CMATE Symposium

    Keynote speaker Malcolm H. Wiener.



    Keepers of Prometheus: The World's Oldest Tree

    An article featuring the work of LTRR researchers.

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    UA Ranked top in the nation for environmental research

    The UA is the No. 1 university in the U.S. and ranks second in the world for environmental science research, according to a study analyzing citation data from more than 180 journals. Environmental research at the UA involves many international collaborations and the results directly inform management practices in pressing areas such as land use, water and food security and energy.

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    CMATE agreement signed

    The Center for Mediterranean Archaeology and the Environment was provisionally established as a center at the University of Arizona on the 28th February 2013. The center documentation was signed by Joaquin Ruiz (Dean of the College of Science), JP Jones (Dean of the College of Social and Behavioural Sciences) and Andrew Comrie, the UA Graduate College Dean, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. Formal documentation will be completed in the coming weeks.

    (Photo credit: George Davis)

    During the meeting members of CMATE presented on a wide variety of research (see the meeting program). Some presentations and posters are available from the links below:

    • Ancient Greek Kilns: Ceramics, Curves and Chronologies - Eleni Hasaki (via video chat at the Wiener Lab at ASCSA) [Abstract]
    • Radiocarbon Dating Calcined Bones fro the Mt Lykaion Project - Greg Hodgins [Abstract]
    • My Lykaion Project, Implications for Continuity of Cult - Mary Voyatzis [Abstract]
    • 3D Modeling the Geology of the Sanctuary of Zeus, Mt Lykaion - George Davis[Abstract]
    • Linking Bristlecone Pine Chronologies and Global Climate Events - Matt Saltzer [Abstract]
    • The Balkan Key to Bridging Gaps in the Aegean Dendrochronological Record - Tomasz Wazny[Abstract]
    • Geological Sources of Tin: Some New Approaches - David Killick[Abstract]
    • Toward a Dendrochronology for Ancient Egypt - Pearce Paul Creasman[Abstract]
    • Challenges in 14C Dating an Early Neolithic Tell - Jay Quade
    • Chasing the Roots of Agriculture and Settled Life at Aşıklı Höyük, Turkey - Mary Stiner[Abstract]



    Lecture - Climate and Cultural Change in Europe and Western Eurasia. Progress and Challenges from Millennia-Length Tree-Ring Records

    Edward R. Cook
    Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University

    Streaming video of presentation
    Interactive presentation viewer [requires Microsoft Silverlight]

    Climate variability and change is increasingly recognized now as a likely contributor to past cultural change and collapse in many parts of the world, but its interpreted level of importance is not always clear and can be somewhat controversial. Even in Europe and Western Eurasia, where historical and archeological records of past cultural change are abundant over the past 2,000 years of the Common Era, there is considerable uncertainty about how much climate has played a role in actively contributing to those known changes. Much of this uncertainty is due to our still rudimentary understanding of climate variability and change over the region during the first 1,000-1,500 years of the Common Era. This knowledge gap is closing now through the development of millennia-long tree-ring chronologies over Europe and Western Eurasia, with similar relevant advances occurring in Central and East Asia as well. These exactly dated and annually resolved archives of environmental change can be used to reconstruct past climate and thus provide a paleoclimate context for periods of cultural change and upheaval in Europe and Western Eurasia. Examples of how tree-ring reconstructions of past climate over this region can provide this information will be shown. This includes examples from the ‘Old World Drought Atlas’ (OWDA) centered on Europe, which is now nearing completion. Challenges remain in assembling the necessary tree-ring network of millennia-length chronologies from areas such as Europe where little old-growth forest remains. Archeological tree-ring data are for the most part the current best source for constructing such chronologies, but assembling those records into ones suitable for climate interpretation is fraught with uncertainties. Even so, the future is bright for constructing a climate history of Europe and Western Eurasia from tree-ring networks for cultural interpretation.



    Survey On Field Safety: Middle East, North Africa, and Mediterranean Basin

    The Survey on Field Safety: Middle East, North Africa, and Mediterranean Basin is designed to understand the ways in which archaeological fieldwork does – or does not – provide a setting that is safe and secure from intimidation, harassment and violence based on gender, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity for all project participants.

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    UA AMS Short Course

    The University of Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Laboratory is hosting a weekend short course on Bayesian Modeling of Radiocarbon Dates Using OxCal, April 25–26, 2015, Tucson Arizona. The course will be presented by Dr. Michael Dee, Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, UK. This laboratory developed the modeling software, and Dr. Dee has published extensively on Bayesian chronological modeling using radiocarbon data sets.

    The course is open to Professional Archaeologists, University Researchers, and students at the dramatically reduced cost of $50/$25(students) for two full days of instruction and workshop.

    Participants will be exposed to the principles of radiocarbon measurement and calibration, and the software and mechanics of Bayesian analysis and model-building. The course will conclude with a workshop giving participants the opportunity to construct a valid chronological model. Radiocarbon data sets will be provided, but user data sets are welcome.

    Contact Dr Greg Hodgins, University of Arizona AMS Laboratory, ghodgins@physics.arizona.edu, (520) 626-3619, to register. Registration deadline is 10 April, 2015. Space is limited, so early registration is advisable.



    Funding from the Malcolm H. Wiener Foundation

    Malcolm H. Wiener Foundation supports major new College of Science research initiative. The Interdisciplinary Chronology of Civilizations Project (ICCP) will integrate research efforts at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research (LTRR), the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory and the School of Anthropology to provide securely dated, synchronized cultural and environmental records extending through antiquity.



    Special Issue of the journals Radiocarbon and Tree-Ring Research

    A CMATE Special Issue of the journals Radiocarbon and Tree-Ring Research was published in December 2014, showcasing the range of interdisciplinary research underway by CMATE members. Thanks to the University of Arizona Libraries’ Open Access Publishing Fund this entire collection of papers is freely available for public access. Download your copy now

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    The Mediterranean: Bridging Old and New Worlds

    On the 27th Febuary a number of CMATE Members participated in: “The Mediterranean: Bridging Old & New Worlds.” through participation in open house tours of the Arizona State Museum, Emil W. Haury Laboratories, Laboratory of Tree Ring Research and the Radiocarbon Laboratory. Also by participation in the very successful “From Dispersal to Diaspora: 50,000 Years of Mobility around the Mediterranean” symposium.



    Arizona Daily Star Article

    On the 10th March CMATE was featured in an Arizona Daily Star cover article focusing on dendroarchaeological research in Istanbul

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