Abstract
Central Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was dominated by polar desert and steppe-tundra biomes. Despite this, a human presence during this time period is evident at several locations across the region, including in Switzerland, less than 50 km from the Alpine ice sheet margin. It has been hypothesised that such human activity may have been restricted to brief periods of climatic warming within the LGM, but chronological information from many of these sites are currently too poorly resolved to corroborate this. Here we present a revised chronology of LGM human occupation in Switzerland. AMS radiocarbon dating of cut-marked reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) bones from the sites of Kastelhöhle-Nord and Y-Höhle indicates human occupation of Switzerland was most likely restricted to between 23,400 and 22,800 cal. BP. This timeframe corresponds to Greenland Interstadial 2, a brief warming phase, supporting the hypothesis that human presence was facilitated by favourable climatic episodes. Carbon, nitrogen and sulphur stable isotope analysis of the fauna provides palaeoenvironmental information for this time period. These findings contribute to our understanding of human activity in ice-marginal environments and have implications for understanding cultural connections across central Europe during the LGM.
Highlights
Switzerland during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, c. 26,500–19,000 BP1,2) was almost entirely covered by ice, with only a small region north of the Jura Mountains remaining ice-free[3]
The LGM is a time-transgressive period within Marine Isotope Stage 2 (MIS2)
Lithics found in association with the reindeer bones at Kastelhöhle-Nord have been attributed to the Badegoulian/Early Magdalenian[4,6], a Late Upper Palaeolithic culture found in western-central Europe
Summary
Switzerland during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, c. 26,500–19,000 BP1,2) was almost entirely covered by ice, with only a small region north of the Jura Mountains remaining ice-free[3]. The dated cut-marked reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) bones from Kastelhöhle-Nord (n = 3) and Y-Höhle (n = 1) represent the only directly dateable archaeological evidence from this time period in Switzerland[5,6] Both cave sites are located within 10 km of one another, on the north-eastern edge of the Jura Mountains, less than 50 km from the maximum ice sheet extent. The application of the ultrafiltration method has been shown to have significant implications for the dating of bone collagen from Palaeolithic contexts, where the contribution of even the smallest amount of contamination can have significant consequence for the obtained date[32,33,34] Considering these developments, it is timely to re-evaluate the radiocarbon chronology of human occupation in Switzerland during the LGM. The four previously dated cut-marked reindeer bones from Kastelhöhle-Nord intermediate horizon and Y-Höhle were targeted for radiocarbon dating using the current ultrafiltration sample preparation methodology and quality control criteria used by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU)
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