Kathryn E Fitzsimmons
Biographic Data
| ID | 84004 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kathryn E Fitzsimmons |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kathryn E |
| FAMILY NAME | Fitzsimmons |
| SIGNATURE | FITZSIMMONS K E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9337-0793 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 145 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
East Asian monsoon dynamics revealed by calcified root cells from a loess paleosol sequence in Northern China
The East Asian monsoon is a key component of the global climate system; our understanding of its long-term variability and seasonal dynamics remains incomplete. Here we evaluate calcified root cells (CRCs) as a novel paleoenvironmental proxy. We apply this approach to the Fanshan loess–paleosol sequence, northeast China, on the northern margins of East Asian monsoon influence. We present the first continuous down-profile record of CRC concentrati…
Assemblage first: Using provenance methods to understand 38,000 years of ochre use at Gledswood Shelter 1, Woolgar Country (northwest Queensland), Australia
Low-altitude periglacial activity in southeastern Australia during the late Pleistocene
Only a small area of the Australian mainland was glaciated during the Pleistocene, whereas periglacial deposits are far more common, indicating that cold environments were extensive and a major influence on landscape evolution. Here we identify representative low-elevation examples of scree slopes and frost action, together with fans and valley fills, indicating pronounced erosion cycles during the Pleistocene. To date the deposits, we explore ap…
Comparison of High-Resolution 14C and Luminescence-Based Chronologies of the MIS 2 Madaras Loess/Paleosol Sequence, Hungary: Implications for Chronological Studies
Numerous loess/paleosol sequences (LPS) in the Carpathian Basin span the period of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2 and the last glacial maximum (LGM). Nevertheless, only two known records—Madaras and Dunaszekcső—preserve highly resolved records with absolute chronologies with minimal uncertainties, which enable the meaningful assessment of feedbacks and short-term climatic fluctuations over this period. The Madaras profile is located at the northern…
Initial quartz OSL and dust mass accumulation rate investigation of the Kisiljevo loess sequence in north-eastern Serbia
Luminescence Sensitivity of Rhine Valley Loess: Indicators of Source Variability
Loess provides a valuable terrestrial record of past environmental conditions, including the dynamics and trajectories of air mass circulation responsible for dust transport. Here we explore variations in the luminescence sensitivity characteristics of sedimentary quartz and feldspar as possible tools for identifying changes in source down a loess-palaeosol sequence (LPS). Luminescence sensitivity is a rapidly measurable index which is the produc…
New ages of the world's largest-ever marsupial: Diprotodon optatum from Pleistocene Australia
Chronology of the Late Pleistocene archaeological sequence at Vanguard Cave, Gibraltar: Insights from quartz single and multiple grain luminescence dating
Holocene and recent aeolian reactivation of the Willandra Lakes lunettes, semi-arid southeastern Australia
The Willandra Lakes in semi-arid southeastern Australia provide some of the most continuous combined palaeoenvironmental and archaeological records on the continent. These are best preserved within the transverse shoreline (lunette) dunes on their downwind margins. Following final lake retreat c. 15 ka avulsion of the dominant fluvial inflow eastwards, the Willandra lunettes periodically reactivated, experiencing erosion, aeolian redeposition and…
Approaches and challenges to the study of loess—Introduction to the LoessFest Special Issue
In September 2016, the annual meeting of the International Union for Quaternary Research’s Loess and Pedostratigraphy Focus Group, traditionally referred to as a LoessFest, met in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA. The 2016 LoessFest focused on “thin” loess deposits and loess transportation surfaces. This LoessFest included 75 registered participants from 10 countries. Almost half of the participants were from outside the United States, and 18 of the pa…
Reevaluation of Late Pleistocene loess profiles at Remizovka (Kazakhstan) indicates the significance of topography in evaluating terrestrial paleoclimate records
We report on a loess-paleosol sequence (LPS) near Remizovka, located in the northern Tian Shan piedmont of southeastern Kazakhstan. This site represents a key record for Late Pleistocene climatic fluctuations at the intersection of major northern hemisphere climate subsystems. This paper develops a synthesized dataset of previous conflicting studies at Remizovka by characterizing their (paleo)topographic context, which had remained previously ove…
Loess accumulation in the Tian Shan piedmont: Implications for palaeoenvironmental change in arid Central Asia
Climate forcing and shifts in water management on the Northwest Arabian Peninsula (mid-Holocene Rasif wetlands, Saudi Arabia)
A chronological framework connecting the early Upper Palaeolithic across the Central Asian piedmont
Luminescence dating of mortar and terracotta from a Royal Tomb at Ulaankhermiin Shoroon Bumbagar, Mongolia
The spectacular royal tomb “Ulaankhermiin Shoroon Bumbagar” was discovered in Bulgan province, Mongolia, in 2011. Excavation of the site revealed its internal structure; a slope of 42 meters in length leading down to the underground mausoleum at a depth of 7 m below the ground. Archaeological investigations provided the site with an independent age control suggesting the construction date of the Royal tomb to the last quarter of the VII century. …
The history of Danube loess research
The context of hominin behaviour at Elandsfontien in the Mid-Pleistocene
Danube loess stratigraphy — Towards a pan-European loess stratigraphic model
The scale of seed grinding at Lake Mungo
Smith's Comment on our functional analysis of grinding stone fragments from Pleistocene contexts at Lake Mungo (Fullagar et al. 2015) draws attention to the low frequency of implements, uncertainties about functional interpretations and archaeological implications. He argues that Pleistocene seed exploitation at Lake Mungo was limited and probably not indicative of a seed grinding economy. We suggest that it is premature to speculate about the sc…
Evidence for Pleistocene seed grinding at Lake Mungo, south‐eastern Australia
Grinding stones and fragments have often been found in archaeological sites at Lake Mungo, south‐western New South Wales, and their function has mostly been inferred on the basis of grindstone morphology. Of particular interest has been the antiquity of grass seed grinding, which is usually associated with deeply grooved, large sandstone dishes. Previous studies of grinding stones from the region have found no compelling evidence for seed grindin…
Loess accumulation during the last glacial maximum: Evidence from Urluia, southeastern Romania
Depositional history and archaeology of the central Lake Mungo lunette, Willandra Lakes, southeast Australia
Geoarchaeological prospection in the loess steppe: Preliminary results from the Lower Danube Survey for Paleolithic Sites (LoDanS)
Towards a synthesis of palaeoenvironmental change in the Australian continental interior
Change through time in the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area: Linking human response to environmental change in the semi-arid zone
Evidence for Pleistocene seed grinding at Lake Mungo, south‐eastern Australia
Grinding stones and fragments have often been found in archaeological sites at Lake Mungo, south‐western New South Wales, and their function has mostly been inferred on the basis of grindstone morphology. Of particular interest has been the antiquity of grass seed grinding, which is usually associated with deeply grooved, large sandstone dishes. Previous studies of grinding stones from the region have found no compelling evidence for seed grindin…
A chronological framework connecting the early Upper Palaeolithic across the Central Asian piedmont
Geoarchaeological prospection in the loess steppe: Preliminary results from the Lower Danube Survey for Paleolithic Sites (LoDanS)
Dealul Guran: Evidence for Lower Palaeolithic (MIS 11) occupation of the Lower Danube loess steppe
Owing to a thick blanket of loess and other later geological disruptions, the earliest hominins to reach Europe are hard to find. To a handful of possible sites, our authors add a new assemblage of lithics with a clear local context and corroborated OSL ages. Ancient humans were present in what is now Romania between 300 000 and 400 000 years ago
Depositional history and archaeology of the central Lake Mungo lunette, Willandra Lakes, southeast Australia
Excavations At Parnkupirti, Lake Gregory, Great Sandy Desert: OSL Ages for Occupation before the Last Glacial Maximum
We report on early occupation from the Parnkupirti site on Salt Pan Creek at Lake Gregory, on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert of northwest Australia. OSL ages from excavations, and stratigraphic correlations between dated exposures along Salt Pan Creek, show some stone artefacts in situ in sediments dating from greater than 37ka and most probably on stratigraphic grounds in the range of ~50–45ka. The deep stratigraphic section at Parnkupirti a…
The scale of seed grinding at Lake Mungo
Smith's Comment on our functional analysis of grinding stone fragments from Pleistocene contexts at Lake Mungo (Fullagar et al. 2015) draws attention to the low frequency of implements, uncertainties about functional interpretations and archaeological implications. He argues that Pleistocene seed exploitation at Lake Mungo was limited and probably not indicative of a seed grinding economy. We suggest that it is premature to speculate about the sc…
Holocene and recent aeolian reactivation of the Willandra Lakes lunettes, semi-arid southeastern Australia
The Willandra Lakes in semi-arid southeastern Australia provide some of the most continuous combined palaeoenvironmental and archaeological records on the continent. These are best preserved within the transverse shoreline (lunette) dunes on their downwind margins. Following final lake retreat c. 15 ka avulsion of the dominant fluvial inflow eastwards, the Willandra lunettes periodically reactivated, experiencing erosion, aeolian redeposition and…
New ages of the world's largest-ever marsupial: Diprotodon optatum from Pleistocene Australia
The context of hominin behaviour at Elandsfontien in the Mid-Pleistocene
Assemblage first: Using provenance methods to understand 38,000 years of ochre use at Gledswood Shelter 1, Woolgar Country (northwest Queensland), Australia
Holocene hydrologic variability in temperate southeastern Australia: An example from Lake George, New South Wales
Lake George is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Australia when full, and provides one of the most complete records of Quaternary sedimentation in the southeastern part of the continent. The lake is currently ephemeral, but sediments within the basin preserve evidence of multiple permanent and dry lake conditions in the past. We present an optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) chronology of recent lake shoreline sediments in order to recon…
Sedimentary History and the Interpretation of Late Quaternary Dune Records: Examples From the Tirari Desert, Australia and the Kalahari, South África
Stabilized sand deposits from arid regions are often used as palaeoenvironmental proxies for past periods of enhanced aeolian activity. Although widespread use of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating techniques has opened up the possibility of systematic analyses of dune building chronologies, palaeoenvironmental histories cannot be reconstructed from chronological data alone. The reconstruction of regional palaeoenvironmental histories…
Excavations At Parnkupirti, Lake Gregory, Great Sandy Desert: OSL Ages for Occupation before the Last Glacial Maximum
We report on early occupation from the Parnkupirti site on Salt Pan Creek at Lake Gregory, on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert of northwest Australia. OSL ages from excavations, and stratigraphic correlations between dated exposures along Salt Pan Creek, show some stone artefacts in situ in sediments dating from greater than 37ka and most probably on stratigraphic grounds in the range of ~50–45ka. The deep stratigraphic section at Parnkupirti a…
Holocene hydrologic variability in temperate southeastern Australia: An example from Lake George, New South Wales
Lake George is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Australia when full, and provides one of the most complete records of Quaternary sedimentation in the southeastern part of the continent. The lake is currently ephemeral, but sediments within the basin preserve evidence of multiple permanent and dry lake conditions in the past. We present an optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) chronology of recent lake shoreline sediments in order to recon…
Towards a synthesis of palaeoenvironmental change in the Australian continental interior
Change through time in the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area: Linking human response to environmental change in the semi-arid zone
Dealul Guran: Evidence for Lower Palaeolithic (MIS 11) occupation of the Lower Danube loess steppe
Owing to a thick blanket of loess and other later geological disruptions, the earliest hominins to reach Europe are hard to find. To a handful of possible sites, our authors add a new assemblage of lithics with a clear local context and corroborated OSL ages. Ancient humans were present in what is now Romania between 300 000 and 400 000 years ago
Depositional history and archaeology of the central Lake Mungo lunette, Willandra Lakes, southeast Australia
Geoarchaeological prospection in the loess steppe: Preliminary results from the Lower Danube Survey for Paleolithic Sites (LoDanS)
Loess accumulation during the last glacial maximum: Evidence from Urluia, southeastern Romania
Danube loess stratigraphy — Towards a pan-European loess stratigraphic model
The scale of seed grinding at Lake Mungo
Smith's Comment on our functional analysis of grinding stone fragments from Pleistocene contexts at Lake Mungo (Fullagar et al. 2015) draws attention to the low frequency of implements, uncertainties about functional interpretations and archaeological implications. He argues that Pleistocene seed exploitation at Lake Mungo was limited and probably not indicative of a seed grinding economy. We suggest that it is premature to speculate about the sc…
Evidence for Pleistocene seed grinding at Lake Mungo, south‐eastern Australia
Grinding stones and fragments have often been found in archaeological sites at Lake Mungo, south‐western New South Wales, and their function has mostly been inferred on the basis of grindstone morphology. Of particular interest has been the antiquity of grass seed grinding, which is usually associated with deeply grooved, large sandstone dishes. Previous studies of grinding stones from the region have found no compelling evidence for seed grindin…
Luminescence dating of mortar and terracotta from a Royal Tomb at Ulaankhermiin Shoroon Bumbagar, Mongolia
The spectacular royal tomb “Ulaankhermiin Shoroon Bumbagar” was discovered in Bulgan province, Mongolia, in 2011. Excavation of the site revealed its internal structure; a slope of 42 meters in length leading down to the underground mausoleum at a depth of 7 m below the ground. Archaeological investigations provided the site with an independent age control suggesting the construction date of the Royal tomb to the last quarter of the VII century. …
The history of Danube loess research
The context of hominin behaviour at Elandsfontien in the Mid-Pleistocene
A chronological framework connecting the early Upper Palaeolithic across the Central Asian piedmont
Approaches and challenges to the study of loess—Introduction to the LoessFest Special Issue
In September 2016, the annual meeting of the International Union for Quaternary Research’s Loess and Pedostratigraphy Focus Group, traditionally referred to as a LoessFest, met in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA. The 2016 LoessFest focused on “thin” loess deposits and loess transportation surfaces. This LoessFest included 75 registered participants from 10 countries. Almost half of the participants were from outside the United States, and 18 of the pa…
Reevaluation of Late Pleistocene loess profiles at Remizovka (Kazakhstan) indicates the significance of topography in evaluating terrestrial paleoclimate records
We report on a loess-paleosol sequence (LPS) near Remizovka, located in the northern Tian Shan piedmont of southeastern Kazakhstan. This site represents a key record for Late Pleistocene climatic fluctuations at the intersection of major northern hemisphere climate subsystems. This paper develops a synthesized dataset of previous conflicting studies at Remizovka by characterizing their (paleo)topographic context, which had remained previously ove…
Loess accumulation in the Tian Shan piedmont: Implications for palaeoenvironmental change in arid Central Asia
Climate forcing and shifts in water management on the Northwest Arabian Peninsula (mid-Holocene Rasif wetlands, Saudi Arabia)
Chronology of the Late Pleistocene archaeological sequence at Vanguard Cave, Gibraltar: Insights from quartz single and multiple grain luminescence dating
Holocene and recent aeolian reactivation of the Willandra Lakes lunettes, semi-arid southeastern Australia
The Willandra Lakes in semi-arid southeastern Australia provide some of the most continuous combined palaeoenvironmental and archaeological records on the continent. These are best preserved within the transverse shoreline (lunette) dunes on their downwind margins. Following final lake retreat c. 15 ka avulsion of the dominant fluvial inflow eastwards, the Willandra lunettes periodically reactivated, experiencing erosion, aeolian redeposition and…
Luminescence Sensitivity of Rhine Valley Loess: Indicators of Source Variability
Loess provides a valuable terrestrial record of past environmental conditions, including the dynamics and trajectories of air mass circulation responsible for dust transport. Here we explore variations in the luminescence sensitivity characteristics of sedimentary quartz and feldspar as possible tools for identifying changes in source down a loess-palaeosol sequence (LPS). Luminescence sensitivity is a rapidly measurable index which is the produc…
New ages of the world's largest-ever marsupial: Diprotodon optatum from Pleistocene Australia
Low-altitude periglacial activity in southeastern Australia during the late Pleistocene
Only a small area of the Australian mainland was glaciated during the Pleistocene, whereas periglacial deposits are far more common, indicating that cold environments were extensive and a major influence on landscape evolution. Here we identify representative low-elevation examples of scree slopes and frost action, together with fans and valley fills, indicating pronounced erosion cycles during the Pleistocene. To date the deposits, we explore ap…
Geography (25 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (25 works) · Geology (23 works) · Paleontology (22 works) · Archaeology (16 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (16 works) · Loess (13 works) · Physical geography (13 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (10 works) · Pleistocene (9 works)