Suchergebnisse

The appendix details the soil micromorphological descriptions from the buried soils and Ramla and Marsalforn valleys. ; This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727). ; peer-reviewed

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727).

With billions of federal grant dollars potentially at stake, every community has a vested interest in ensuring that its residents are accurately counted in the U.S. Decennial Census of Population and Housing. In the 2010 Census, 20.7% of eligible households failed to return their census forms, implying a response rate of only 79.3%. That amounts to about 22 million households not reached in the last census, the number of which not only affects the quality of the census but also may lead businesses and government officials to make inaccurate decisions when targeting specific populations.

The appendix features the descriptions of the borehole and the test excavation profile log. ; This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727). ; peer-reviewed

The micromorphological descriptions for the Malta deep cores. ; This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727). ; peer-reviewed

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727).

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727).

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727).

Geoarchaeological survey, test excavations and sampling on Gozo and Malta concentrated on the sites and landscapes associated with the Neolithic temple period of the fourth and third millennia bc. Targeted investigations were carried out at two Neolithic temple sites of Ġgantija and Santa Verna on the Xagħra plateau and the associated Ramla and Marsalforn valleys on Gozo. Sequences were also recovered from the excavations of the Neolithic Taċ-Ċawla settlement site in the modern town of Rabat and the later Bronze Age mesa-top site of In-Nuffara. On Malta, geoarchaeological work focused on the temple site of Skorba, and the nearby valley coring site of Xemxija, as well as the deep valley core sites of Wied Żembaq, Marsaxlokk and Salina (Figs. 2.4 & 5.1). In the context of the on-site investigations, test excavations at the Santa Verna, Ġgantija and Skorba temple sites and at the Taċ-Ċawla settlement site all revealed old land surfaces beneath mixed soil and cultural deposits. For the off-site geoarchaeological work, some 200 hand-augered boreholes were made during the 2014/15/16 field seasons. Most boreholes were in the Santa Verna to Ġgantija areas on the margins of the modern town of Xagħra, across the intervening Ramla valley to In-Nuffara and down-valley to the sea, and also in the Marsalforn valley from Rabat northwards to the sea (Fig. 5.1). The areas around the Ta' Marżiena and Skorba temple sites were also investigated briefly for comparison using the hand auger, but no sample test pits were excavated. This geoarchaeological programme has provided sufficient soil/sediment sequence data to address several sets of aims as set out below, and in combination with the analysis of the deep valley cores (see Chapters 2 & 3), it is now possible to suggest a model for Holocene landscape development. It has always been assumed that the seasonally dry and hot Mediterranean climate made the Gozitan and Maltese landscapes quite 'marginal' in agricultural terms (Grima 2008a; Schembri 1997). As a consequence, it has also been presumed that terracing was adopted extensively from the Bronze Age onwards on both islands to conserve soils and moisture, and also to create a more suitable landscape for subsistence based agriculture (Grima 2004). Like many other parts of the southern Mediterranean, this landscape is prone to deforestation, drought and erosion combined with intensive human activity, and that this has been the case since Neolithic times (Bevan & Conolly 2013; Brandt & Thornes 1996; Hughes 2011; Grove & Rackham 2003). The FRAGSUS Project aimed to examine these assumptions and test them with a suite of archaeological science approaches that would shed new light on the nature and impact of Neolithic farming and on the degree of fragility of this island landscape. Within the overall project, the main objectives of the geoarchaeological work were to: 1) investigate the deposit and soil catena sequence of the Xagħra plateau and its associated Ramla and Marsalforn valleys for the Holocene; 2) identify floors, floor deposits, old land surfaces and palaeosols associated with the Neolithic monuments, concentrating on the Santa Verna, Ġgantija and Skorba temple sites, as well as the Taċ-Ċawla settlement site; 3) create a model for the Holocene land-use sequence for Gozo and Malta, focusing on the impact of Neolithic agriculture and later landscape terracing, and 4) establish if there is any correlation between observed soil properties and prehistoric activities and/or longer-term climate change. The results of the geoarchaeological analyses are discussed below, with the borehole logs and field profile descriptions (after FAO & ISRIC 1990) found in Appendix 6, the thin section descriptions in Appendices 7 and 8, the sample list in Table 5.1, the summary dating of the analysed profiles in Table 5.2, and the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating report in Appendix 2. Note that the comprehensive radiocarbon dating study is discussed in this volume (see Chapter 2), and the site-based geoarchaeological and micromorphological studies at Santa Verna, Ġgantija, Skorba, In-Nuffara and Taċ-Ċawla are reported on separately in the FRAGSUS excavation Volume 2. ; This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727). ; peer-reviewed

Over the past 100 years, a number of societal trends have influenced how Cooperative Extension engages public audiences in its outreach and education efforts. These trends include rapid evolution in communication technology, greater specialization of Land-Grant University faculty, and diversification of funding sources. In response, Extension organizations have adapted their engagement approach, incorporated new technologies, modified their organizational structures, and even expanded the notion of public stakeholders to include funders, program nonparticipants, and others. This article explores the implications for future Extension efforts using two case studies—one which explores how a community visioning program incorporated new ways of engaging local audiences, and another which explores how an Extension business retention program used participatory action research and educational organizing approaches to strengthen participation in a research-based program.

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727).

Hunter-gatherer societies have distinct social perceptions and practices which are expressed in unique use of space and material deposition patterns. However, the identification of archaeological evidence associated with hunter-gatherer activity is often challenging, especially in tropical environments such as rainforests. We present an integrated study combining ethnoarchaeology and geoarchaeology in order to study archaeological site formation processes related to hunter-gatherers' ways of living in tropical forests. Ethnographic data was collected from an habitation site of contemporary hunter-gatherers in the forests of South India, aimed at studying how everyday activities and way of living dictate patterns of material deposition. Ethnoarchaeological excavations of abandoned open-air sites and a rock-shelter of the same group located deep in the forests, involved field observations and sampling of sediments from the abandoned sites and the contemporary site. Laboratory analyses included geochemical analysis (i.e., FTIR, ICP-AES), phytolith concentration analysis and soil micromorphology. The results present a dynamic spatial deposition pattern of macroscopic, microscopic and chemical materials, which stem from the distinctive ways of living and use of space by hunter-gatherers. This study shows that post-depositional processes in tropical forests result in poor preservation of archaeological materials due to acidic conditions and intensive biological activity within the sediments. Yet, the multiple laboratory-based analyses were able to trace evidence for activity surfaces and their maintenance practices as well as localized concentrations of activity remains such as the use of plants, metals, hearths and construction materials. ; The research leading to these results has received funding form the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions—http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA agreement n° 623293 granted to DF at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ; This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from PLOS via https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164185

This chapter sets the scene in terms of the geology and present-day climate, vegetation and soils of the Maltese Islands. Geology and faulting has had a huge influence on topography, soils and vegetation, and in turn on the nature of human use and exploitation of the islands. All of these themes are further developed below (and in FRAGSUS Volumes 2 and 3), giving time-depth to the sequences of climatic, environmental and landscape changes throughout the Holocene. ; This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727). ; peer-reviewed

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727).

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-2007-2013) (Grant agreement No. 323727).