Late Upper Pleistocene Research Articles

Paleohydrogeology of the Karstic System of Fuentetoba Spring (Soria, Spain): An Interdisciplinary Approach

As a preliminary phase in the conservation and sustainable management of a karst system in Fuentetoba, Soria, Spain, an interdisciplinary study was carried out to determine its hydrogeological evolution. The hydrogeological history of this aquifer system began during the late Miocene, where discharges were driven by paleo-emergences in the moor, and associated conduits were developed under phreatic (or vadose) conditions—for example, the upper syngenetic galleries in the main known karst cave (Majada del Cura cave). Later on, the nearby karstic massifs, a general flattening of the relief, occurred during the Quaternary Period, during which the karstic base level had been in decline. The aquifer flow was then derived and modified towards the Fuentetoba spring from the earliest stages through the galleries of the aforementioned cave. The observations made in this cave indicate the existence of a unique type of hydrogeological organization. The hypogean network is the result of the excavation of the same water flow that has been entrenching and abandoning the vadose regimen toward the free regimen. The dating of the tuffaceous buildings, associated with the emergences, indicates that since almost the Middle Pleistocene, flow lines have converged in the Fuentetoba spring, inducing a high grade of karstification in the saturated zone of the syncline basin. Moreover, a major drainage conduit was developed by dissolution. During the late Upper Pleistocene, an essential component of the groundwater flow had been derived towards the source of the Mazos River spring. Tufa and paleogour datings in caves indicate that the aquifer has undergone different climatic stages during the latest Quaternary and, therefore, different feeding and recharge processes. These tufas and paleogours are interrelated as well, as they are associated with the warm stages during the most recent Quaternary, according to the regional context, when there was less natural recharge. The simulation of the springs’ flow enabled an approximate quantification of the variation in the aquifer’s hydraulic balance during the different climatic stages. For example, during the last glaciation, the natural recharge was impacted by snowmelt and increased by 160%.

The Danube Corridor Hypothesis and the Carpathian Basin: Geological, Environmental and Archaeological Approaches to Characterizing Aurignacian Dynamics

Early Upper Paleolithic sites in the Danube catchment have been put forward as evidence that the river was an important conduit for modern humans during their initial settlement of Europe. Central to this model is the Carpathian Basin, a region covering most of the Middle Danube. As the archaeological record of this region is still poorly understood, this paper aims to provide a contextual assessment of the Carpathian Basin’s geological and paleoenvironmental archives, starting with the late Upper Pleistocene. Subsequently, it compiles early Upper Paleolithic data from the region to provide a synchronic appraisal of the Aurignacian archaeological evidence. It then uses this data to test whether the relative absence of early Upper Paleolithic sites is obscured by a taphonomic bias. Finally, it reviews current knowledge of the Carpathian Basin’s archaeological record and concludes that, while it cannot reject the Danube corridor hypothesis, further (geo)archaeological work is required to understand the link between the Carpathian Basin and Central and Southeastern Europe.

Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic context during the Upper Palaeolithic (late Upper Pleistocene) in the Italian Peninsula. The small mammal record from Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico, Foggia, Southern Italy)

Changes in large mammal population and biotic regionalism of the Italian Peninsula during Upper Pleistocene have been well documented over the last twenty years. On the other hand, only few studies have focused on the changes in small mammal fossil assemblages.Grotta Paglicci is a key archaeological site for Italian prehistory. It is well dated and it shows an uninterrupted chronological sequence of Upper Palaeolithic lithic industries, ranging from the Aurignacian to the Late Epigravettian.Small mammal remains from the Upper Palaeolithic layers of this cave have been identified and the assemblage has been analysed through the application of Simpson diversity index, Habitat Weighting and Bioclimatic model methods. The results show remarkable differences through the record: major climatic changes (GS2 is particularly well defined) are visible and a clear turning point is observable at the Bølling-Allerød interstadial transition. This is in line with environmental and climatic oscillations already detected in the Italian Peninsula. These data also suggest that a strong regionalism characterized the south-eastern Italian Peninsula during the Late Pleistocene.

The Solutrean Site of Ambrosio Cave (Almería, Spain)

Recent research in Ambrosio Cave, in the southeastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula, has permitted us to establish more precisely the chronostratigraphic position of major Solutrean occupations within the late Upper Pleistocene. The calibration of a new radiocarbon date for Level IV (Upper Solutrean) and six other new dates (5 of them by AMS) for level II (Final Upper Solutrean) allows us to place these two cultural phases between Greenland Stadial (GS) 3 (end of OIS 3) and the end of Greenland Interstadial (GI) 2, with the main occupation of Level II happening after Heinrich Event (H) 2, corresponding with the interstadial that came just before the Last Glacial Maximum (GS 2). The new dates clearly modify the previously reported chronology, making the whole Ambrosio record much older than once thought. In addition, the discovery of cave wall panels decorated with engravings and paintings, covered by Upper Solutrean sediments, allows us to place the art precisely within the Middle Solutrean (Level VI), ...

Chronological and palaeoenvironmental context of human occupations at the Buendía rockshelter (Central Spain) during the late Upper Pleistocene in inland Iberia

Ignacio de la Torre [et al.].- Article first published online: 23 JUN 2015, Manuscript Accepted: 6 MAY 2015, Manuscript Revised: 26 APR 2015, Manuscript Received: 23 DEC 2014

Balanomorphs from late Upper Pleistocene and Holocene caves in northern Spain, with a new genus and species, and their palaeoclimatological implications

Sampling in archaeological caves in northern Spain, within levels dated between ca. 23,000 and 3500cal BP, revealed the presence of six species of sessile cirripedes. A new genus and a new species are described in the Lower Magdalenian (ca. 18,000cal BP). Titobustillobalanus tubutubulus gen. nov., sp. nov. is characterised by parietes permeated by a single row of secondary small tubes between primary and secondary inner lamina and a sheath with tubes and cells. For each of the other five species, the current geographic distribution and ecologic data are given. A change of fauna is noticed from the Upper Magdalenian (ca. 14,500cal BP) indicating global warming.

The discovery of Late Paleolithic boiling stones at SDG 12, north China

A large number of broken stones were unearthed from the ash layer dating 11–12 ka at Shuidonggou Locality 12 (SDG 12) during archaeological excavations in 2007. Morphological and lithological analysis of these stones indicated that they were selected by humans, heated, used, and then crushed. Simulation experiments using the same type of rock demonstrated that these stones ruptured after being heated at high temperatures and immersed in water, suggesting that they were boiling stones used for boiling water and cooking liquid foods. The testing and analysis of the groundwater and surface water quality in the area revealed that the Escherichia coli level was extremely high, and that the water was not drinkable before boiling to eliminate the hazard. Ecological and environmental data indicated that various plants for human consumption had grown in that location since the late Upper Pleistocene and that certain edible seeds had to be cooked before being eaten. The fire cracked rock is the first recognized and demonstrated archaeological evidence of stone boiling in China, a kind of complex and indirect fire usage by prehistoric humans, which has significant implications in exploring the adaptation strategy of the occupants of the site, the development of human fire-usage history, as well as the origin or source of Amerindian “stone boilers”.

Further geological and palaeoanthropological investigations at the Maludong hominin site, Yunnan Province, Southwest China

Three-dimensional mapping and section work undertaken by us in 2008 have identified 11 stratigraphic units at Maludong site. AMS radiocarbon dating of charcoal established an accurate and internally consistent age profile for the sequence of 17.8±0.2 ka to 13.2±0.1 ka. Archaeomagnetic analysis showed changes in externally derived pedogenically enhanced material consistent with a warming in climate between the cold period of Henrich Event 1 and the Bolling-Allerod interstadial. Human remains recovered during the 1989 excavation were derived from a deposit dating to this interstadial, or between 14.3±0.3 ka and 13.5±0.1 ka. Anthropogenic features, including burnt rocks, baked sediment and thick charcoal and ash layers, were identified and examined through archaeomagnetic analysis. Two monkey fossils are described here, one of them being reassigned from Macaca robustus to M. aff. M. assamensis. They confirm the young age of the site and also show signs of anthropogenic alteration in the form of burning. Additional human cranial remains are reported for the first time and new data are provided for some specimens described previously. A range of new features is identified that strengthen the affinities of the Maludong remains to archaic humans. The presence of this globally unique mosaic of archaic and modern features raises important questions about human evolutionary history in East Asia during the Late Upper Pleistocene.

Levallois and non-Levallois blade production at Shuidonggou in Ningxia, North China

The Shuidonggou site is one of the most important for prehistoric research in China, yielding evidence of ancient human colonisations in North China during the Late Upper Pleistocene. Situated in the Ordos desert, it was first discovered and excavated by Teilhard de Chardin during the first half of the 20th century. He noted the originality of the lithic assemblages produced on blades and flakes, comparable to the Upper Palaeolithic in Western Europe. This open-air site in loess context dates from ca. 17,000 to 25,000 BP and may be earlier than 30,000 BP. The principal objective of this paper is to present the technical aspects of the Shuidonggou lithic assemblages using a technological approach based on the dynamic analysis of blanks and cores in a global overview of the chaîne opératoire concept. The goal is to understand the knapping strategies used: were both Levallois and non Levallois methods used? The importance of Shuidonggou is thus linked with the question of the use of the Levallois method.

Humans and marine resource interaction reappraised: Archaeofauna remains during the late Pleistocene and Holocene in Cantabrian Spain

The exploitation of marine resources in Prehistory has traditionally been regarded as insignificant, at least until the late Upper Pleistocene. However, in recent years the systematic study of archaeofaunal remains with a marine origin has widened our knowledge of the role they played among groups of hunter–gatherers in Europe. This paper analyses the available data about the evidence for the exploitation of the different marine resources (molluscs, birds, mammals, crustaceans, echinoderms and fish) that have been recorded at archaeological sites in Cantabrian Spain in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. With the information currently available, it is clear that although it is in the Mesolithic when archaeozoological remains with a marine origin are found most often, the exploitation of these resources in the region began in the Early Upper Palaeolithic.

Tracing the legacy of the early Hainan Islanders - a perspective from mitochondrial DNA

BackgroundHainan Island is located around the conjunction of East Asia and Southeast Asia, and during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was connected with the mainland. This provided an opportunity for the colonization of Hainan Island by modern human in the Upper Pleistocene. Whether the ancient dispersal left any footprints in the contemporary gene pool of Hainan islanders is debatable.ResultsWe collected samples from 285 Li individuals and analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variations of hypervariable sequence I and II (HVS-I and II), as well as partial coding regions. By incorporating previously reported data, the phylogeny of Hainan islanders was reconstructed. We found that Hainan islanders showed a close relationship with the populations in mainland southern China, especially from Guangxi. Haplotype sharing analyses suggested that the recent gene flow from the mainland might play important roles in shaping the maternal pool of Hainan islanders. More importantly, haplogroups M12, M7e, and M7c1* might represent the genetic relics of the ancient population that populated this region; thus, 14 representative complete mtDNA genomes were further sequenced.ConclusionsThe detailed phylogeographic analyses of haplogroups M12, M7e, and M7c1* indicated that the early peopling of Hainan Island by modern human could be traced back to the early Holocene and/or even the late Upper Pleistocene, around 7 - 27 kya. These results correspond to both Y-chromosome and archaeological studies.

The emergence of modern-like forager capacities & behaviors in Africa and Europe: Abrupt or gradual, biological or demographic?

It is increasingly difficult to defend the existence of an absolute, abrupt break between “simple” MSA/Middle Paleolithic (Mode 3) technologies or human adaptions on the one hand and those of a more “complex” or “modern” LSA/Upper Paleolithic on the other hand. What went on during both blocks of cultural time was far from uniformity or stasis–quite to the contrary. Cultural evolution, as a long, drawn-out, mosaic process, must be disentangled from the question of the purely European replacement of the Neandertals by African-originated Homo sapiens idaltu/sapiens. A brief review of the African and European records points to the arbitrariness of the so-called Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition and to the notion of unilineal cultural evolution. The utility of the “transition” idea is as questionable as is the reality and homogeneity of the MSA/MP and LSA/UP culture-stratigraphic constructs. Variability is more relevant than essentialism in the study of any Paleolithic cultural adaptations; the notion of change with considerable continuity is more appropriate to describe what was going on throughout the late Upper Pleistocene than saltation. Demographic factors are probably more important in understanding many of the important changes that characterized the last 50-70,000 years of the Pleistocene than putative advances in human capacities-- mental and linguistic. The growth of human populations during MIS 3 seems to have led to increasingly complex technologies, subsistence intensification, burgeoning social relations mediated through symbolic behavior with material manifestations in “art” and personal ornamentation. The time has come to really acknowledge and grapple with complexity (e.g., multilineality, non-directionality, regional and functional variation) in the development of “modern-type” hunting-gathering adaptations among humans throughout the Old World during the last phases of the Paleolithic, regardless of the 19th-early 20th century labels archeologists may still use to describe classic culture-stratigraphic subdivisions.

Borneo records of Malay tapir, Tapirus indicus Desmarest: a zooarchaeological and historical review

AbstractThe Malay tapir, Tapirus indicus Desmarest 1819, currently has a patchy distribution that covers parts of Myanmar, southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and the island of Sumatra. The palaeontological record extends its past range to include China and the Greater Sunda islands of Java and Borneo. A compilation of specimens from cave excavations in the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah, including finds reported here for the first time, shows that Malay tapirs occurred in northern Borneo from the late Upper Pleistocene, ca. 45,000 years ago, through Holocene to near recent dates. The palaeo‐population of Borneo tended to be slightly smaller than extant Tapirus indicus of Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra, but taxonomically inseparable. While undoubtedly present in the archaeological record through the activities of human cave visitors, it is likely that tapirs were not the targeted quarry of hunting practices directed mainly at bearded pigs. Their representation among overall finds of medium and large mammal remains in the Sunda region shows that tapirs were rare in all environments from Middle Pleistocene to Holocene. Their present ecology indicates that climate change of the post‐Pleistocene, with restoration of the humid tropical rainforest environment, would have reduced the extent of available habitat favourable to the species. Although no authenticated museum specimens have been obtained in Borneo, these archaeological results give plausibility to anecdotal reports of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is possible that the final disappearance of the tapir from the island was a recent phenomenon. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Late Quaternary small mammal turnover in the Cantabrian Region: The extinction of Pliomys lenki (Rodentia, Mammalia)

In addition to the Neanderthals, other mammal species vanished locally or totally in southern Europe during relatively a short period, between about 40 and 10 kyr. The late Upper Pleistocene was in general a time of extinction and extirpation in southern Europe, ranging from musk-oxen and reindeer to Nordic voles (extirpations) to Pliomys and Neanderthals (extinctions). The southern regions of Europe have been glacial refugia for several mammalian species (including humans), and when climatic conditions ameliorated, some spread back to the North and East European Plains (reindeer, saiga, the marsh voles and narrow-skull voles, among others), whence they originally had come. Others remained at their refugia in southern France and on the Iberian, Italian and Balkan Peninsulas, and, after periods of survival, eventually became extinct ( Homo neanderthalensis, Pliomys lenki). The demise of the Neanderthals is, of course, well known, but that of the extinct vole, P. lenki, is not well known at all. Their long survival in southwestern European regions must be related to the existence of suitable climatic, vegetational and geographic conditions. Did these regions become traps when new competitors arrived?

The wild river and the last Neanderthals: a palaeoflood in the geoarchaeological record of the Jarama Canyon (Central Range, Guadalajara province, Spain)

The Upper Jarama Valley is located on the southern slope of the eastern part of the Spanish Central Range. In this area the valley cuts and runs through a narrow strip of carbonated rocks creating a karstic canyon with many caves and rock shelters in the cliffs at both banks. One of this rock shelters, Jarama VI, is located on the left bank of the Jarama River, in the middle of a hillside, 23 m above the river, and is partially filled up. The lithostratigraphic sequence begins with the, stratum alteration (unit 4), and a cold autochthonous clastic deposit follows it with a human occupation of the Middle Paleolithic (unit 3). The upper part of the unit 3 was affected by a strong erosion due to a huge palaeoflood, which caused the sedimentation of a sandy series (sub-unit 2.3) that ends in flood silts (sub-unit 2.2). Charcoals have yielded the 14C date 32.600 ± 1.860 BP (Beta-56639). These deposits have their origin in a fluvial palaeosuperflood. At the top part of this level and inside the rock shelter there are clastic intercalations (sub-unitl 2.1) with plenty of Mousterian artefacts radiocarbon dated to 29500 ± 2700 BP (Beta-56638). A stratigraphic hiatus separates units 2 and 1. Unit 1 is a cold autochthonous clastic deposit containing many human occupation remains of the Early Upper Paleolithic age. The sequence is sealed by a stalagmitic crust (unit 0). The 14C dates from Jarama VI seriate the palaeoflood in the chronostratigraphic scale. Therefore, both dates 32600 ± 1860 BP (Beta-56639) and 29500 ± 2700 BP (Beta-56638) date the upper part of level 2 somewhere in the Late Upper Pleistocene, between the isotopic stages 3 and 2.

The “Microblade Adaptation” and Recolonization of Siberia during the Late Upper Pleistocene

In Siberia, a scarcity of sites 22,000 to 18,000 years in age suggests that human populations unable to cope with extreme conditions of the last glacial maximum abandoned the region. After 18,000 years ago, as glaciers retreated and the tree line gradually advanced northward, humans wielding microblade technology recolonized the Asian north, ultimately spreading to the high arctic by 11,000 years ago. This chapter recounts the evidence for the timing of this colonization event and summarizes technological, subsistence, and settlement data from over 20 sites to reconstruct hunter‐gatherer adaptations during the Siberian late Upper Paleolithic. Results suggest that late glacial microblade‐producing populations were highly mobile hunters who commonly exploited single prey species from short‐term camps.

De quelques chaînes opératoires lithiques en Asie du Sud-Est au pléistocène supérieur final et au début de l'holocène

About some operating sequences in Southeast Asia during the late upper Pleistocene and the early Holocene. The variability of lithic production systems of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens sapiens in Southeast Asia is still mostly unknown because the size of this area which is dispatched between continentality and insularity and because of the scarcity of typological synthesis. Southeast Asia does not follow the linear and simple evolutionary stone implements model that we find in Western Europe (choppers / chopping tools, bifaces, flakes debitage, etc.) but it seems to defy any logico-empirical scheme. The different operating sequences (‘chaîne opératoire’) that are listed here are not exhaustive and on the contrary, they pose the question of the variability of the lithic production system of the modern human in this region of the world in a tropical environment. Following a strictly qualitative point of view we will only discuss the operating sequences of shaping and debitage knapping made by forceful hammering.

The Upper Paleolithic in Mediterranean Spain: a review of current evidence

In spite of an active and sophisticated archaeological research program, the Paleolithic of the Iberian peninsula remains comparatively little known to English-speaking prehistorians, with the exception of Cantabrian Spain. The rich data set compiled by Spanish prehistorians and their colleagues over the past several decades stands to make a valuable and unique contribution to our understanding of the Pleistocene prehistory of Europe. We present a detailed overview of Upper Paleolithic chronology, sites, and assemblages for Mediterranean Spain, an area of over 1,600,000 km 2 that extends from the French border to the Straits of Gibraltar. To interpret these data, we employ a regional perspective that emphasizes studies of paleoeconomy (especially zooarchaeology) and settlement. The Middle–Upper Paleolithic transition and Upper Paleolithic art also receive detailed treatment, and the Upper Paleolithic of Mediterranean Spain is discussed in the broader context of the late Upper Pleistocene of western Europe and the Mediterranean Basin.

Quaternary sediments of Indo-Gangetic, Brahmaputra and adjoining inland basins and the problem of demarcation of Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary

The Quaternary sediments deposited in the Indo-Gangetic, Brahmaputra and adjoining smaller inland basins and Duns formed after the Middle Pleistocene Himalayan Orogenic Movement (HOM-4), are fluvial-fluviolacustrine and or lacustrine in nature. A synthesis of the available data in the Brahmaputra Basin and its comparison with that of the Indo-Gangetic Basin and Duns suggests two cycles of sedimentation, separated by a period of erosion and non-deposition and continuous in inland basins, such as Bhimtal-Naukuchia Tal, Hawalbagh in Kumaun region in Uttar Pradesh and Loktak Lake in Manipur. The sediments of the first cycle which terminated in late Upper Pleistocene are, in general, oxidised and referred to as the Older Alluvium, while that of the second assigned to Holocene, is unoxidised grey in color and constitutes the Newer Alluvium.

Towards a Dynamical History of ‘Proto-Encke‘

There are too few active comets to account for the observed zodiacal dust. Rather we look to the collisional fragmentation and erosion of sub-kilometre meteoroids in orbit close to the ecliptic. Since 1975 we have also been aware of an apparently massive meteoroidal swarm in probable 7:2 mean motion resonance with Jupiter, seemingly at the heart of the Taurid Complex and connecting therefore with the near-ecliptic system through the so-called Stohl Stream. The notable absence of pre-1786 apparitions of 2P/Encke took on a new significance with the 1983 detection by IRAS of its asymmetric trail inside this resonance. Thus it was possible all these meteoroidal components were ultimately derived from a continuously eroded, substantially dormant, librating progenitor within the trail whose more volatile inclusions are exposed from time to time and expelled either singly or severally as independent comets. A Taurid progenitor of this kind (proto-Encke) dominating the inner Solar System environment probably then accounts for most of the recorded enhancements of the larger meteoroid flux to Earth, including ‘Tunguska’ bodies as well. Terrestrial dust insertions which control mean temperature and hence climate are also inferred based upon the libration and nodal precession half-periods of proto-Encke (~0.2kyr, ~2.5 kyr respectively) albeit the longer of these cycles was not at first evident in the terrestrial record (Asher & Clube 1993). Recently however this cycle appears to have been confirmed as a significant (long term) global warming/meridional atmospheric circulation/iceberg calving cycle with the correct phase producing the so-called mini-Heinrich and Heinrich events of the Holocene and late Upper Pleistocene respectively, i.e., during the past ~60 kyr BP. The comparative stability of this terrestrial cycle, in contrast with the weakness of the observed resonance, suggests a fairly recent diversion therefore from a much stronger sungrazing 7:2 Jovian resonance in which proto-Encke’s and Jupiter’s longitudes of perihelion are related by \({\varpi _p}E \approx \varpi J\,or\,\varpi J + \pi \). Thus both the Hephaistos Stream and the Taurid Complex could have formed together during a recent close planetary encounter, say with Mercury ~5 kyr BP. It follows that we envisage a single large progenitor in 7:2 Jovian sungrazing resonance for 50 kyr or so which undergoes repeated tidal stress: a continuous dust-induced major glaciation is thus sustained on Earth for most of this dynamical timescale before a disruptive planetgrazing event finally brings its sungrazing status to an end and produces the present meteoroidal complex. This evolutionary sequence almost certainly requires that the original sungrazing stream still exists (without its source): a potentially significant fact because it may have a direct bearing on both the observed zodiacal bands and the original progenitor orbit as well as the known periodic variation of solar radiance and convected magnetic field, of possible relevance to the solar cycle. While these aspects have to be further explored, the purpose of the present investigation is to describe some preliminary modelling with a view to inferring the likely dynamical history of proto-Encke.