Geomorphological mapping and analysis conducted as an initial step towards a future sediment budget study of the middle Waimakariri River (Southern Alps, New Zealand) reveals that the traditional concept of the temporary palaeolake glacial Lake Speight is conflicting with our conclusions of realistic chronosequences and timescales of para- and postglacial landform development. Especially the temporal and causal relation to the last deglaciation needs to be questioned and will be discussed.

Provided here are novel data concerning site formation processes and Middle Palaeolithic human presence at Cotencher cave (Switzerland). A local glaciation around 70 ka was followed by ice-free conditions, when artefacts and faunal remains were displaced by solifluction processes. Evidence of local glacier development around 36 ka is also presented. This interdisciplinary study contributes new elements for the understanding of climatic changes and human passage in the central Jura Mountains.

This case study provides a reconstruction of settlement and land-use history since the 13th century CE in a small valley in the Ore Mountains (Saxony). Archaeological evidence shows settlement activities with a strong building and mining activities that also triggered local soil erosion. After the abandonment of the site in the middle of the 15th century CE and a reafforestation, later land use in the area occurred in the form of charcoal production.