Hillslope processes and archaeology in Wadi Ziqlab,Jordan |
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| Authors: | John Field E B Banning |
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| Abstract: | Record levels of precipitation during February 1992 generated 290 earth flows and earth slumps in Wadi Ziqlab, Jordan. Geomorphologic and sedimentological characteristics of these landslides and older colluvial deposits were used to identify the dominant mass-wasting processes active in the wadi. Earth flows in 1992 left long linear scars on the steep hillsides and deposited thin, fine and coarse-grained, sheets on the well-developed colluvial slopes below. Older colluvial deposits exposed along the wadi bottom are crudely stratified, heavily bioturbated, and contain paleosols, suggesting colluviation was episodic and occurred through a slow accumulation of successive earth flows. Earth slumps in 1992 produced crescentic scarps, flat benches, and thick colluvial masses; similar features preserved on the wadi slopes were formed by the same process at an earlier time. Annual slope wash does not appear important on the steep, heavily landslide-scarred, slopes. The uneven distribution and episodic occurrence of earth flows and earth slumps in Wadi Ziqlab have resulted in highly variable burial depths of archaeological material, as illustrated in one locality where Roman artifacts are buried over 1 m deeper than a Neolithic site only 200 m away. The ability of earth flows to transport artifacts great distances has given rise to inverted stratigraphy on colluvial slopes and has produced large artifact scatters located beyond the margins of the colluvial slopes. These complex postoccupation disturbances and prehistoric land-use practices would have been difficult to interpret without a full understanding of the hillslope processes active in Wadi Ziqlab and the landscape features they have produced. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
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