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British Quaternary studies. Recent advances
138
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REVIEWS
land surface lowering and by insoluble residue accumulation. Indeed, where extrapolation of such rates suggested that the limestone land surface may have been exposed for at least 3 to 6 million years, subsequent paleobotanical studies discovered floral remains in pockets weathered in its surface assigned to times 8 million years B.P. The authors are also perhaps unfamiliar with the 231h/234U dating of stalactites (e.g. Thompson, Schwartz, and Ford, 1974) which is posing sharp questions on geomorphological and palaeoclimatic events which took place a third of a million years ago. Pioneer Buckland’s contribution is not entirely forgotten, and much is made on pp. 52 and 53 of the fact that in 1839 he happened to be in the vicinity when a major landslide occurred. Those who prefer to follow a mathematical modelbuilding approach may be inclined to agree with the premises about “the very inadequate nature of the published data on the rates of operation of geomorphological processes” and to view such data “with a reserve verging on suspicion.” Otherwise the oversimplified starting points of many model-building exercises and simulations are difficult to accept, and many specialists will continue to prefer an approach which can integrate the rough with the smooth. The degree to which the idealized and abstract are sometimes preferred to the real form and process in this book is highlighted by the authors’ perception of deltas. As a geomorphological feature, let alone a geographical arena in which critical phases of human history have been enacted, deltas are scarcely mentioned. On p. 143, however, deltas as a mathematical symbol appear 57 times. One is reminded of Statham’s Proposition, that the continuity equation would be equally valid if a slope were covered with either soil or with baked beans. In detail, there are one or two eye-catching errors. The definition for the task of maintaining recording stations (p. 56) is unlikely to be adopted. It is ironic that the geomorphologist’s name which is consistently misspelled is a leading authority on mudflows, although both versions appear on p. 16. On balance, however, it is much preferred to welcome and recommend this book as a competent, clear, and patient treatment of what it contains rather than to shroud it over to shield the reader’s eye from the glare of its omissions. ALEXAIR F. PITTY 43 Huil Road, Cottingham N. Humberside, NV16 4PN, England
British Quaternary Studies. Recent Advances. Edited by F. W. Shotton. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 298 pp.. $23.00. This important and useful collection of 20 essays by 26 investigators of the Quatemary of the British Isles was prepared on the occasion of the tenth INQUA Congress, convened in Birmingham in September, 1977. The various contributions represent upto-date, well-illustrated overviews, both topical and regional, with particular regard to the results of more recent research. each with a substantial list of
references. The overall coverage is wide-ranging and reflective of the direction of modem Quaternary studies in recent decades: isotopic dating; *sO/*BO stratigraphy of marine sediments; land forms and crustal movements; North Sea history; raised beaches and marine levels; preglacial and glacial stratigraphy; ice-sheet dynamics; periglacial phenomena, loess, and cover sands; river terraces; vegetational history; paleoenvironmental history as reflected by Coleoptera; marine and non-marine mollusca; fossil vertebrates; occurrences of human skeletal remains; and Quaternary prehistory. The volume is very well produced and should prove of widespread interest to all students of this most recent interval of earth history. It is appropriately dedicated to the late W. W. Bishop, whose interests in the Quatemary were initiated and nourished in the Midlands, under the encouragement of the editor, and whose subsequent contributions to the history of the late Cenozoic in Eastern Africa were numerous and fundamental.
F.CLARK HOWELL Department of Anthropology University of California Berkeley. Cnlifornia 94720 An Archaeological Investigation on the Loboi Plain, Baring0 District, Kenya. University of Michigan, Mu-
seum of Anthropology Technical Report No. 4; Research Reports in Archaeology, Contribution 1, 1976. William R. Farrand, Richard W. Redding, Milford W. Wolpoff, and Henry T. Wright. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 59 pp., $3.50. The Loboi Plain is a broad, gently sloping, fault valley northwest of Lake Hannington, mantled primarily by massive reddish silts (Loboi silts, late Pleistocene, possibly equivalent to Kapthurin Formation) and by light brown, thin-bedded silts and sands (Bogoria silts, terminal Pleistocene or [more probably] Holocene). The Loboi silts locally exceed 5 m in thickness (elsewhere 15 m) and postdate last major fault movement; root drip or calcareous cementation are common, and together with rubefaction (? zeolitization), suggest subsequent weathering. Intercalated sandy or gravelly lenses, including small-scale crossbeds, indicate channel facies interdigitated with otherwise lacustrine beds. The Bogoria silts and sands average only l- 1.5 m in thickness and reflect primarily a short-lived high lake phase, also to about +15-16 m. The older archeological materials (recently exposed by weathering and erosion) and some possibly related in situ bone were tested by three excavations into the Loboi silts. The artifacts comprise choppers and heavy flake tools, some struck from prepared cores, with only superficial resemblance to Early Stone Age assemblages. The limited fauna suggests a freshwater, rather than alkaline lake, such as exists today. The younger archeological remains are far more plentiful and include the remains of nine hominid individuals of small body size and morphological affinities with living pygmy populations. The artifact concentrations. confirmed by a
BOOK REVIEWS test excavation (into Bogoria silts?), are dominated by small obsidian tools, including crescents and other microliths, sherds, and baked clay lumps. Although variations in artifactual concentrations and their relations to fish and mammal bone were observed at the several surface sites studied, the lack of evidence as to relative age precluded interpretation in terms of a sequence of changing environmental adaptations. This low-keyed report, based on a brief, 3-week study by individuals without previous field work in Africa, concludes with recommendations for future work on the Loboi Plain. The
KARL W. BUTZER University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois 60637
Concepts and Methods of Biostratigraphy. Edited by E. G. Kaufman and .I. H. Hazel. Wiley, New York, $35.00. Concepts and Methods of Biostratigraphy, the outgrowth of a symposium at the 1973 Geological Society of America, Annual Meeting, contains 25 papers. Erle Kauffman and J. E. Hazel have put together a generally balanced survey; after a fine historical introduction (J. M. Hancock), there are six papers each on “concepts, ” “methods,” ” mobile” (widely dispersed) organisms, and “benthic organism.“’ The 31 authors are dominantly “academic” in outlook; only one is now in industry. Fifteen universities and seven museums are represented, plus six members of the U. S. Geological Survey. Regrettably, the important French and Russian schools are unrepresented. Technically, the book is well composed, almost free of errors, and has clear, generally relevant illustrations. The 73 pages of collected references are a marvelous resource, although many students will regret the absence of the customary citations with each article. Kauffman and Hazel set reasonable goals: “The volume is designed to provide an assessment of biozone construction and correlation, to review biological, evolutionary, and ecological factors that affect the formulation and successful application of biostratigraphic systems, and to provide an up to date survey of major groups of organisms used in zonal biostratigraphy. . We have, in general, asked the authors to follow a central theme-to discuss the concepts and methods of their approach to biostratigraphy, and to illustrate this with a working example based on diverse organisms in varied environmental situations” (Preface, pp. iii and iv). Overall, I found the section on biological concepts to be the best; it is a chorus of outstanding voices in fine form. Eldredge and Gould, Sylvester-Bradley, Valentine, and Kauffman nicely review their perspectives, and Scheltema adds a detailed review of marine invertebrate dispersal. Missing from this section is a focused discussion of the conceptual or practical ap-
’ See also the review by W. C. West, Science 285.
198,
139
plicability of stratigraphic codes and guides, material mentioned by Hancock. “Biostratigraphic Methods” includes several noteworthy papers, particularly Miller’s demonstration of the utility of Alan Shaw’s graphic correlation schemes and Hazel’s clear heuristic discussion of various multivariate analytical schemes. Unfortunately, conventional multivariate methods (e.g., clustering and principal components) are more concerned with grouping data than with ordering them, and I was disappointed to find no review of sequencing methods developed by Hay, Southam, Worsley, and their colleagues. The 12 papers on different fauna1 groups are a mixed bag, but almost all are substantive reviews of present knowledge. Still, there was a disappointment. Kauffman has urged us to consider the stratigraphic potential of fossils, and his own work is noteworthy for his estimates of reliability and zonal duration. Very few of the present authors provide estimates of average zone length or the ultimate potential of any of these groups. Indeed, one author confuses species longevity with speciation rate (p. 522) and seems to ignore any methods of zonation not based on single species (p. 530). Having hurled my stones, I should make explicit those questions with which I am most concerned: (1) What is the conceptual basis for biostratigraphy? Coupled with this, what formal guidelines (Codes) are useful?; (2) What is the time resolution attained and possibly attainable with each fossil group?; and (3) What does all this mean to me in the Quarternary? As indicated above, with one exception I found the first question well handled. The second question is addressed by too few authors on any level. The third question reveals another gap in the book. SylvesterBradley uses examples from the Quarternary, van Couvering and Berggren tabulate the duration of the Period, and Poag mentions the Quatemary, but the rich lode of Pleistocene experience in high-resolution biostratigraphy is not mined. I missed a review of “ecobiostratigraphy” from the perspective of European palynologists who can recognize individual glacial advances by their diagnostic suites (implying time resolution of approximately 10s years, at least an order of magnitude better than most good zonations). Steininger explores the fascinating problem of integrating biostratigraphic schemes developed in different facies, but I would have welcomed a review of the extensive Quarternary literature in this field. Despite all of this, I liked the book. Knowing the individuality of practitioners of our art, it may be the best book that could have been assembled, and it will richly reward the selective reader. I will use a number of the papers in my teaching, and several significantly affected my perception of problems in the field. More than that I cannot ask. H. M. SACHS of Geological and Geophysical Sciences Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Department
BOOK
REVIEWS
land surface lowering and by insoluble residue accumulation. Indeed, where extrapolation of such rates suggested that the limestone land surface may have been exposed for at least 3 to 6 million years, subsequent paleobotanical studies discovered floral remains in pockets weathered in its surface assigned to times 8 million years B.P. The authors are also perhaps unfamiliar with the 231h/234U dating of stalactites (e.g. Thompson, Schwartz, and Ford, 1974) which is posing sharp questions on geomorphological and palaeoclimatic events which took place a third of a million years ago. Pioneer Buckland’s contribution is not entirely forgotten, and much is made on pp. 52 and 53 of the fact that in 1839 he happened to be in the vicinity when a major landslide occurred. Those who prefer to follow a mathematical modelbuilding approach may be inclined to agree with the premises about “the very inadequate nature of the published data on the rates of operation of geomorphological processes” and to view such data “with a reserve verging on suspicion.” Otherwise the oversimplified starting points of many model-building exercises and simulations are difficult to accept, and many specialists will continue to prefer an approach which can integrate the rough with the smooth. The degree to which the idealized and abstract are sometimes preferred to the real form and process in this book is highlighted by the authors’ perception of deltas. As a geomorphological feature, let alone a geographical arena in which critical phases of human history have been enacted, deltas are scarcely mentioned. On p. 143, however, deltas as a mathematical symbol appear 57 times. One is reminded of Statham’s Proposition, that the continuity equation would be equally valid if a slope were covered with either soil or with baked beans. In detail, there are one or two eye-catching errors. The definition for the task of maintaining recording stations (p. 56) is unlikely to be adopted. It is ironic that the geomorphologist’s name which is consistently misspelled is a leading authority on mudflows, although both versions appear on p. 16. On balance, however, it is much preferred to welcome and recommend this book as a competent, clear, and patient treatment of what it contains rather than to shroud it over to shield the reader’s eye from the glare of its omissions. ALEXAIR F. PITTY 43 Huil Road, Cottingham N. Humberside, NV16 4PN, England
British Quaternary Studies. Recent Advances. Edited by F. W. Shotton. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 298 pp.. $23.00. This important and useful collection of 20 essays by 26 investigators of the Quatemary of the British Isles was prepared on the occasion of the tenth INQUA Congress, convened in Birmingham in September, 1977. The various contributions represent upto-date, well-illustrated overviews, both topical and regional, with particular regard to the results of more recent research. each with a substantial list of
references. The overall coverage is wide-ranging and reflective of the direction of modem Quaternary studies in recent decades: isotopic dating; *sO/*BO stratigraphy of marine sediments; land forms and crustal movements; North Sea history; raised beaches and marine levels; preglacial and glacial stratigraphy; ice-sheet dynamics; periglacial phenomena, loess, and cover sands; river terraces; vegetational history; paleoenvironmental history as reflected by Coleoptera; marine and non-marine mollusca; fossil vertebrates; occurrences of human skeletal remains; and Quaternary prehistory. The volume is very well produced and should prove of widespread interest to all students of this most recent interval of earth history. It is appropriately dedicated to the late W. W. Bishop, whose interests in the Quatemary were initiated and nourished in the Midlands, under the encouragement of the editor, and whose subsequent contributions to the history of the late Cenozoic in Eastern Africa were numerous and fundamental.
F.CLARK HOWELL Department of Anthropology University of California Berkeley. Cnlifornia 94720 An Archaeological Investigation on the Loboi Plain, Baring0 District, Kenya. University of Michigan, Mu-
seum of Anthropology Technical Report No. 4; Research Reports in Archaeology, Contribution 1, 1976. William R. Farrand, Richard W. Redding, Milford W. Wolpoff, and Henry T. Wright. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 59 pp., $3.50. The Loboi Plain is a broad, gently sloping, fault valley northwest of Lake Hannington, mantled primarily by massive reddish silts (Loboi silts, late Pleistocene, possibly equivalent to Kapthurin Formation) and by light brown, thin-bedded silts and sands (Bogoria silts, terminal Pleistocene or [more probably] Holocene). The Loboi silts locally exceed 5 m in thickness (elsewhere 15 m) and postdate last major fault movement; root drip or calcareous cementation are common, and together with rubefaction (? zeolitization), suggest subsequent weathering. Intercalated sandy or gravelly lenses, including small-scale crossbeds, indicate channel facies interdigitated with otherwise lacustrine beds. The Bogoria silts and sands average only l- 1.5 m in thickness and reflect primarily a short-lived high lake phase, also to about +15-16 m. The older archeological materials (recently exposed by weathering and erosion) and some possibly related in situ bone were tested by three excavations into the Loboi silts. The artifacts comprise choppers and heavy flake tools, some struck from prepared cores, with only superficial resemblance to Early Stone Age assemblages. The limited fauna suggests a freshwater, rather than alkaline lake, such as exists today. The younger archeological remains are far more plentiful and include the remains of nine hominid individuals of small body size and morphological affinities with living pygmy populations. The artifact concentrations. confirmed by a
BOOK REVIEWS test excavation (into Bogoria silts?), are dominated by small obsidian tools, including crescents and other microliths, sherds, and baked clay lumps. Although variations in artifactual concentrations and their relations to fish and mammal bone were observed at the several surface sites studied, the lack of evidence as to relative age precluded interpretation in terms of a sequence of changing environmental adaptations. This low-keyed report, based on a brief, 3-week study by individuals without previous field work in Africa, concludes with recommendations for future work on the Loboi Plain. The
KARL W. BUTZER University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois 60637
Concepts and Methods of Biostratigraphy. Edited by E. G. Kaufman and .I. H. Hazel. Wiley, New York, $35.00. Concepts and Methods of Biostratigraphy, the outgrowth of a symposium at the 1973 Geological Society of America, Annual Meeting, contains 25 papers. Erle Kauffman and J. E. Hazel have put together a generally balanced survey; after a fine historical introduction (J. M. Hancock), there are six papers each on “concepts, ” “methods,” ” mobile” (widely dispersed) organisms, and “benthic organism.“’ The 31 authors are dominantly “academic” in outlook; only one is now in industry. Fifteen universities and seven museums are represented, plus six members of the U. S. Geological Survey. Regrettably, the important French and Russian schools are unrepresented. Technically, the book is well composed, almost free of errors, and has clear, generally relevant illustrations. The 73 pages of collected references are a marvelous resource, although many students will regret the absence of the customary citations with each article. Kauffman and Hazel set reasonable goals: “The volume is designed to provide an assessment of biozone construction and correlation, to review biological, evolutionary, and ecological factors that affect the formulation and successful application of biostratigraphic systems, and to provide an up to date survey of major groups of organisms used in zonal biostratigraphy. . We have, in general, asked the authors to follow a central theme-to discuss the concepts and methods of their approach to biostratigraphy, and to illustrate this with a working example based on diverse organisms in varied environmental situations” (Preface, pp. iii and iv). Overall, I found the section on biological concepts to be the best; it is a chorus of outstanding voices in fine form. Eldredge and Gould, Sylvester-Bradley, Valentine, and Kauffman nicely review their perspectives, and Scheltema adds a detailed review of marine invertebrate dispersal. Missing from this section is a focused discussion of the conceptual or practical ap-
’ See also the review by W. C. West, Science 285.
198,
139
plicability of stratigraphic codes and guides, material mentioned by Hancock. “Biostratigraphic Methods” includes several noteworthy papers, particularly Miller’s demonstration of the utility of Alan Shaw’s graphic correlation schemes and Hazel’s clear heuristic discussion of various multivariate analytical schemes. Unfortunately, conventional multivariate methods (e.g., clustering and principal components) are more concerned with grouping data than with ordering them, and I was disappointed to find no review of sequencing methods developed by Hay, Southam, Worsley, and their colleagues. The 12 papers on different fauna1 groups are a mixed bag, but almost all are substantive reviews of present knowledge. Still, there was a disappointment. Kauffman has urged us to consider the stratigraphic potential of fossils, and his own work is noteworthy for his estimates of reliability and zonal duration. Very few of the present authors provide estimates of average zone length or the ultimate potential of any of these groups. Indeed, one author confuses species longevity with speciation rate (p. 522) and seems to ignore any methods of zonation not based on single species (p. 530). Having hurled my stones, I should make explicit those questions with which I am most concerned: (1) What is the conceptual basis for biostratigraphy? Coupled with this, what formal guidelines (Codes) are useful?; (2) What is the time resolution attained and possibly attainable with each fossil group?; and (3) What does all this mean to me in the Quarternary? As indicated above, with one exception I found the first question well handled. The second question is addressed by too few authors on any level. The third question reveals another gap in the book. SylvesterBradley uses examples from the Quarternary, van Couvering and Berggren tabulate the duration of the Period, and Poag mentions the Quatemary, but the rich lode of Pleistocene experience in high-resolution biostratigraphy is not mined. I missed a review of “ecobiostratigraphy” from the perspective of European palynologists who can recognize individual glacial advances by their diagnostic suites (implying time resolution of approximately 10s years, at least an order of magnitude better than most good zonations). Steininger explores the fascinating problem of integrating biostratigraphic schemes developed in different facies, but I would have welcomed a review of the extensive Quarternary literature in this field. Despite all of this, I liked the book. Knowing the individuality of practitioners of our art, it may be the best book that could have been assembled, and it will richly reward the selective reader. I will use a number of the papers in my teaching, and several significantly affected my perception of problems in the field. More than that I cannot ask. H. M. SACHS of Geological and Geophysical Sciences Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Department