals within African cultural heritage institutions, and the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) has been developing innovative technologies and communication tools with the Kenya Heritage Resource Information System (KEHRIS). This paper will discuss Digital Kitambo-a pilot project completed at NMK from 2013-2019 to create the spatially integrated database KEHRIS, digitise 10,000 artefacts and specimens from the archaeology and palaeontology collections, and develop digital learning programmes to engage a wider audience. Qualitative research methodology included participant observation, qualitative interviews and focus groups with museum staff as well as focus groups with primary and secondary teachers to develop curricula for local schools. This paper traces the evolution of Digital Kitambo from its inception and reflects on both the successes and shortcomings of the initiative with particular attention to its goals of decolonising the museum's collections and contributing to new national narratives by engaging the public through digital initiatives.

The Anthropocene Review, 2022

As the continent with the deepest record of human history, the relationship between landscape for... more As the continent with the deepest record of human history, the relationship between landscape formation and human subsistence practices is inseparable. The activities that constitute 'farming' are open for some matter of discussion, but essentially speak to the co-evolution of human, plant and animal reproductive systems along a continuum of interdependence. This process is ever evolving, but has resulted in the formation of landscapes in which anthropogenic processes characterize ecosystem functionality in nearly all biomes on the continent. Practices of cultivation, broadly conceptualized, across Africa are varied in the ways in which they have transformed ecological systems and landscapes. The use of fire as a landscape management tool dates to the Pleistocene, and penning of wild sheep to the early Holocene. The alteration of the landscape of fear by these types of human activities had fundamentally restructured trophic systems in Africa prior to the introduction of agriculture. However, the introduction of animal herding and intensive forms of plant cultivation by the middle Holocene correlated to even more significant ecological changes. The creation of agricultural landscapes has had a negative impact on biodiversity in some locations, whereas other some practices at different points in time have positively affected biodiversity. It is now recognized that humans have long influenced the evolution of landscapes wherever they live, but the current research focuses on where, when and how socio-ecological processes become coupled in the palaeoecological record.

Quaternary Science Reviews, 2022

Mwanganda's Village (MGD) and Bruce (BRU) are two open-air site complexes in northern Malawi with... more Mwanganda's Village (MGD) and Bruce (BRU) are two open-air site complexes in northern Malawi with deposits dating to between 15 and 58 thousand years ago (ka) and containing Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic assemblages. The sites have been known since 1966 and 1965, respectively, but lacked chronometric and site formation data necessary for their interpretation. The area hosts a rich stone artifact record, eroding from and found within alluvial fan deposits exhibiting poor preservation of organic materials. Although this generally limits opportunities for site-based environmental reconstructions, MGD and BRU are located at the distal margins of the alluvial fan, where lacustrine lagoonal deposits were overprinted by a calcrete paleosol. This has created locally improved organic preservation and allowed us to obtain ecological data from pollen, phytoliths, and pedogenic carbonates, producing a regional- to site-scale environmental context for periods of site use and abandonment. Here, we integrate the ecological data into a detailed site formation history, based on field observations and micromorphology, supplemented by cathodoluminescence microscopy and μ-XRF. By comparing local, on-site environmental proxies with more regional indicators, we can better evaluate how MSA hunter-gatherers made decisions about the use of resources across the landscape. Our data indicate that while tree cover similar to modern miombo woodland and evergreen gallery forest prevailed at most times, MSA hunter-gatherers chose more locally open environments for activities that resulted in a lithic artifact record at multiple locations between 51 and 15 ka.

Boreas, 2021

The analysis of faecal biomarkers in lake sediments has been used to reconstruct human population... more The analysis of faecal biomarkers in lake sediments has been used to reconstruct human population densities and animal husbandry practices in an increasing number of studies in recent years. However, terrigenous biomarkers can decompose in soils, can be stored and redeposited in colluvium and on flood-plains prior to their ultimate deposition in lakes. These and other effects can blur and distort biomarker signals. Therefore, we analysed sediments from two maars in Westeifel to evaluate whether signals of the faecal biomarkers (5b-stanols, bile acids) demonstrate statistically significant differences between contrasting periods in land-use intensity. In Holzmaar, palaeoenvironmental data showed evidence for agriculture including cereal cultivation and grassland during the pre-Roman Iron Age and Middle Ages compared with those from periods that were less influenced by land use and showed a higher abundance of broadleaf forest. However, the specific domesticated taxa of livestock in the locale from these periods remain speculative. We found statistically significantly different faecal biomarker signals, which we interpret to be related to an enhanced deposition of faeces of horses, pigs and ruminants in the core sections that represented periods of amplified land use. The analyses of grass- and broadleaf-tree characteristic n-alkanes supported the applicability of biomarkers for land-use reconstruction. Stanol data from a core section dating to the Mesolithic showed no clear results. Analyses of two core sections from Ulmener Maar, which covered periods before and after the decline of elm in the Neolithic, indicated input of pig faeces in the younger section. This study provides important evidence that faecal biomarkers can be used for land-use reconstruction in central European lakes with small catchment areas for time periods from the Neolithic onwards. The results underscore the importance of bile acid analyses in addition to stanol analyses for an identification of faeces inputs from different animals.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History: Asia and Africa, 2021

Due to its position in the trough of the East African Rift Valley, the Great Lakes region has exp... more Due to its position in the trough of the East African Rift Valley, the Great Lakes region has experienced significant effects from changes to earth's climate during the Holocene. Annually migrating atmospheric pressure systems bring oceanic moisture inland, causing precipitation mainly in the highlands that charges ground water systems in the lowlands. Although the Holocene has been a relatively stable climatic epoch for most of the planet, the lacustrine region of eastern Africa has experienced significant hydrologic variability. The African Humid Period brought significantly higher rainfall to the northern two-thirds of the continent, including the most of the lacustrine zone, but had a minimal impact on lake levels in the southern aspect of the region. Lake records show that after 2000 BCE, the northern region experienced lower average precipitation while lake levels rose on balance across the southern region. However, high-resolution records consistently demonstrate that there is significant variability in the tempo and spatial application of precipitation and vegetation in East African lakes. Additionally, since the advent of the Common Era, there are increasingly obvious impacts of human landscape disturbance on the region's ecology, affecting lake levels and biodiversity.

Science Advances, 2021

Modern Homo sapiens engage in substantial ecosystem modification, but it is difficult to detect t... more Modern Homo sapiens engage in substantial ecosystem modification, but it is difficult to detect the origins or early consequences of these behaviors. Archaeological, geochronological, geomorphological, and paleoenvironmental data from northern Malawi document a changing relationship between forager presence, ecosystem organization, and alluvial fan formation in the Late Pleistocene. Dense concentrations of Middle Stone Age artifacts and alluvial fan systems formed after ca. 92 thousand years ago, within a paleoecological context with no analog in the preceding half-million-year record. Archaeological data and principal coordinates analysis indicate that early anthropogenic fire relaxed seasonal constraints on ignitions, influencing vegetation composition and erosion. This operated in tandem with climate-driven changes in precipitation to culminate in an ecological transition to an early, pre-agricultural anthropogenic landscape.

Evolutionary Anthropology, 2020

Hunter-gatherers, especially Pleistocene examples, are not well-represented in archeological stud... more Hunter-gatherers, especially Pleistocene examples, are not well-represented in archeological studies of niche construction. However, as the role of humans in shaping environments over long time scales becomes increasingly apparent, it is critical to develop archeological proxies and testable hypotheses about early hunter-gatherer impacts. Modern foragers engage in niche constructive behaviors aimed at maintaining or increasing the productivity of their environments, and these may have had significant ecological consequences over later human evolution. In some cases, they may also represent behaviors unique to modern Homo sapiens. Archeological and paleoenvironmental data show that African hunter-gatherers were niche con-structors in diverse environments, which have legacies in how ecosystems function today. These can be conceptualized as behaviorally mediated trophic cascades, and tested using archeological and paleoenvironmental proxies. Thus, large-scale niche construction behavior is possible to identify at deeper time scales, and may be key to understanding the emergence of modern humans. K E Y W O R D S burning, environmental impacts, foragers, middle stone age, modern human, Pleistocene

Journal of Archaeological Science, 2020

Amazonia has drawn the interest of researchers over the last few decades as a region with evidenc... more Amazonia has drawn the interest of researchers over the last few decades as a region with evidence for extensive ancient/past indigenous landscape domestication. Among the major issues surrounding the nature of landscape domestication of pre-Columbian Amazonians, its scale is critically connected with other major problems in the history of Amazonia such as forms of urbanism, land engineering and agriculture. In recent years, some research in historical ecology has focused on developing methods to calibrate landscape domestication by interpreting the effects of human activity on the formation of the modern Amazonian landscape. This paper presents regional-scale research in the Floresta Nacional de Caxiuanã (FNC) to provide a method to trace and calibrate long-term forest management. With the data collected from the FNC and satellite images, the relationship between soils, an Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and landscape domestication are explored. The data are interpreted as indicating that zones of anthropogenic enrichment of the soil due to forest management over the last 2000 years have a positive correlation with high EVI values. The research methods have potential to be applied broadly in tropical rainforest environments where pedestrian survey is difficult to undertake.

African Archaeology, 2008

Excavations in Tsavo, Kenya

Communications Earth and Environment, 2025

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Apr 1, 2025

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2025

Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 2024

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2024

Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, 2024

Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa, 2023

Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa: Hominin Behavior, Geography, and Chronology, 2023

Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa, 2023

Frontiers in Earth Science, 2023

Herança, Mar 8, 2023

The Anthropocene Review, 2022

Quaternary Science Reviews, 2022

Boreas, 2021

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History: Asia and Africa, 2021

Science Advances, 2021

Evolutionary Anthropology, 2020

Journal of Archaeological Science, 2020

African Archaeology, 2008

Excavations in Tsavo, Kenya

Chosun Ilbo (Korean daily newspaper), Jun 13, 2013

Korea Times, Jun 15, 2012

This document is a form that I have developed over the years in collaboration with colleagues. It... more This document is a form that I have developed over the years in collaboration with colleagues. It standardizes profile descriptions (mostly in soil environments, but this can also be used to describe sediments). The form was developed for archaeologists who use the USDA system of soil classification (https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=nrcs142p2_054184). I have found it most useful in cultural resource management projects where you have a lot of people doing profiles, but you need a standard set of descriptions. The forms prompt users for most of the major categories that are important to archaeologists. Feel free to contact me if you have questions or suggestions for improving the form.

Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Statistics for Archaeologists, 2025

This exercise uses publicly accessible data from Norway to demonstrate how to use raster and vect... more This exercise uses publicly accessible data from Norway to demonstrate how to use raster and vector data, including points, lines and polygons to create a basic map. Users who are not at the University of Oslo should ignore the parts about using "Silver". Also, general members of the public will need to convert the data from Mjaerum et al. (2022) from a csv file into a shapefile on their own. Of course, you can also track me down, send me an email and I can send you shapefiles if that is a barrier to you to give the exercise a try. Also, please note that the word "flyke" in Norwegian translates to "county" in English. I use them rather interchangeably in this exercise.

This document was created for a course at Seoul National University in the Spring 2019 semester. ... more This document was created for a course at Seoul National University in the Spring 2019 semester. In this document, there are references to the “eTL” which hosts files needed for the training exercises. The eTL is the university’s online classroom environment, which is not available to non-SNU users.

Therefore, I have created space in my Google Drive (link in the Training Manual), where members of the general public can access the files needed for the training. If you cannot access the information for some reason, please email me at daudi.wright@gmail.com and I will help you access the information you seek.

Many of the assignments refer to data that is not publically available (for example, the real 14C data from Korea, which the research group headed by Dr. Jangsuk Kim is working with). Unfortunately, these data are under study and cannot be released without prior consent. If you have a compelling reason to access the data, queries should be directed to Dr. Kim.

This manual is released in Word format to the general public and you are free to reuse and modify the content as you see fit, but this material cannot be copyrighted by any entity. I have created the content in the spirit of open dialogue and collaboration.

In coordination with OpenHeritage (OH), Digital Divide Data (DDD) and Amazon Web Services/Intel C... more In coordination with OpenHeritage (OH), Digital Divide Data (DDD) and Amazon Web Services/Intel Corporation, David Wright (professor at Seoul National University, South Korea) is implementing a content management system (CMS) for the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). The purpose of the CMS is to integrate existing databases at the NMK, both in paper and electronic formats, into a single software architecture that can be used to capture and disseminate information pertaining to prehistoric archaeological and palaeontological sites in Kenya. The system is being designed on a Drupal open-source platform and NMK staff are being trained in how to capture archaeological and paleontological data within an open-source Geographic Information System (GIS) environment (QGIS) for the purpose of migrating the data into Kenyan Heritage Resource Information System (KEHRIS), which is the CMS. This training manual provides the basis for basic training in QGIS and was the basis of a two-week module conducted from July 31-August 11, 2017. Detailed site location information is obscured in this version of the document to protect heritage sites from looting.

Landscape studies in southern Africa have been impeded by the presence of only a handful of strat... more Landscape studies in southern Africa have been impeded by the presence of only a handful of stratified (mostly cave) sites that connect human and environmental processes. However, the pace of archaeological research, particularly in South Africa, has accelerated over the last two decades (e.g., Lombard et al. 2012; Antonites et al. 2016; Sealey 2016). Sixteen years have passed since the publication of the last synthetic volume covering the evolution of humans and landscapes in the southern African Cenozoic (Partridge & Maud 2000). To remedy this situation, Quaternary Environmental Change in Southern Africa (2016) is a timely, comprehensive overview of the region’s paleoanthropological, archaeological and environmental science research.

by Dorian Q Fuller, Lisa Janz, Maria Marta Sampietro, Philip I. Buckland, Agustín A Diez Castillo, Ciler Cilingiroglu, Gary Feinman, Peter Hiscock, Peter Hommel, Maureece Levin, Henrik B Lindskoug, Scott Macrae, John M. Marston, Alicia R Ventresca-Miller, Ayushi Nayak, Tanya M Peres, Lucas Proctor, Steve Renette, Gwen Robbins Schug, Peter Schmidt, Oula Seitsonen, Arkadiusz Sołtysiak, Robert Spengler, Sean Ulm, David Wright, and Muhammad Zahir

Science, 2019

Environmentally transformative human use of land accelerated with the emergence of 5 agriculture,... more Environmentally transformative human use of land accelerated with the emergence of 5 agriculture, but the extent, trajectory, and implications of these early changes are not well understood. An empirical global assessment of land use from 10,000 BP to 1850 CE reveals a planet largely transformed by hunter-gatherers, farmers and pastoralists by 3,000 years ago, significantly earlier than land-use reconstructions commonly used by Earth scientists. Synthesis of knowledge contributed by over 250 archaeologists highlighted gaps in archaeological 10 expertise and data quality, which peaked at 2000 BP and in traditionally studied and wealthier regions. Archaeological reconstruction of global land-use history illuminates the deep roots of Earth's transformation through millennia of increasingly intensive land use, challenging the emerging Anthropocene paradigm that anthropogenic global environmental change is mostly recent. 15 One Sentence Summary: A map of synthesized archaeological knowledge on land use reveals a planet transformed by hunter-gatherers, farmers and pastoralists by 3,000 years ago.

Authors not found on Academia:
Torben Rick, Tim Denham, Jonathan Driver, Heather Thakar, Amber L. Johnson, R. Alan Covey, Jason Herrmann, Carrie Hritz, Catherine Kearns, Dan Lawrence, Michael Morrison, Robert J. Speakman, Martina L. Steffen, Keir M. Strickland, M. Cemre Ustunkaya, Jeremy Powell, Alexa Thornton.