The Thar Desert dune system in north‐west India and eastern Pakistan provides a rich archive of past environmental, geomorphological and climatic change. Much of the knowledge about the timing of dune accumulation in the Thar stems from scattered and sporadic records, based on older luminescence dating protocols. If the Thar dune record is to be incorporated within a growing multiproxy framework of past climate and environmental dynamics, it is necessary to generate a systematic record of the timing of dunefield accumulation. From this, relationships to climate and other drivers of dune activity may then be better established. To this end, an intensive programme of field sampling and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating was carried out from a dunefield in the east‐central Thar Desert. This study presents the first detailed Holocene dune accumulation history from the region, and sheds light on the development of the multi‐generational parabolic dune systems. In contrast to previously published work, we identify the importance of the Holocene and the last millennium as periods with a number of preserved accumulation phases. OSL ages suggest that accumulation was persistent during the early and mid‐Holocene (within 11.7‐5.5 ka), late Holocene (2‐1 ka), as well as two major phases in the last millennium (600 – 200 a and within the last 70 a). Potential drivers of dune mobility in the last century include a strong anthropogenic dimension. Rapid net accumulation is recorded in the last 70 years, with rates varying between 2 and 5 m/year, in an environment where agricultural pressures have increased dramatically with the advent of irrigation schemes expanding into dunefield areas. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
International policies and guidelines often highlight the divide between ‘nature’ and ‘heritage’ in landscape management, and the weakness of monodisciplinary approaches. This study argues that historic agricultural practices have played a key role in shaping today’s landscapes, creating a heritage which affords opportunities for more sustainable landscape management. The paper develops a new interdisciplinary approach with particular reference to soil loss and degradation over the long term. It presents innovative methods for assessing and modelling how pre-industrial agricultural features can mitigate soil erosion risk in response to current environmental conditions. Landscape archaeology data presented through Historic Landscape Characterisation are integrated in a GIS-RUSLE model to illustrate the impact of varying historic land-uses on soil erosion. The resulting analyses could be used to inform strategies for sustainable land resource planning.
Linear dunes are the most widespread dune type worldwide and act as important geoproxies of late Quaternary environmental change in deserts. They are less common in the Thar Desert, India than other dune types, especially parabolic forms, and to date their development history is poorly understood. Here we investigate a linear dunefield in the northern Thar through analysis of a series of excavated full dune profile sites and the application of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to provide chronometric control. Results show that linear dunes have been present since at least ~58 ka and were active throughout much of the Holocene. The early Holocene, a period marked by strong Indian summer monsoon winds (e.g., Gill et al., 2017), has been shown as the last major phase of dune accumulation recorded in all sites, with ages ranging from ~11.6-8.6 ka. Two spatially restricted records of dune accumulation have also been identified during the later part of Holocene: ~4-3 ka and ~2-1 ka, attributed to localised reworking within the dunes. The suite of luminescence ages generated from the study region confirms the principle recognised in other dunefields (e.g., the southwest Kalahari; Stone and Thomas, 2008) and theoretically (Bailey and 2 Thomas, 2014) that age records from individual dunes are unlikely to capture the developmental history of dunefields.
In response to Timothy Darvill's article, ‘Mythical rings?’ (this issue), which argues for an alternative interpretation of Waun Mawn circle and its relationship with Stonehenge, Parker Pearson and colleagues report new evidence from the Welsh site and elaborate on aspects of their original argument. The discovery of a hearth at the centre of the circle, as well as further features around its circumference, reinforces the authors’ original interpretation. The authors explore the evidence for the construction sequence, which was abandoned before the completion of the monument. Contesting Darvill's argument that the Aubrey Holes at Stonehenge originally held posts, the authors reassert their interpretation of this circle of cut features as Bluestone settings.
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