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Hunt, C. Elrishi, H. Gilbertson, D. Grattan, J. McLaren, S. Pyatt, B. Rushworth, G. Barker, G. Early-Holocene environments in the Wadi Faynan, Jordan. The Holocene. 2004. 14,6 pp 921-930Evidence for early-Holocene environemnts in the Wadi Faynan in the rift-margin in southern Jordan is described. The Early Holocene of Jordan is not well known and palynology, plant microfossils and molluscs from Wadi Faynan provide evidence for a much more humid forest-steppe and steppe environemnt than the present stony desert and highly degraded steppe. The early Holocene fluvial sediments in the Faynan catchment are predominantly fine grained, epsilon crossbedded and highly fossiliferous. They provid convincing evidence for meandering perennial rivers before 6000 cal. BP. It is probable that this early Holocene landscape was disrupted by the impact of early Farmers and by climate hange- the 8.1 ka event appears to be marked by desiccation. By the Chalcolithic, environmental degradation was well advanced.Peer reviewe

On Page 20, Fig. 5 is reproduced exactly the same as Fig. 4 on the previous page. The author has provided the correct Fig. 5, reproduced below with the correct legend. Fig. 5. The percentage distribution of size-classes of Patella spp. in Holocene levels in the Haua Fteah and in comparative Roman-period and modern assemblages.

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Pollen assemblages from the base of silty alluvium in three wadi-fills in Cyrenaica are described. They show evidence for forest clearance and cultivation, including the likely cultivation of olive. This suggests that the samples are broadly of Graeco-Roman age, and that the silty alluvium started to accumulate in these wadis as the result of the landscape impact of agricultural expansion. IntroductionPalynology (the study of pollen, spores, algal microfossils and other microscopic remains) is rarely attempted on Quaternary deposits from the arid and semi-arid regions of the world, as most of the early palynological preparation methods were unsuitable for the rather oxidised, organic-poor sediments typical of these regions. A growing body of evidence (Horowitz 1992), however, shows that palynology using modern methods is often viable in dryland sediments and potentially offers valuable information about past ecology and environments.This study is the first palynological investigation of Holocene deposits in Cyrenaica, though palynological research has been done on fluvial, closed depression and cave deposits in Tripolitania by the main author (summarised in Gilbertson and Hunt 1996). In this reconnaissance study, three samples of brown fluvial sandy silt were analysed, from rare Holocene deposits in the wadis al-Rejel, Murgus and al-Athrun, in the Jabal alAkhdar, northern east Libya (Fig. 1). The deposits were exposed in gullies cut into the flattish floor of the wadis. In each case, each of the samples came from about 1 m below the present wadi floor, near the base of silty alluvium overlying gravels. They therefore reflect a change from in-channel fluviatile to overbank sedimentation in the wadis concerned. This change may be of only local significance, as a result of localised channel shifting, or may be of more general significance, as a result of a major change in sedimentation resulting from climate change or human activity. A similar change in Tripolitanian wadis can be ascribed to the start of floodwater farming in that area .