Shell middens and other anthropogenic soils as global stratigraphic signatures of the Anthropocene
Jon Erlandson 2013 Anthropocene 4:24-32
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii

Evidence for aquatic foraging, fishing & scavenging by hominins dates back at least 2 Ma,
but aquatic resource use intensified with the appearance of H.sapiens.
The development of new fishing & sea-faring technologies contributed to Hs population growth & spread around the world.
By the late-Pleisto- & early-Holocene, fishing peoples lived along coast-lines, rivers & lakes in Africa, Eurasia, Australia & the Americas,
they created shell-midden soils, marked by accumulations of mollusk shells, animal bones, artifacts & other cultural debris.
After global sea-level rise slowed ∼8 ka, a proliferation of shell-middens formed an increasingly prominent stratigraphic signature for identifying & defining an Anthropocene Epoch.
The fm of these distinctive cultural soils (often marked by unique soil chemistry & biotic communities) is essentially contemporaneous with
- the development of agricultural economies &
- the widespread soil & landscape changes ass.x them.
Defined by these global & highly visible anthropogenic soil signatures, I propose:
the Anthropocene began c 10 ka, and should replace, or be merged with the Holocene.

/S2213305413000416

There is no such thing as "Anthropocene." It's an entirely POLITICAL
and not scientific designation.

Life changes the planet earth. The first mass extinction, ever, we
know of happened about 2 billion years ago, when most life
expelled oxygen as a waste product. It was effectively a poison
to this life. The atmosphere eventually got saturated, rocks
started to oxidize... there was a mass die-off from all this poisonous
oxygen.

Life changed the oceans, life changed the atmosphere and it even
changed the rocks!

"Anthropocene" is politics. It's part of the Gwobull Warbling narrative.

-- --

https://jtem.tumblr.com/post/725527049879552000

Op maandag 14 augustus 2023 om 23:09:00 UTC+2 schreef JTEM is so reasonable:
> There is no such thing as "Anthropocene." It's an entirely POLITICAL
> and not scientific designation.
> Life changes the planet earth. The first mass extinction, ever, we
> know of happened about 2 billion years ago, when most life
> expelled oxygen as a waste product. It was effectively a poison
> to this life. The atmosphere eventually got saturated, rocks
> started to oxidize... there was a mass die-off from all this poisonous
> oxygen.
> Life changed the oceans, life changed the atmosphere and it even
> changed the rocks!
> "Anthropocene" is politics. It's part of the Gwobull Warbling narrative.

Erlandson didn't mean anything political, I'd think.
Why did we largely leave our diving lifestyle?
Language? fire? agriculture? ...? combination?
Rice still grows in shallow water.

"Shell middens and other anthropogenic soils as global stratigraphic signatures of the Anthropocene"
Jon Erlandson 2013 Anthropocene 4:24-32
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii
"... After global sea-level rise slowed ∼8 ka, a proliferation of shell-middens formed an increasingly prominent stratigraphic signature for identifying & defining an Anthropocene Epoch.
The fm of these distinctive cultural soils (often marked by unique soil chemistry & biotic communities) is essentially contemporaneous with
- the development of agricultural economies &
- the widespread soil & landscape changes ass.x them. ..."