Lessons from star Carr on the vulnerability of organic archaeological remains to environmental change
Open accessAbstract
Significance: Wetland deposits provide a unique repository of archaeological and environmental information, preserving organic remains rarely found elsewhere. Star Carr is an impressive example, having provided unique evidence for human interactions with the landscape at the end of the last ice age. Tragically, here we provide experimental evidence that human modifications of the local environment are leading to changes in the site’s geochemistry, resulting in the rapid loss of bone and wood artifacts. Our research demands a reassessment of the assumption that sites such as Star Carr should be preserved in situ for the benefit of future researchers and demonstrates that potential changes to the burial environment must be considered before such a policy is pursued.
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Interpretation of amino acid data is restricted to only those samples that were prepared to counter peak suppression (KOH-treated).
“Interpretation of amino acid data is restricted here to only those samples that were prepared to counter peak suppression (KOH-treated; Dickinson et al., 2019), although examination of the conventionally prepared (High et al., 2016) samples results in similar patterns, albeit with more noise”
From Cretaceous dinosaur bone contains recent organic material and provides an environment conducive to microbial communities (2019) · cites this paper as High et al., 2016
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Flagged first, then by citations
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Saitta, E. T., Liang, R., Lau, M. C., Brown, C. M., Longrich, N. R., Kaye, T. G., Novak, B. J., Salzberg, S. L., Norell, M. A., Abbott, G. D., et al. (2019) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.46205 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
“…here to only those samples that were prepared to counter peak suppression (KOH-treated; Dickinson et al., 2019), although examination of the con- ventionally prepared (High et al., 2016) samples results in similar patterns, albeit with more noise (Appendix 1—figures 21–28, Appendix 1—tables 3–13).”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialSelf-citation
- Authors
- High, K., Milner, N., Panter, I., Demarchi, B., & Penkman, K. E. H.
- Affiliations
- University of York (GB)
- York Archaeological Trust (GB)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2016-10-31
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 46
- Pages
- 12957-12962
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC5135359
- OpenAlex
- W2542360969
- Semantic Scholar
- f381104318dde3d3bb870305827b688c236ecfa2
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 1.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- Institutional Research Information System University of Turin (University of Turin) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Natural Environment Research Council (NE/H01781X/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Archeology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Conservation › Conservation Techniques and Studies
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil and Environmental Studies
- Keywords
- Star Carr, organic preservation, wetland sediments, geochemical changes, Mesolithic, human-nature relationship, paleoenvironmental records, in situ conservation, Northern Europe
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