First large‐scale provenance study of pigments reveals new complex behavioural patterns during the Upper Palaeolithic of south‐western Germany

E C Velliky,N J Conard,B L Macdonald,M Porr

doi:10.1111/arcm.12611

Abstract

The use of red iron‐based earth pigments, or ochre, is a key component of early symbolic behaviours for anatomically modern humans and possibly Neanderthals. We present the first ochre provenance study in Central Europe showing long‐term selection strategies by inhabitants of cave sites in south‐western Germany during the Upper Palaeolithic (43–14.5 ka). Ochre artefacts from Hohle Fels, Geißenklösterle and Vogelherd, and local and extra‐local sources, were investigated using neutron activation analysis (NAA), X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that local ochre sources were continuously and systematically accessed for c.29 500 years, with periodic events of long‐distance (about > 300 km) ochre acquisition during the Aurignacian (c.35–43 ka), suggesting higher mobility than previously suspected. The results reveal previously unknown long‐term, complex spatio‐temporal behavioural patterns during the earliest presence of Homo sapiens in Europe.

Highlights

The use of mineral pigments by hominins is generally accepted as an important element in the early material expressions of complex cognitive thought, syntactical language and mediation of symbolic communication (McBrearty and Brooks 2000; D’Errico 2003; Henshilwood and Marean 2003; Watts 2009)
Similar clustering patterns were observed in scatterplots using combinations of rare earth (La, Ce) and transition metal elements (Cr, As), which is consistent with elements that were diagnostic for the differentiation of regional ochre sources (Velliky et al 2019)
This paper advances our understanding of the behavioural complexities of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) during the European Upper Palaeolithic (UP), a pivotal period of symbolic, cognitive, and cultural evolution

Summary

Introduction

The use of mineral pigments by hominins is generally accepted as an important element in the early material expressions of complex cognitive thought, syntactical language and mediation of symbolic communication (McBrearty and Brooks 2000; D’Errico 2003; Henshilwood and Marean 2003; Watts 2009). The habitual use of ochre emerged as early as 300–500ka in Sub‐Saharan Africa (Watts et al 2016; Brooks et al 2018), 90ka in the Levant (Hovers et al 2003; Salomon et al 2012), and roughly 45–50ka in Europe (Salomon et al 2008; Zilhão et al 2010; Bodu et al 2014), some older European examples (c.100–200ka) exist (Zilhão et al 2010; Roebroeks et al 2012; Hoffmann et al 2018) Though these reports present compelling evidence for the collection and manipulation of ochre pigments, the conceptualization of these processes and the identification of symbolic items remains a highly contested field (Wadley 2003; D’Errico and Henshilwood 2011; Mithen 2014). Lithic and charcoal fragments are intermixed in the sediments throughout the sequence (Miller 2015)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion