Papers by Jeroen Verhegge
Universitätsverlag Kiel | Kiel University Publishing eBooks, 2023
Universitätsverlag Kiel | Kiel University Publishing eBooks, 2023
Internet Archaeology, Mar 23, 2023
<p>Near surface geophysical electromagnetic techniques are proven tools to support ... more <p>Near surface geophysical electromagnetic techniques are proven tools to support ecosystem services such as agriculture, soil remediation, nutrient management, and heritage conservation. Key influencing geophysical properties are electrical conductivity (<em>σ</em>, or resistivity (<em>ρ</em>)), dielectric permittivity (𝜀) or magnetic susceptibility (<em>μ</em>), that are targeted to model soil properties and state variables such as texture, bulk density, cation exchange capacity (CEC) or water content. To translate geophysical properties into quantitative information on the targeted soil properties, relationships between these have to be considered in appropriate models. These so-called pedophysical models can then be integrated into interpretation schemes (e.g., after inversion, or through incorporating this into forward modelling procedures). This modelling step, translating geophysical properties into soil properties (and vice versa), thus constitutes a key aspect of near surface exploration.</p><p>While hundreds of pedophysical models exist to perform this task, these often depend on many properties and parameters defined within a specific range e.g., electromagnetic frequency, texture, and salinity; impeding applications to cases where information about the studied soil is scarce. Therefore, selecting an appropriate pedophysical model for a given scenario is often a very complex task.</p><p>To facilitate solutions for pedophysical modelling we present <em>pedophysics, </em>an open source python package for soil geophysical characterization. The package implements up-to-date models from the literature and, based on the user’s needs, automatically provides an optimal solution given a set of input parameters and the targeted output.</p><p>First, a virtual soil is defined by inputting any of its available properties. This soil can be defined in discrete states to simulate the evolution of its properties over time. Secondly, a module (<em>predict</em>) is called to predict the target property of interest. Following this workflow, for example, a soil with a given texture and changing water content could be defined to obtain its 𝜀 or <em>σ</em> at a predefined frequency, or, inversely, its water content could be predicted based on changing <em>σ</em>.</p><p>However, as soil properties required as input parameters for pedophysical models are often unknown, it can, in such cases, be impossible to obtain a viable prediction outcome. The <em>pedophysics</em> package accounts for such limitations by implementing pedotransfer functions, that allow obtaining the missing properties from the available ones. For example, if CEC is unknown, it is determined based on soil texture and a location.</p><p>In summary, the package synthesizes specific pedophysical modeling knowledge. Time-varying properties can be calculated in a straightforward way, and, through the integration of pedotransfer functions, target properties can be predicted with a minimum of information about the studied soil. Thus, by translating known properties to targeted ones, <em>pedophysics</em> is contributing to improve interpretability of near surface modeling schemes; enhancing soil electromagnetic geophysical exploration techniques in ecosystem services applications.  </p>
Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
Land
The aims of agricultural land management change continuously, reflecting shifts in wider societal... more The aims of agricultural land management change continuously, reflecting shifts in wider societal priorities. Currently, these include addressing the climate crisis, promoting environmental sustainability, and supporting the livelihoods of rural communities while ensuring food security. Working toward these aims requires information on the character of agricultural land and how dynamic processes influence it. Remote and near-surface sensing data are important sources of information on the characteristics of soils, plants, water, topography, and related processes. Sensing data are collected, analysed, and used in decision-making by specialists in multiple domains connected to land management. While progress has been made to connect the use of sensing data across agricultural and environmental applications under the umbrella of integrated sustainable land management, archaeological and heritage uses of these data remain largely disconnected. This creates barriers to accounting for the...
This WG2 New Deliverable developed by Task Force 3 is a table summarising complementary methods (... more This WG2 New Deliverable developed by Task Force 3 is a table summarising complementary methods (linked to D2.15) divided into 3 groups:<br> -less applied geophysical methods in archaeology<br> -airborne/remote sensing<br> -geochemical & geotechnical methods AIM: Linked to WG2_D15 (review paper/white paper/integration in database) TASK Leader: Ekhine Garcia-Garcia TEAM: Jeroen, George, Jan, Andrei & Mahmut PROGRESS: The first draft was developed during the SAGA working group meeting and completed on 14 Feb 2020
NSG2021 27th European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, 2021
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2021
This paper explores the impact of environmental, e.g. sea level rise, and climatic events, e.g. a... more This paper explores the impact of environmental, e.g. sea level rise, and climatic events, e.g. abrupt cooling events, on Mesolithic populations (ca. 11,350 to 6600 cal BP) living in the western Scheldt basin of Belgium and Northern France. The Mesolithic in this study-area has been extensively studied during the last few decades, leading to an extensive database of radiocarbon dates (n = 418), sites (n = 157) and excavated loci (n = 145). A multi-proxy analysis of this database reveals important changes both chronologically and geographically, which are interpreted in terms of population dynamics and changing mobility and land-use. The results suggest a population peak and high residential mobility in the Early Mesolithic, followed by a population shift and increased intra-basin mobility in the Middle Mesolithic, possibly triggered by the rapid inundation of the North Sea basin. The situation during the Late Mesolithic remains less clear but a possible reduction in the mobility see...
This paper discusses the vertical distribution of artefacts of two Mesolithic-Neolithic sites wit... more This paper discusses the vertical distribution of artefacts of two Mesolithic-Neolithic sites within the sand belt of Belgium and the southern Netherlands. Contrary to prevailing theories claiming that sites from these archaeological stages are generally no more than mixed surface sites, the present study demonstrates the existence of a latent stratigraphy, which can be traced in the vertical distribution of the different categories of archaeological finds (lithic artefacts, pottery sherds, carbonized plant remains, calcined bones). Furthermore it is suggested that the formation of these latent stratigraphies is due to long-term faunalturbation occurring in non-podzolic soils.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2020
Abstract Interpretation of fossil assemblages in mixed energy environments, such as estuaries, is... more Abstract Interpretation of fossil assemblages in mixed energy environments, such as estuaries, is complex due to the accumulation of material from different sources. In such environments, different proxies may result in contrasting interpretations, as is illustrated by the case of the Scheldt estuary in northern Belgium: during a phase of increased landward tidal ingression between 7000 and 5000 cal BP, mud was deposited, including microfossils that indicate increased salinity, while macrofossil records from the same deposits indicate tidal freshwater environments. By combining multiple proxies, sedimentological analysis and multivariate statistics, it is concluded that considerable landward sediment transport by tidal pumping, possibly enhanced by storms, explains how marine and brackish microfossils are massively present in freshwater tidal deposits. We propose an approach that combines the easily transported microfossils with the more local macrofossils to obtain a coherent reconstruction of the local estuarine environment, and to better understand the sedimentological processes in the wider region.
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences, 2016
This paper describes the landscape evolution of the Waasland Scheldt polders in the north of Belg... more This paper describes the landscape evolution of the Waasland Scheldt polders in the north of Belgium from the Late Glacial – early Holocene to the present time, and the effects of this changing landscape on the human settlement. The regional landscape evolution has been visualised in a series of palaeogeographical maps for successive time frames. Two different map series were produced: a series of Holocene palaeogeographical reconstructions (11,000–950 cal BP) based on geotechnical, geological and archaeological data, and a series of post-Medieval landscape reconstructions (16th- to 19th-century) based on historical maps, land registers and soil data. Additional palaeoenvironmental information from fossil pollen and plant remains allowed reconstruction of the vegetation and wetland changes, particularly for the middle to late Holocene. Peat growth was the main key to understanding the landscape evolution of the Waasland Scheldt polders. Whereas the landscape evolution during the Hol...
Geoarchaeology, 2016
Well-preserved prehistoric landscapes and sites have been found, buried deeply below the Holocene... more Well-preserved prehistoric landscapes and sites have been found, buried deeply below the Holocene peat or floodplain deposits of "Waasland Scheldt polders." During the mid-to-late Holocene, Late Weichselian (river) dunes within the floodplain and river flanks were favored locations for Final Early Neolithic occupation. Available living space was determined by the dune topography and elevation of the peat at that time. Therefore, an elevation model of the peat base was created using multireceiver electromagnetic induction (EMI) survey data. Electrical conductivity data of a dune were collected and 1D inverted within a three-layered soil model with variable electrical conductivity of the top layer and variable depth to the base of the middle layer (i.e., the peat). The modeled peat base depth was calibrated and validated, and eventually replaced by depth data from coring and cone penetration measurements wherever depth modeling from inverting the EMI measurements proved inaccurate. Using the resulting peat base elevation model, a paleogeographic map at the time of the modeled end date of Mesolithic-Neolithic transitional Swifterbant Culture sites nearby was created by chronologically modeling the peat elevation at that time. The developed paleogeographic mapping methodology can be used for subsequent archaeological prospection by core sampling or to contextualize excavated sites.
Quaternary International, 2015
Abstract Over the last decade, excavations in the lower Scheldt river basin (NW Belgium) have ide... more Abstract Over the last decade, excavations in the lower Scheldt river basin (NW Belgium) have identified the first presence of the transitional Mesolithic–Neolithic Swifterbant culture, previously only known from the Netherlands and one site in northwest Germany. These excavations have also yielded the first evidence for the presence of Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik, Limbourg, Blicquy and Epi-Rossen cultural remains in these wetland landscapes. High quality organic preservation at these sites offered the opportunity to reliably place the Swifterbant within the absolute chronology of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in this region, as well as the reconstruction of Swifterbant subsistence practices, most notably the incorporation of cattle husbandry into a traditional hunting-fishing-gathering economy. Two different site types could be identified between the six excavated sites – dune and natural levee sites – which had contemporaneous periods of occupation, but different occupation histories. The integration of the dates from these different site types with the palaeoenvironmental dates provides an initial model of the Swifterbant settlement system in the area and its role in the specific tempo and trajectories of cultural and economic change that occurred during the neolithisation of the Scheldt basin. This model consists of relatively specialized and temporarily inhabited cattle and hunting-fishing camps on the dunes and larger, more continuously occupied levee camps along the river valleys. Bayesian statistical modeling suggests that Swifterbant occupation of the dune sites occurred during a brackish water flooding period and that occupation of the levee sites was more continuous.
Radiocarbon, 2014
The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the wetland margins of the southern North Sea basin occurr... more The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the wetland margins of the southern North Sea basin occurred well over a millennium after the transition in neighboring loess regions. This article investigates the possible role of hydrological dynamics in the presence of the last hunter-gatherer-fishermen in these wetland regions. A Bayesian modeling approach is used to integrate stratigraphic information and radiocarbon dates both from accurately datable archaeological remains and key horizons in peat sequences in the Scheldt floodplain of northwestern Belgium. This study tests whether the Swifterbant occupation of the study area was contemporaneous with hiatuses in peat growth caused by organic clastic sedimentation due to increased tidal influences and local groundwater rise. The results suggest that the appearance of this culture followed shortly after the emergence of a brackish tidal mudflat landscape replacing a freshwater marsh.
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Papers by Jeroen Verhegge