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1. Revising evidence of hurricane strikes on Abaco Island (The Bahamas) over the last 700 years

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73132  

   Winkler, T.; van Hengstum, P.; Donnelly, J.; Wallace, E.; Sullivan, R.; MacDonald, D.; Albury, N. (October 2020, Scientific reports)

   null (Ed.)

   The northern Bahamas have experienced more frequent intense-hurricane impacts than almost anywhere else in the Atlantic since 1850 CE. In 2019, category 5 (Saffir-Simpson scale) Hurricane Dorian demonstrated the destructive potential of these natural hazards. Problematically, determining whether high hurricane activity levels remained constant through time is difficult given the short observational record (< 170 years). We present a 700-year long, near-annually resolved stratigraphic record of hurricane passage near Thatchpoint Blue Hole (TPBH) on Abaco Island, The Bahamas. Using longer sediment cores (888 cm) and more reliable age-control, this study revises and temporally expands a previous study from TPBH that underestimated the sedimentation rate. TPBH records at least 13 ≥ category 2 hurricanes per century between 1500 to 1670 CE, which exceeds the 9 ≥ category 2 hurricanes per century within 50 km of TPBH since 1850 CE. The eastern United States also experienced frequent hurricanes from 1500 to 1670 CE, but frequency was depressed elsewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. This suggests that spatial heterogeneity in Atlantic hurricane activity since 1850 CE could have persisted throughout the last millennium. This heterogeneity is impacted by climatic and stochastic forcing, but additional high-resolution paleo-hurricane reconstructions are required to assess the mechanisms that impact regional variability. 

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2. Oceanic passage of hurricanes across Cay Sal Bank in The Bahamas over the last 530 years

   https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2021.106653  

   Tyler S Winkler, Peter J (January 2022, Marine geology)

   Islands across the Bahamian Archipelago have been devastated by five major hurricanes from 2010 to 2020 CE, including Category 5 Hurricane Dorian in 2019 that inundated parts of Abaco and Grand Bahama with up to 4 m of surge, killing 84 people and leaving >245 others missing. Up to 1 m relative sea-level rise is estimated for The Bahamas by 2100 CE, which could enhance flooding from weaker storms ( 

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3. Historically unprecedented Northern Gulf of Mexico hurricane activity from 650 to 1250 CE

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75874-0  

   Rodysill, J.; Donnelly, J.; Sullivan, R; Lane, P.; Toomey, M.; Woodruff, J.; Hawkes, A.; MacDonald, D.; D'Entremont, N.; McKeon, K.; et al (November 2020, Scientific reports)

   null (Ed.)

   Hurricane Michael (2018) was the first Category 5 storm on record to make landfall on the Florida panhandle since at least 1851 CE (Common Era), and it resulted in the loss of 59 lives and $25 billion in damages across the southeastern U.S. This event placed a spotlight on recent intense (exceeding Category 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) hurricane landfalls, prompting questions about the natural range in variability of hurricane activity that the instrumental record is too short to address. Of particular interest is determining whether the frequency of recent intense hurricane landfalls in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is within or outside the natural range of intense hurricane activity prior to 1851 CE. In this study, we identify intense hurricane landfalls in northwest Florida during the past 2000 years based on coarse anomaly event detection from two coastal lacustrine sediment archives. We identified a historically unprecedented period of heightened storm activity common to four Florida panhandle localities from 650 to 1250 CE and a shift to a relatively quiescent storm climate in the GOM spanning the past six centuries. Our study provides long-term context for events like Hurricane Michael and suggests that the observational period 1851 CE to present may underrepresent the natural range in landfalling hurricane activity. 

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4. Graphemic Variation in Morphosyntactic Context: The Syllable u in Classic Maya Hieroglyphic Writing

   https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12765  

   Matsumoto, Mallory E (November 2024, Topics in Cognitive Science)

   Chrisomalis, Stephen; Miton, Helen (Ed.)

   Abstract Throughout the long history of Classic Maya hieroglyphs, a logosyllabic writing system used from the late first millennium BCE through the mid‐second millennium CE in southern Mesoamerica, the most commonly recorded phonetic value was the syllableu(/ʔu/). With over a dozen differentuhieroglyphs, Classic Maya scribes had more options for recording /ʔu/ than any other syllable or logograph. Cognitive approaches to writing systems typically attribute graphemic variation (i.e., alternation between signs with equivalent linguistic value) to semantic differences like animacy or to non‐linguistic factors like identity. Distribution of Classic Mayauhieroglyphs, however, suggests that morphosyntactic context influenced which grapheme scribes wrote and when. This case suggests that scribal knowledge of Classic Maya hieroglyphs included ideas about writing's relationship to language. It also highlights the cognitive relevance of morphosyntax for a writing system's users as they differentiate among graphic signs with identical linguistic denotation. 

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5. Human–environment interactions at Ta'ab Nuk Na, a submerged Maya salt works site in Belize

   https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536123000196  

   Foster, Cheryl M; McKillop, Heather; Sills, E Cory (August 2023, Ancient Mesoamerica)

   Abstract Sea-level rise and settlement are investigated at Ta'ab Nuk Na, an ancient Maya salt works in Belize, by examining samples from wooden posts and marine sediment. The samples included Post 145 of Building B and the Nunavut beam, along with marine sediment columns cut from beside both wooden posts. The sediment columns were sampled at 2 cm intervals. Loss-on ignition confirmed the presence of organic material. Identifying the organic content involved removing nonorganic material from the sediment and sorting the organic material under magnification. This procedure established that most of the organic material was red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle). Red mangroves tolerate salt water, but under conditions of sea-level rise, the plants grow vertically to keep their leaves above water. Sediment, leaves, and detritus trapped in the prop roots form mangrove peat, which serves as a proxy for sea-level rise. AMS dating of fine red mangrove roots determined that the local sea levels rose at Ta'ab Nuk Na throughout the Late Classic period and continued into the Postclassic period. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the wood-post samples yielded Late Classic–period dates. Comparing the radiocarbon dates from the wooden posts and the sediment core samples determined that the site was abandoned before the rising seas flooded the area. Evidently, sea-level rise did not play a role in site abandonment. 

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