Paula J. Reimer

Queen's University Belfast | QUB · Archaeology and Palaeoecology & 14CHRONO Centre for Climate, the Environment and Chronology (CHRONO)

Evidence for climate variability in the southern African monsoon region (SAMR) is limited by a spatially and temporally discontinuous palaeoclimatic dataset. We describe a 6680 year long, largely sub-decadal resolution δ¹⁵N record from a rock hyrax midden from southeastern Africa. The results provide a detailed reconstruction of regional hydroclima...

Mid-latitude alpine caves preserve a record of past solid precipitation during winter, locally spanning several centuries to millennia. Dating organic macro-remains trapped in ice layers allows the determination of timing and duration of past periods of positive and negative ice mass balance. We present here the largest comparative study of ice cav...

In this paper we evaluate the extent of freshwater reservoir effects (37 samples across 12 locations) and present new data from various archaeological sites in the Eurasian Steppe. Together with a summary of previous research on modern and archaeological samples, this provides the most up-to-date map of the freshwater reservoir offsets in the regio...

Caves containing perennial ice deposits make up a little-known, but emerging part of the cryosphere under increasing scrutiny from the scientific community. M-17, a sag-type ice cave opening at 1879 m asl in the Tolminski Migovec massif of the Julian Alps (NW Slovenia) contains a perennial underground ice deposit whose paleoclimate sensitivity is p...

Neolithic occupation of the Orkney Islands, in the north of Scotland, probably began in the mid fourth millennium cal BC, culminating in a range of settlements, including stone-built houses, varied stone-built tombs and two noteworthy stone circles. The environmental and landscape context of the spectacular archaeology, however, remains poorly unde...

Mid-latitude alpine caves preserve a record of past solid precipitation during winter, locally spanning several centuries to millennia. Dating organic macro-remains trapped in ice layers allows the determination of timing and duration of past periods of positive and negative ice mass balance. We present here the largest comparative study of ice cav...

A revision of the data used to build the Caspian Sea level curve over the last 2200 years BP has been made based on a combination of geological and archaeo-historical data, using only those for which sufficient metadata were available. This compilation is completed by new sedimentological and palynological data from the south-east corner of the Cas...

Despite the rich archaeological heritage present in the Limfjord region in Denmark, few palaeodietary studies using human and animal bone material from this area currently exist. This paper aims to investigate the palaeodiet as well as animal husbandry strategies in this region during prehistoric times, from the Mesolithic to the Viking Age using s...

Radiocarbon (14C), as a consequence of its production in the atmosphere and subsequent dispersal through the carbon cycle, is a key tracer for studying the Earth system. Knowledge of past 14C levels improves our understanding of climate processes, the Sun, the geodynamo, and the carbon cycle. Recently updated radiocarbon calibration curves (IntCal2...

In this paper we discuss recent developments in documenting the spread of millet across the Eurasian steppes. We emphasize that, despite a recent proposal that millet consumption in southern Siberia can be attributed to the Early Bronze Age (i.e., the late third to early second millennium BC), at present there are no direct data for southern Siberi...

In the late 1950s it was recognized that levels of atmospheric radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) had not been constant over time. Since then, researchers have sought to document those changes, initially through measurements of known age tree rings and more recently using other archives to create curves to correct or calibrate radiocarbon ages to calendar ages. T...

The Quaternary Isotope Laboratory (QIL) at the University of Washington was launched in 1969 and directed by Minze Stuiver until his retirement in 1998. Here we review some of the scientific work undertaken in the QIL and the memories of some of Minze’s former students and colleagues.

The Belfast Ramped Pyroxidation/Combustion (RPO/RC) facility was established at the ¹⁴ CHRONO Centre (Queen’s University Belfast). The facility was created to provide targeted analysis of bulk material for refined chronological analysis and carbon source attribution for a range of sample types. Here we report initial RPO results, principally on bac...

Preservatives and consolidants make it difficult or impossible to obtain accurate radiocarbon dates on many organic artefacts from museums or archaeological collections. Discovered in an Irish bog in the 1960s, the Cuillard Bowl is a triangular wooden (Alder - Alnus glutinosa) dish of special interest on account of its unique geometry and style. Ho...

Investigations at Pett Level have recorded a complex stratigraphic sequence of intercalated peats and clayey-silts. Peat development was asynchronous with marine incursions the result of localised flooding of the offshore shingle barrier. The remains of the ‘submerged forest’ do not represent the remains of a single contemporary woodland but are a...

Current methodologies for radiocarbon dating of mortars typically use mechanical and chemical separation to isolate fractions of carbon dioxide from suitable lime binder carbonates. These methods have a moderate frequency of success, but difficulties are often encountered with (a) secondary crystallisation, (b) the presence of incompletely burnt li...

The evolutionary dynamics of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) over the last glacial period remains understudied, despite its potential in providing a “cold case” for climate sensitivity studies. Here, we investigate SE Asian-Pacific paleoclimate records to decipher the dominant underlying mechanism that governed tropical Asian-Pacific hydrology...

The ice-rafted-debris (IRD) record of the open Northwest Pacific points towards the existence of substantial glacial ice on the Northeast Siberian coast during the late Quaternary. However, the scale and timing of glaciation and de-glaciation remains controversial due to the dearth of both onshore and offshore records. Existing IRD data suggests at...

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).

We explored the roles of phytoplankton production, carbon source, and human activity on carbon accumulation in a eutrophic lake (Rostherne Mere, UK) to understand how changes in nutrient loading, algal community structure and catchment management can influence carbon sequestration in lake sediments. Water samples (dissolved inorganic, organic and p...

The Glastonbury Lake Village in Somerset, UK, is made up of 90 mounds comprising 40 roundhouses. Excavations between 1892 and 1907 revealed Iron Age structural and material remains unparalleled in Western Europe. The settlement's exact chronology, however, has remained uncertain. Here, the authors present a programme of radiocarbon and dendro-chron...

Archaeological excavation of a natural boulder chamber on the upper slopes of Bengorm Mountain, County Mayo, in the north‐west of Ireland revealed evidence for complex Neolithic funerary rituals spanning several centuries. With virtually no subsequent evidence of animal or human disturbance, the site presents an exceptional insight into well‐preser...

A 3800 year-long radiocarbon-dated and highly-resolved palaeoecological record from Lake Fimon (N-Italy) served to investigate the effects of potential teleconnections between North Atlantic and mid-to-low latitudes at the transition from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 to 2. Boreal ecosystems documented in the Fimon record reacted in a sensitive way...

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).

Investigations were carried out to establish the chronology of a building from the city of Derry, Northern Ireland. The date of this structure, previously assumed to be a 17th century windmill, was examined by application of radiocarbon dating to the lime mortar. Multiple sample preparation methods (cryo-breaking, mechanical, suspension) were used...

Radiocarbon dating and Bayesian chronological modelling have provided precise new dating for the henge monument of Mount Pleasant in Dorset, excavated in 1970-1. A total of 59 radiocarbon dates are now available for the site and modelling of these has provided a revised sequence for the henge enclosure and its various constituent parts: the timber...

The new radiocarbon calibration curve (IntCal20) allows us to calculate the gradient of the relationship between ¹⁴ C age and calendar age over the past 55 millennia before the present (55 ka BP). The new gradient curve exhibits a prolonged and prominent maximum between 48 and 40 ka BP during which the radiocarbon clock runs almost twice as fast as...

To create a reliable radiocarbon calibration curve, one needs not only high-quality data but also a robust statistical methodology. The unique aspects of much of the calibration data provide considerable modeling challenges and require a made-to-measure approach to curve construction that accurately represents and adapts to these individualities, b...

The concentration of radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) differs between ocean and atmosphere. Radiocarbon determinations from samples which obtained their ¹⁴ C in the marine environment therefore need a marine-specific calibration curve and cannot be calibrated directly against the atmospheric-based IntCal20 curve. This paper presents Marine20, an update to the i...

Early researchers of radiocarbon levels in Southern Hemisphere tree rings identified a variable North-South hemispheric offset, necessitating construction of a separate radiocarbon calibration curve for the South. We present here SHCal20, a revised calibration curve from 0-55,000 cal BP, based upon SHCal13 and fortified by the addition of 14 new tr...

Connecting calendar ages to radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) ages, i.e. constructing a calibration curve, requires ¹⁴ C samples that represent, or are closely connected to, atmospheric ¹⁴ C values and that can also be independently dated. In addition to these data, there is information that can serve as independent tests of the calibration curve. For example, i...

Radiocarbon calibration is necessary to correct for variations in atmospheric radiocarbon over time. The IntCal working group has developed an updated and extended radiocarbon calibration curve, IntCal20, for Northern Hemisphere terrestrial samples from 0 to 55,000 cal yr BP. This paper summarizes the new datasets, changes to existing datasets, and...

Excavations on the south-eastern slopes of King Barrow Ridge, 1.5 km east of Stonehenge, revealed five pits, a grave and other features of Middle Neolithic date. Analysis of the pit assemblages and the partial inhumation interred in the grave has provided insights into lifeways in this landscape in the late fourth millennium cal BC. Evidence sugges...

Tree-ring analysis was undertaken on samples taken from the roof and a first-floor frame of 19-21 Ladygate, Beverley, resulting in the construction of two site sequences. Site sequence BEVASQ01 contains 20 samples, from both the roof and the floor frame of 19-21 Ladygate, and spans the period AD 1194-1330. Interpretation of surviving sapwood sugges...

Forty samples from the nave, south aisle, and porch of this church were subject to tree-ring dating; three of these also underwent radiocarbon and wiggle-match analysis. Three nave timbers were dendrochronologically dated to AD 1581--1606 and two to c AD 1616. A further nine timbers from this roof have now been dated by radiocarbon wiggle-matching...

The Limfjord in Denmark held a prominent position throughout Prehistory as a natural communication port between east and west. Identifying the presence of non-local individuals might shed light on socio-economic and cultural changes occurring in the Limfjord area. Existing studies attempting to do so using strontium isotope analysis on Danish prehi...

How climate and ecology affect key cultural transformations remains debated in the context of long-term socio-cultural development because of spatially and temporally disjunct climate and archaeological records. The introduction of agriculture triggered a major population increase across Europe. However, in Southern Scandinavia it was preceded by ~...

Radiocarbon (C) ages cannot provide absolutely dated chronologies for archaeological or paleoenvironmental studies directly but must be converted to calendar age equivalents using a calibration curve compensating for fluctuations in atmospheric C concentration. Although calibration curves are constructed from independently dated archives, they inva...

In the Alpine foreland and the Vienna Basin loess-paleosol sequences (LPS) are common. Some of the most famous LPS sites in the circum-Alpine area include Stratzing, Göttweig, Willendorf, Krems-Wachtberg, and Stillfried, which cluster in a relatively small area along the Danube river in Lower Austria. LPS provide detailed insights into climate-driv...

Link to paper – https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1aT~D,rVDBRerf This paper presents the results of a study using strontium, oxygen and carbon isotopes, strontium concentrations, infrared analyses and radiocarbon dating to investigate human mobility and landscape use as seen in individuals from the Neolithic court tomb of Parknabinnia, Co. Clare, Ire...

South Africa's southern Cape is a highly dynamic climatic region that is influenced by changes in both temperate and tropical atmospheric and oceanic circulation dynamics. Recent research initiatives suggest that the major elements of the regional climate system have acted both independently and in combination to establish a mosaic of distinct clim...

Sixteen timbers from worked wood and a tree stump excavated from Glastonbury Lake Village were submitted for tree-ring dating, Five oak samples, that had originally be excavated by Bulleid and Grey in 1896-7 but been reburied, were deemed suitable for analysis. Two sets of two samples (GLV 206 and 214, and GLV 207 and 213) crossmatched against each...

Radiocarbon and chronological modelling for Barrow Clump

Our ability to reliably use radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) dates of mollusk shells to estimate calendar ages may depend on the feeding preference and habitat of a particular species and the geology of the region. Gastropods that feed by scraping are prone to incorporation of carbon from the substrate into their shells as evidenced by studies comparing the rad...

The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) is one of the world's major biodiversity hotspots, and much work has gone into identifying the drivers of this diversity. Considered regionally in the context of Quaternary climate change, climate stability is generally accepted as being one of the major factors promoting the abundance of species now present in the C...

Despite being one of the world’s oldest deserts, and the subject of decades of research, evidence of past climate change in the Namib Desert is extremely limited. As such, there is significant debate regarding the nature and drivers of climate change in the low-latitude drylands of southwestern Africa. Here we present data from stratified accumulat...

The cave bear was a prominent member of the Upper Pleistocene fauna in Eurasia. While breakthroughs were recently achieved with respect to its phylogeny using ancient DNA techniques, it is still challenging to date cave bear fossils beyond the radiocarbon age range. Without an accurate and precise chronological framework, however, key questions reg...

Ravine slopes at the recently discovered Nesseltalgraben site in southeastern Germany provide a unique last glacial sediment record for the Northern Calcareous Alps. The 21 m-long profile is dominated by fine-grained lacustrine-palustrine sediments overlain by several metres of glacifluvial gravels and lodgement tills of the Last Glacial Maximum an...

Little synthesis of evidence for Middle Neolithic food and farming in Wiltshire, particularly in and around the Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS) has been possible, until now, due to a paucity of assemblages. The excavation of a cluster of five Middle Neolithic pits and an inhumation burial at West Amesbury Farm (WAF) has prompted a review of ou...

Loess accumulated in the Negev desert during the Pleistocene and primary and secondary loess remains cover large parts of the landscape. Holocene loess deposits are however absent. This could be due low accumulation rates, lack of preservation, and higher erosion rates in comparison to the Pleistocene. This study hypothesized that archaeological ru...

Radiocarbon dating and wiggle-matching of the 302 year undated site sequence NWCCSQ01 derived from tree-ring analysis has conclusively shown that the timbers of the St Margaret’s Chapel roof are not medieval in date but were probably felled in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Analysis of all samples taken from Bouldnor Cliff between 2000–5 has led to the construction of two site means, Bouldnor_T11 and Bouldnor_T3. These site means have been compared with each other without cross-matching. The sequences have also been compared with undated prehistoric sequences from the British Isles without producing any significant co...

Few papers using hydrogen stable isotope analysis for human palaeodietary reconstruction purposes have been published and the usefulness of this additional dietary indicator is highlighted here. The hydrogen stable isotope results provide evidence for the continued exploitation of aquatic resources throughout the prehistory of the Limfjord area in...

Few papers using hydrogen stable isotope analysis for human palaeodietary reconstruction purposes have been published and the usefulness of this additional dietary indicator is highlighted here. The hydrogen stable isotope results provide evidence for the continued exploitation of aquatic resources throughout the prehistory of the Limfjord area in...

Only two finds of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) nuts have been reported from any archaeological or environmental investigation for the pre-medieval period in Great Britain: from Castle Street, Carlisle, Cumbria (one nut pericarp fragment, in 1983); and from Great Holts Farm, Boreham, Essex (pericarp fragments from circa five nuts, in 1995). Cast...

Consumption of marine protein in humans and animals can result in an apparent older radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) age due to reservoir offsets. In order to correct for this, an estimate of the marine protein intake should be used to correct the ¹⁴ C age for reservoir offsets, which is ordinarily done using δ ¹³ C or δ ¹⁵ N values. However, these two isotopic...

L'analyse diatomique a révélé une flore peu diversifiée et très pauvre. Les taxons dominants (par ordre décroissant) sont représentés par : Epithemia argus ; Denticula tenuis ; Mastogloia smithii ; Mastogloia danseii et Cyclotella distinguenda.