Fouache, Eric

2014, Cammas, C., Eric Fouache, Todisco, D., Brancier, J.

In order to document site formation processes at the microscale and to characterise pre-Columbian French Guiana dark soils (FGDS), micromorphology was performed at three sites. For the first time it was possible (i) to microscopically characterise pre-Columbian Anthrosols in different physical contexts and (ii), to identify anthropogenic features associated with past human occupation. Microfeatures of the Holocene alluvial terrace of the lower Maroni River witnessed (i) several episodes of clay enrichment and/or redistribution, (ii) seasonal waterlogging, and (iii), post-depositional biological activity. Clay enrichment and organic matter inputs together with biological activity processes might have alternated, probably in relation to vegetal cover and/or anthropogenic activities. On top of the alluvial terrace, bioturbated dark layers are enriched in fine brown organic matter and charcoals. Cumulic soil development was favoured when successive sediment inputs due to episodic flooding and/or overland flow was possible (Chemin Saint Louis site). On a lateritic hill, under rainforest, at the MC87 ring-ditched mountain (Montagnes Couronnées or Crowned Mountain), microscale identification of yellowish unburnt oxic B horizon aggregates together with anthropogenic features related to fire such as charcoals and burnt soil fragments (rubefied and dark brown aggregates) stress that lateritic soil acted as a support for activities in the enclosure, and as reworked material in the ditch. These components could result from clearance for settlement, agricultural management and cultivation, or domestic activities. The obtained results allow first comparisons to be drawn between pre-Columbian FGDS and Brazilian dark earths (BDE). With the exception of a similarity in colour, the former is revealed to be less rich in anthropogenic components with an absence of phosphatic elements such as bones. © 2014 Gebrüder Borntraeger Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, Germany.

2015, Eric Fouache

2014, Desruelles, Stéphane, Fouache, Eric, Kondo, Y., Beuzen-Waller, T., Miki, T., Noguchi, A.

This paper reports on the geoarchaeological survey in the Wādī al-Kabīr basin, located in the southern piedmont of the al-Hajar mountains, to the north-east of Ibrī, Oman. The goal of the survey was to understand the spatial patterns of human occupation of the region during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, paying special attention to the development of landscape and topography. The survey comprised archaeological and geomorphological explorations. Both approaches employed satellite remote sensing and GIS-based mapping of surface features. From the geomorphological viewpoint, the survey area was an alluvial plain washed and surrounded by two major wadis - Wādī al-Kabīr and Wādī Khuwaybah. In this area, the archaeological team documented twenty-three sites and scatters. Middle to Late Palaeolithic artefacts were identified in the piedmont areas, while Holocene lithics, characterized by Fasad points, end-scrapers, and drills, were scattered on residual hills and terraces. The team identified a total of 246 cairns, most of which look like Hafit-type tombs. Some of the cairns were associated with lithic concentration. There was a Bronze Age and Islamic settlement on the terrace between the two wadis. At that site, called al-HasT, the team mapped at least five Bronze Age towers, two Umm an-Nar type graves, enclosure walls, irrigation channels with an aqueduct bridge, bunds to prevent floods, and traces of crop field boundaries and buildings. The results of systematic surface collection and soil sampling in the northern sector suggested that a Bronze Age settlement is probably present underneath the crop fields of the Islamic period.

2014, Pavlopoulos, Kosmas, Fouache, Eric, Sidiropoulou, M., Triantaphyllou, M., Vouvalidis, K., Syrides, G., Greco, E.

The area where the study was made is located in the northeastern coast of Lemnos Island (Greece- North Aegean Sea). This area covers the archaeological settlement of Hephestia which is located in the north part of Purnia Gulf and the coastal area of Alyki Lagoon, which is located in the southeast part of Lemnos coast. The archaeological importance of this area is pointed out not only by its archaeological remains but also by its significant location. The most important site which has been discovered close Hephestia is Poliochni. This is an ancient city considered to have the same date with Troy. The excavations of archaeological site of Hephestia indicate continuous human presence from Late Bronze Age till Byzantine time. The study of the eustatic sea level oscillation in correlation with the neotectonic regimes and die geomorphological observadons, and also the analyses of the deposed sediments, helps us to make a palaeogeographycal reconstruction of the landscape and its impotence to human societies. Therefore, detailed geomorphological mapping, micromorphological, sedimentological and micropaleontological studies of the Holocene coastal deposits have been accomplished. Six boreholes at Alyki lagoon were drilled at selected locations, the deepest one reaches a depth of 11m, and two other boreholes were drilled in Hephestia. The stratigraphy of the late Holocene sediments was studied in detail and samples collected from selected sedimentary layers, were analysed by using micropaleontological techniques. The calculated age from the boreholes gives dates between 5100 B.C. till 820 A.D. Twenty samples of shells and roots were dated using the AMS radiocarbon method in Lyon C14 Laboratory. Geomorphological mapping was carried out using topographic maps at scale of 1:50.000, geological map at a scale of 1:50.000 and observations on the field. Landforms of the coastal alluvial plain, in die shoreline and in die inland were marked and recorded at a scale of 1:50.000. Sea level rise along the interaction of landscape evolution and the impact of human civilization were concluded.

2016, Rante, R., Fouache, E., Mirzaakhmedov, D.

This article focuses on the causes and dynamics of the origin of the caravan path linking Iranian cities to those of Central Asia from the northeast, to be more precise linking Nishapur and Merv to Bukhara and further to Samarkand, and thus overall linking Iran to China. It proposes to elucidate the causes and effects, which occurred after the appearance of what we could call the main arm of the Silk Road. After an analysis of the historical sources mentioning caravan routes crossing eastern Iran, Merv and Central Asia, this article presents the recent geo-archaeological results of the Archaeological Mission of the Bukhara Oasis (MAFOUB). Recent geomorphological discoveries have brought to light important morphological changes of the Zerafšan delta, to which are imputed major changes in human settlements and behaviours. By the 4th century BCE a huge human occupation of the oasis took place, which slightly later engendered a dynamic of massive urbanisation, rendering possible the connections between China and the Mediterranean Sea directly crossing the Bukhara Oasis. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd

2016, Wattez, Julia, Desruelles, Stéphane, Eddargach, Wassel, Cable, Charlotte, Fouache, Eric, Beuzen-Waller, Tara, Cammas, Cecilia, Martin, Chloé, Tengberg, Margareta, Murray, Andrew, Thornton, Christopher

Decades of archaeological research in southeastern Arabia (Oman and the UAE) have provided a good understanding of the evolution of human societies in this arid region, with the transition from mobile pastoralism to settled agricultural villages occurring at the start of the Hafit period (ca. 3100–2700 BCE). The delayed adoption of farming, ceramics, mudbrick architecture, metallurgy, and other technologies until the start of the 3rd millennium BCE has been a particularly salient feature of this region relative to its neighbours in Mesopotamia, southern Iran, and northwestern South Asia. However, recent geoarchaeological research at the World Heritage Site of Bat, situated within the Wadi Sharsah valley in northwest Oman, has provided evidence of irrigation practices that have been dated to the early-mid 4th millennium BCE. While direct evidence of farming from this early period remains elusive, the presence of irrigated fields at this time raises new questions about the supposedly mobile pastoralist groups of the Arabian Neolithic and the beginning of farming practices in the region

2016, Pavlopoulos, Kosmas, Fouache, Eric

2015, Lebreton, V., Jaouadi, S., Mulazzani, S., Boujelben, A., Belhouchet, L., Gammar, A.M., Combourieu-Nebout, N., Saliège, J.-F., Karray, M.R., Fouache, E.

Pollen analyses from the sebkha-lagoon Halk El Menjel document the vegetation history in Central Tunisia, linked to climate change since the Middle Holocene. Steppes are the main biomes developed under semi-arid conditions between 4965 ± 35 and 3410 ± 40 BP. At 4365 ± 50 BP Pistacia is replaced by Olea and high representation of Olea pollen grains are reported between 4365 ± 50 and 3410 ± 40 BP, illustrating a humid episode at the Mid-to-Late Holocene transition. Thus, the semi-arid area of Central Tunisia could correspond to the native biome for oleasters at the beginning of the Late Holocene. Early olive cultivation is not yet evidenced in the Neolithic sites of the eastern Maghreb, and the Phoenicians are assumed to have introduced olive cultivars in Tunisia. However, an early cultivation of Olea from local native oleaster and dissemination of native cultivars in Central Tunisia can be hypothesised even if it has to be still demonstrated with further archaeological and archaeobotanical evidences. © 2015 Association for Environmental Archaeology.

2017, Fouache, Eric

2018, Pavlopoulos, Kosmas, Fouache, Eric, Koukousioura, O., Triantaphyllou, M., Vandarakis, D., Marion de Procé, S., Chondraki, V., Kapsimalis, V.

The geomorphological evolution of the southeastern coastal area of Farasan Al-Kabir Island (Saudi Arabia) is revealed by the mapping of modern landforms and a multi-proxy and high spatial resolution study including grain size, particulate organic carbon, mineralogy, element geochemistry, benthic foraminifera analysis and radiocarbon dating of a 3.3-m long sediment core. The modern geomorphological features comprise a variety of arid landforms, such as plateau, cliffs and pediments of Pleistocene coral limestones, playa depressions located on plateau surfaces, alluvial fans, butte and sandy beaches. The mid Holocene evolution of the borehole area is resulted from the detailed analysis of five sedimentary units detected along the core Matar-1, and includes three distinct stages: (a) from 5253 ± 223 y cal BP to 3138 ± 223 y cal BP, carbonate coarse-grained material consisting of coral fragments, molluscs, calcareous algae and benthic foraminifera are deposited on a shallow marine fringing reefal platform, which becomes progressively a nearshore backreef (around 3675 ± 215 y cal BP), and later (around 3138 ± 223 y cal BP) a reef ramp; (b) since 3040 ± 220 y cal BP the borehole area obtains the characteristics of a high-energy beach that receives increasing inputs of terrigenous material; (c) subsequently, a supratidal backshore setting is established influenced mostly by terrestrial processes and occasionally by marine processes, as it is indicated by the decreasing and sometimes sporadic presence of benthic foraminifera, and recently, a sedimentary veneer consisting of terrigenous, carbonate and evaporite material is formed by terrestrial, mainly wadi and aeolian, processes. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA