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Proceedings Reference Pollen data and other archaeobotanical remains from the middle ages in wallonia (southern Belgium): A review
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Inproceedings Reference Cave palynology as a tool for vegetation and climate change reconstructions during the Middle Paleolithic: Myth or reality?
Pollen analysis has been, and still is, one of the most widely used techniques in Quaternary sciences, especially to reconstruct vegetation history and climate variability. Fossil deposits of accumulating plants, such as peat sediments, were very early investigated as they are particularly suitable for the reception, storage and conservation of palynomorphs. Thanks to successive methodological innovations, palynological analyses then gradually developed by multiplying studies of diverse more mineral sedimentary materials (lake, stream and/or marine sediments, loess deposits, travertine, etc.). These new efficient techniques also led to an interest in archaeological sediments, allowing palaeoenvironmental reconstructions where no adequate Quaternary continental sedimentary records are available. Soon after the mid-20th century, caves and rock-shelters became then the favored studied places in karstic areas to approach the environment of prehistoric humans. However, the pollen record in caves is a complex phenomenon in which multiple geological, biological and atmospheric factors are involved and could lead to some distortions and discontinuities in the pollen assemblages. When not perceived, these pitfalls have sometimes generated some over or misinterpretations. After a keen interest, cave sediment sequences were thus considered as unattractive, presenting lot of alterations, difficult to correlate and with a low palaeoenvironmental potential. The validity and scope of the interpretation of palynological data from this type of deposits are still highly controversial and debatable. In Belgium, a systematic program of detailed stratigraphic recordings from caves associated with various palaeoenvironmental analyses has recently been undertaken in close collaboration with researchers from different disciplines. The objective was to better understand the sedimentary dynamics of these fillings and to test their potential as recorders of Quaternary climatic variations. In that context, new pollen data from two Belgian caves have been acquired and open new prospects for research work in this type of environments. In this paper, we present the state of the art of cave palynology, including the different parameters defining pollen taphonomy, the potentials and the limits of pollen analysis on Quaternary cave deposits. Through the examples of the caves Walou and Scladina, we show that good palynological results can be obtained in these contexts. These records are compared and evaluated in the light of multidisciplinary palaeoecological information from these two prehistoric settlements. When precautions are taken and a close link with geology and archaeology is maintained, local environment of the prehistoric populations, but also major trends in vegetation evolution and climate change during the Middle Paleolithic, can be accurately documented by pollen records from cave sequences.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Inproceedings Reference WALOU CAVE (TROOZ): AN EXCEPTIONAL SEQUENCE FROM THE BELGIAN PALAEOLITHIC
Located some 10 km at the south-east of Liège the Walou cave entrance faces the north-west, 25 m above the Magne, a tributary of the Vesdre river. Excavations were conducted at the site from 1985 to 1990 and then from 1996 to 2004, revealing numerous successive prehistoric occupations. Its extensive stratigraphic sequence is the best documented for a Belgian Upper Pleistocene karst site. Thanks to a multidisciplinary approach the chronostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental framework of the occupations is well understood. Out of the 45 layers of the sequence 25 yielded archaeological material. There are traces of the Neolithic (Layer A2) and the Mesolithic (Layers A4 and A5) at the top. The cave also revealed several Upper Palaeolithic occupations: Federmesser (Layer B1), Gravettian (Layer B5) and Aurignacian (Layer CI-1). The lower half of the sequence, which encompasses the Last Interglacial and the Weichselian Early Glacial, includes 9 Mousterian occupations; 6 reworked layers also yielded some artefacts from that culture. A Neandertal tooth was found in Layer CI-8, which contains the richest Mousterian occupation of the site. All lithic material was made from flint probably sourced in secondary position near the cave. Only the Gravettian and Aurignacian occupations yielded other man-made materials: antler spearheads and animal and mineral non-utilitarian artefacts from the Aurignacian. Numerous faunal remains were also found; among them: cave bear, cave hyena, horse, fox, bison/aurochs, woolly rhinoceros, deer, mammoth, chamois, hare, small rodents and a few birds. The study of the fish remains revealed that fishing took place at the site, as much during the Middle Palaeolithic as during the Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Inproceedings Reference The settlement of the Cistercian abbey of Villers-la-Ville in the Thyle valley (Dyle tributary) during the 12th century: Archaeobotanical approaches.
The Cistercian abbey of Villers-la-Ville, situated between Brussels, Charleroi and Namur in Belgium, was founded in the 12th century and abandoned after the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. The construction, architecture and distribution of buildings, courtyard and gardens of the abbey are recognized as very remarkable and exceptional. The site has also been classified as historical monument and remarkable site in 1972. The ruins of the abbey of Villers-la-Ville has been excavated for a long time. Since the end of the 19th century, it has been punctually excavated by some architects and religious. However, all of these results have never been published. It is only from 1985 that, thanks to the work of the Governance of Buildings to the consolidation of the ruins of the abbey, ongoing and regular excavations are undertaken. Indeed, since then, the History Center of Architecture and Building assumes an archaeological mission to support this project and since 1988 the Archaeological Service of Wallonia has excavated many parts of the site. While most of these excavations concern the architecture of buildings, for their restoration and rehabilitation, none of them, up to now, was interested in the period before and during the settlement: Why did the monks choose this site? How was the natural environment when they arrived? And how the abbey’ settlement affect this environment? To answer this question, several archaeobotanical analyses (pollen, fruit and seeds, wood and wood charcoal) have been undertaken for the first time in two different sectors of the abbey. The samples come from mechanical deep coring which have recently been done at the Gate of Brussels, the main gatehouse situated at the western part of the abbey, and at the former major mill situated more at the south.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Inproceedings Reference Villers-le-Bouillet : occupations antiques et du Haut Moyen Âge « a Lohincou »
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Inproceedings Reference Intergrating micromorphology and archaeobotany to unravel the function of archaeological structure. The example of the Petite Rue des Bouchers (Brussels, Belgium)
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Inproceedings Reference Il était une fois Clairefontaine: Le quotidien des nonnes d'une abbaye cistercienne au 18ème siècle
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Inproceedings Reference Towards a better knowledge and protection of biodiversity in Africa using Web 2.0 technologies
For more than 10 years, thanks to funding provided by the Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD), the Belgian Clearing House Mechanism (CHM) team of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), has been helping its partner countries in the South develop their national CHM networks. In 2003, the European Union adopted the PTK (Portal Toolkit): a Content Management System that allows to develop national CHM websites in Europe. The PTK is released under the Mozilla Public License. It is a free and open source software, that allows multi user-generated content. It includes collaborative tools managed through the Web, such as discussion forums, consultations and surveys. With the PTK, users can: • Mobilize networks of experts through a user-friendly content management system • Raise public awareness by uploading short films, photos and presentations • Communicate biodiversity by state-of-the-art mapping services using YAHOO backgrounds and Google Earth exports • Prepare for biodiversity reporting by using public content contribution, user discussion forum, public consultation tools, survey tools and syndication • Collaborate in technical and scientific projects with modern web standards • Connect biodiversity databases. Belgium has been using the PTK for its national CHM website (http://www.biodiv.be/) for 10 years. More than 30 countries in Africa use the PTK for their national websites (such as Benin, Madagascar, Morocco, etc.), see full list here (http://www.biodiv.be/cooperation/chm_coop/chm-partnering/part_country). The national website URLs are as follows: country code + .chm-cbd.net. For instance, for Niger, the URL is http://ne.chm-cbd.net. The Belgian CHM hosts the national CHM websites of its partner countries on its server and offers training courses for the development and maintenance of these websites. Distance learning manuals on the use of the PTK have been developed by the Belgian CHM team for the last 4 years. The manuals are developed both in English and French. They are available on a training website: http://training.biodiv.be/formationptk. This website is used for distance learning for our partners and for any other interested party but also for blended learning. Two weeks before a face-to-face training in a partner country, all future trainees are invited to: • surf their national CHM website; • read a basic manual that introduces the PTK and the CHM; • create a user account on the training website.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Inproceedings Reference Use of the near infrared similarity reflectance spectrum for the quality control of remote sensing data
The shape of water-leaving reflectance spectra in the near infrared range 700-900nm is almost invariant for turbid waters and has been analysed and tabulated as a similarity spectrum by normalisation at 780nm. This similarity spectrum is used here for the quality control of seaborne reflectance measurements and for the improvement of sky glint correction. Estimates of the reflectance measurement error associated with imperfect sky glint correction from two different wavelength pairs are shown to be nearly identical. A demonstration of residual reflectance correction for data collected in cloudy, high wave conditions has shown that this correction removes a large source of variability associated with temporal variation of the wave field. The error estimate applied here to seaborne measurements has wide-ranging generality and is appropriate for any water-leaving reflectance spectra derived from seaborne, airborne or satellite borne sensors provided suitable near infrared bands are available.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference On a new Seison Grube, 1861 from coastal waters of Kenya, with a reappraisal of the classification of the Seisonida (Rotifera)
On occasion of the discovery of a new species of a marine epizoic rotifer of the enigmatic Seisonidae, from Gazi Bay in Kenya, we reassessed the classification of the group. The taxon was until now known to contain only 2 species, viz. Seison nebaliae and S. annulatus, both of which live attached to Crustacea of the genus Nebalia. The new species, Seison africanus sp. nov., was diagnosed by its species-specific trophi morphology and relatively small size. A comparison with the 2 other known seisonid species reveals a sister group relationship between S. africanus sp. nov. and S. nebaliae, based on similarities in trophi structure and, accordingly, an assumed feeding mode and relationship with their hosts. The fundamental differences between these 2 commensal sister taxa and the ectoparasitic S. annulatus prompted a reevaluation of the generic classification of these animals. Accordingly, we propose to reestablish the genus Paraseison Plate, 1887 in order to accommodate P. annulatus (Claus, 1876) (comb. nov.).
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications