Arrival Of New Populations Research Articles

The knapping strategies in the Paleolithic on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, southwest China: A regional particularity

The Paleolithic industry in southern China has long been considered as “cobble-tool tradition” or “chopper-chopping tool”, or even “Mode 1” in the international community since the 1940s (Movius, 1948). However, these denominations are biased since local facts are much more diversified not only because of the discovery of the bifacial phenomenon in Bose (Guangxi, southern China), but also the presence of a debitage (core-flaking) tradition on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau of southwestern China. This study will present the general lithic traditions in the southwestern Chinese provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, where existed a long-lasting debitage culture and small flake-tool industry in the lithic assemblages dating to the Early Pleistocene until the Early Holocene. These lithic traditions are still not well recognized among researchers, and this situation could hinder the discussion of other archaeological phenomena in this region, such as the emergence of the Hoabinhian in Yunnan Province. The debitage tradition in southwestern China may represent regional adaptations and technological stability of the populations in a subtropical mountainous and forest environment. In this context, the appearance of large shaped tools and other knapping strategies and bone industry in the final Late Pleistocene (after 50–40 ka BP) on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau seems to be a “sudden event” and may indicate local innovations or the arrival of new populations, and contribute to the cultural diversification in the region.

A case of sharp force trauma on an island without metals. Reconsidering isolation of pre-Hispanic Gran Canaria island

This paper addresses the first case of perimortem trauma caused by a sharp metal weapon in a pre-Hispanic cranium in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands) dated before the first contacts with Europeans in the late Middle Ages. The fact that metalliferous minerals did not exist in the archipelago confers extraordinary significance to this injury, as evidence of an event involving the arrival of new population after the initial colonization of the Island around the 2nd century CE.The chronocultural context of the violent event is analized in order to evaluate the possible role of this contact in the processes of change among ancient canarians. To this end statistical chronological modelling is assessed to specify timing behind major archaeological expressions of shifts detected on the island.The results question the traditionally proposed isolation for the indigenous population, and reinforce the most recent proposals suggesting migration of new North African people to Gran Canaria and their contribution to the socioeconomical dynamics of the pre-Hispanic society.

Dnieper-Dvina basin at the end of 6th millennium BC and early ceramic traditions of the Circum-Baltic region

The most ancient pottery in the Eastern Europe appeared at the end of the 7th – first half of the 6th millennium BC and spread across a greater part of the Eastern Europe, including the Dnieper-Dvina basin by the middle of the 6th millennium BC. At the end of the 6th millennium BC new ceramic traditions appeared here, attributed to the Rudnya archaeological culture. The authors present an overview of the ceramic complex, bone industry, constructions, and chronology of the Rudnya culture. Similarities with ceramic complex of the Rudnya culture were found within various groups of the Narva culture. It could testify the change of vectors of cultural contacts at the end of 6th millennium BC manifesting destruction of the established network of cultural contacts that existed before in the 6th millennium BC. The Narva culture traditions probably spread eastwards from Eastern Baltic at the end of 6th millennium BC. Such a radical change of material culture might be regarded as a result not only of the cultural impulse, but probably arrival of new population from the western territories to the Upper Western Dvina area.

Tracking behavioral persistence and innovations during the Middle Pleistocene in Western Europe. Shift in occupations between 700 and 450 ka at la Noira site (Centre, France)

Some areas in Western Europe indicate hiatuses in human occupations, which cannot be systematically attributed to taphonomic factors and poor site preservation. The site of la Noira in the center of France records two occupation phases with a significant time gap. The older one is dated to around 700 ka (stratum a) with an Acheulean assemblage, among the earliest in Western Europe, and the upper phase of the sequence (stratum c) is dated to ca. 450 ka. Humans left the area at around 670 ka, at the beginning of the marine isotope stage (MIS) 16 glacial stage, when cold conditions became too severe. No sites between 650 and 450 ka have yet been discovered in the center region despite systematic surveys over the past three decades. The archaeological evidence indicates that populations returned to the area, at the end of MIS 12 or the beginning of the long interglacial MIS 11. Here, we use technological behaviors common to the two levels of la Noira—strata a and c to evaluate their differences. Compared to other key European sequences, this site can be used to address the evolution of the behavioral strategies in Europe between MIS 17 and 11. We formulate two hypotheses concerning the human settlement of this area: (1) local behavioral evolution over time of populations occasionally occupying the region when the climate was favorable or (2) dispersal and arrival of new populations from other areas. The results focus on (1) changes in land-use patterns with the extension of the territory used by hominins in the upper level, (2) the introduction of new core technologies, including some evidence of early Levallois debitage, and (3) more intensive shaping of bifaces and bifacial tools. Results attest that the la Noira archaeological assemblages record similar regional behavioral evolution as observed at a larger scale in Europe.

Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene climate changes and human habitation in the arctic Western Beringia based on revision of palaeobotanical data

Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic changes at the transition from the Late Pleistocene to the Early Holocene in the arctic Western Beringia (AWB) appear to be extremely important for human habitation record of the area. To estimate that we used multiple paleoenvironmental proxy-data collected from different locations (n = 30) and archaeological data from radiocarbon-dated sites (n = 36). Based on correlations between pollen records and their radiocarbon chronology we combined paleoenvironmental data into single generalized sequence for the entire AWB compared to global temperature trend and placed archaeological data on the same time scale. General trend of paleoclimatic changes in the second half of Late Pleistocene is explored, in which the sequence of major climate changes within Marine Isotope Stages 3 and 2, and in the beginning of the Holocene are revealed. Climate changes and landscape evolution play as a key governing factor for the human population of the area since its initial phase. Human habitation is documented starting ca. 50,000 BP. Since then, AWB remains human populated but witnessed a number of cultural changes and intrusions before the present-day map of ethnic groups became finally formed. Repeated arrival of new population into AWB finds strong correlation with major paleogeographic events, both cold and warm, such as Last Glacial Maximum, Younger Dryas, and the onset of the Holocene. It is shown that human habitation had been consistently driven by various abiotic and biotic factors, that is, by complex interpaly of development in plant and faunistic associations, landscape evolution, tree line change, and climate-driven changes in spatiotemporal patterns of population dynamics in megaherbivores, especially mammoth.

Taphonomy and paleoecological implications of fossorial microvertebrates at the Middle Paleolithic open-air site of Nesher Ramla, Israel

Variation in taphonomic modes, which describe the characteristics of fossil depositional environments, is an important but much understudied aspect of the formation of microvertebrate assemblages. This study examined an assemblage of microvertebrate remains which was recovered from archaeological deposits in a deep karst depression at an open-air setting – a unique and so far undocumented type of depositional environment in the southern Levant. Taxonomic and taphonomic characteristics of the assemblage reveal a striking difference from other known assemblages in the region from cave and fluvial depositional settings. This includes especially low density, taxonomic diversity and skeletal element survivorship. Three of the four taxa are fossorial or semi-fossorial and their remains dominate the assemblage indicating strongly an accumulation history which involves underground burrow deaths of fossorial animals. This is supported by additional evidence from skeletal modifications showing rare evidence of weathering, extensive in situ fragmentation where the fragments remain fused together and abundant evidence for light abrasion. These taphonomic patterns suggest extended underground protection of the remains, followed by limited dispersal within a sedimentary matrix likely due to movement from the surrounding soil mantle into the karst depression through colluviation processes. This taphonomic reconstruction has significant implications for understanding the long record of hominid occupation at the Middle Paleolithic site of Nesher Ramla. Phases of high density of the remains along the section correspond with glacial phases of Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 6 and 5a-4 indicating an association between enhanced fossorial activity and environmental conditions during glacial stages. Intense deposition of cultural remains was recorded only during MIS 6, however, and this leads us to suggest that continued low intensity hominid presence in the upper layers of the site is related either to change in the usefulness of the site for hominid subsistence activities as it was being filled with sediments or to demographic changes linked to the arrival of new populations during MIS 5a-4. Detailed paleoenvironmental sequences which are recovered directly from hominid sites are critical for testing such hypotheses.

Do Gates Negate the City? Gated Communities’ Contribution to the Urbanisation of Suburbia in Pilar, Argentina

Pilar is a city located in the third ring of the Buenos Aires metropolitan region (Argentina). Over the past 30 years, the widespread development of gated residential communities has seemingly gone hand-in-hand with an urbanisation of this outer suburb signalled by the arrival of new populations, enterprise, retail and other services. The growth of the ‘private city’ of these gated communities therefore has important implications for the ‘public city’ of the wider suburban municipality. Drawing upon original research based on the opinions of key informants, this paper considers how the growth of the ‘private city’ has contributed to the economy of, processes of community-building and social cohesion in Pilar. In conclusion, it is suggested that gated residential communities have been a major factor in the emergence of the dual suburb that is Pilar today.

Continuity or discontinuity of the ‘Acheulean tradition’ through the middle Pleistocene? The example of the Mont-Enot site at Saint-Pierre-lès-Elbeuf, Seine-Maritime, France

Some areas in Western Europe indicate hiatuses in human occupations, which cannot be systematically attributed to taphonomic factors and poor site preservation. The site of la Noira in the center of France records two occupation phases with a significant time gap. The older one is dated to around 700 ka (stratum a) with an Acheulean assemblage, among the earliest in Western Europe, and the upper phase of the sequence (stratum c) is dated to ca. 450 ka. Humans left the area at around 670 ka, at the beginning of the marine isotope stage (MIS) 16 glacial stage, when cold conditions became too severe. No sites between 650 and 450 ka have yet been discovered in the center region despite systematic surveys over the past three decades. The archaeological evidence indicates that populations returned to the area, at the end of MIS 12 or the beginning of the long interglacial MIS 11. Here, we use technological behaviors common to the two levels of la Noira—strata a and c to evaluate their differences. Compared to other key European sequences, this site can be used to address the evolution of the behavioral strategies in Europe between MIS 17 and 11. We formulate two hypotheses concerning the human settlement of this area: (1) local behavioral evolution over time of populations occasionally occupying the region when the climate was favorable or (2) dispersal and arrival of new populations from other areas. The results focus on (1) changes in land-use patterns with the extension of the territory used by hominins in the upper level, (2) the introduction of new core technologies, including some evidence of early Levallois debitage, and (3) more intensive shaping of bifaces and bifacial tools. Results attest that the la Noira archaeological assemblages record similar regional behavioral evolution as observed at a larger scale in Europe.