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poral resolution and their sensitivity to environmental change (Lewin, 1980; Allen
et al., 1999; Woodward and Goldberg, 2001). One approach is illustrated in fi gure
13.8. Temporal resolution is a measure of the completeness and precision of the
stratigraphic record at a given site - or within a particular sequence - and the dating
control available for that record. A sequence with many erosional gaps and few
dates would constitute a low resolution record and this would provide only a very
limited window into the past. In contrast, however, some depositional environments
involve more or less continuous sedimentation and this provides a sound basis for
the development of a reliable and consistent record of environmental change, espe-
cially where sedimentation rates are high and the preservation of pollen and other
proxies is good. These tend to be low energy settings such as lake and marine envi-
ronments where sub-aerial erosion is absent and sediments can accumulate, undis-
turbed, for an extended period of time.
Environmental sensitivity is less easy to quantify, but it is a useful concept and
a key characteristic of any environmental system (such as a lake or marine basin,
a cave or river catchment system) that produces a long-term record of environmen-
tal change (see Wright, 1984). This property relates to the archive's ability to
respond to and record an environmental change. Its sensitivity may determine
whether it records local, regional or global signals in a consistent and predictable
way.
Figure 13.8 shows that lake sediments and speleothems can provide well-dated,
high-resolution records of change and these are typically associated with systems
that are sensitive to change - they are commonly responsive to external climate
fl uctuations and they record them in a reliable and consistent manner. This sensitiv-
ity can be tested by contemporary process studies (Bar Matthews et al., 1999). Some
lake systems accumulate sediments with annual laminations that can be counted.
These contexts provide a basis for the development of extremely robust and detailed
chronologies and they can be used to test the integrity of other dating methods
(e.g. Allen et al., 1999). In contrast, coarse-grained clastic cave sediments (such as
the ones shown in fi gure 13.9) plot at the opposite end of this continuum. These
are angular scree sediments that can be produced by a range of mechanisms includ-
ing frost action or even seismic shaking (Bailey and Woodward, 1997).
A key point to make here is that much of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic
record in Europe has been recovered from coarse-grained cave and rockshelter sedi-
ments, and from coarse-grained river sediments (Gamble, 1986; Woodward and
Goldberg, 2001). Fluvial sediments are the product of fl ood events and the fl ood
regime can respond in a sensitive way to environmental change - but coarse-grained
river sediments are often deposited very quickly and their temporal resolution is
limited in comparison to other records. The archaeological records, therefore, are
typically limited in resolution and it has become increasingly diffi cult to make effec-
tive comparisons between the cultural and environmental records even for the most
recent cold stage. The resolution and quality of many proxy climate records has
become far superior to the existing archaeological datasets. Mithen (1999, p. 480)
has made this point within a discussion of Mesolithic archaeology and changing
Late glacial environments in Britain:
there is in fact an increasing dislocation regarding the fi ne chronological resolution
with which palaeoecologists can reconstruct local environmental history, and the much
cruder chronological resolution with which archaeologists have to work.
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