Late Upper Pleistocene Research Articles

Evidence of Palaeoclimatic Fluctuations in Miliolite Rocks of Saurashtra, Western India

Abstract Detailed studies of various miliolite occurrences of Saurashtra have revealed fluctuations in the palaeoclirnate witnessed in the course of deposition and consolidation of the dune material during Middle and late Upper Pleistocene. The entire process of formation of miliolite rocks is indicative of alternating arid and humid phases. During protracted arid phases strong wind actions were effective whereas during brief wet phases fluvial erosion & deposition and pedogenesis were brought about. The various evidences in support of palaeoclimatic fluctuations include: (i) the presence of erosional surfaces separating the miliolite deposits by intercalated redsoil horizons, cross-beddedand horizontally bedded miliolite deposits, two cross-bedded miliolite sequences with reversed dips and the two superimposed unidirectional cross-bedded miliolite sequences with different angles of dipin the coastal cliffsections, (ii) the occurrence of intercalated red beds and fluvial debris (sand/silt/gravel) within miliolite sequences as seen in some of the river and well sections, together with slope-wash debris between two miliolite layers substantiating small scale intervening periods of quiescence, (iii) a well defined junction between the two different major cycles of aeolian accumulation marked by the surfaces of non-deposition, erosion and honeycomb weathering at the top of the lower cycle as encothered in some of the well sections, (iv) burial of animal burrows by a younger cycle of miliolites devoid of animal burrows in some exposures and (v) the presence of diagenetically formed coated grains, vadose calcite silt around the ooliths & intraclasts, and its occurrence between two generations of cement in thin section also provide aclue to the minor breaks in diagenetic environment.

Cranial thickening in an Australian hominid as a possible palaeoepidemiological indicator

This paper describes the cranial thickening of a late Pleistocene hominid (Willandra Lakes Hominid 50) from Australia. The unusual development of the vault structures in this individual has few, if any, equals among other hominids or more recent populations from around the world. The vault morphology is, therefore, described in terms of a pathologically related condition associated with the modern haemolytic blood dyscrasias, typical of sickle cell anamia and thalassemia. A possible palaeoepidemiology for these genetic adaptations among early Australasian populations is proposed together with a discussion of similar changes observed in the vault of the Singa calvarium from the Sudan. It is tentatively suggested that the cranial thickening of the Australian hominid has its origins in some form of genetic blood disease and that if this diagnosis is correct, this individual provides a rare glimpse of human biological adaptation in the late Upper Pleistocene.

Geoarchaeology at Gi, a middle stone age and later stone age site in the Northwest Kalahari

Gi with sealed middle stone age and later stone age occurrences is located in the Dobe Valley along the Botswana-Namibia border. The phases of middle stone age settlement were linked to a semiarid streamway during the early Upper Pleistocene. A major humid interval followed, when a large lake was ponded in the Dobe Valley. Later stone age settlement appeared after this lake disappeared and was replaced by a mosaic of pans (ephemeral lakes). Subsequently, another period of humid environment favoured another valley-wide lake during the late Upper Pleistocene. Later stone age settlement resumed when this second lake deteriorated into the modern pan terrains of the Dobe Valley. In total, the Gi beds record multiple environmental changes both more humid and more arid than present during the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene, as well as a variable array of adaptive opportunities for prehistoric settlement.

The Evolution of Culture in Africa

At the best of times the prehistorian is at a considerable disadvantage when compared with his colleagues in the social or biological sciences in that his researches are of necessity based on incomplete evidence. So much of the culture in its full sense and of the physical population studied by the prehistorian has failed to survive the vicissitudes of preservation that his interpretations and reconstructions must often be based upon little more than the imperishable implements of stone and, if he is lucky, a few incomplete fossil fragments of the makers themselves. The position is not invariably as bad as that of course, and from the increasingly complex evidence surviving from late Upper Pleistocene time onwards, much can be deduced by the archaeologist working in close cooperation with his colleagues in the natural sciences on whom he is dependent for interpreting the environment. Until little more than a decade ago, however, the prehistorian's evidence for the earliest periods consisted of scarcely more than the most imperishable remains that favorable geological circumstances had preserved. In Europe, where prehistoric studies first began, the cultural evidence for man in pre-Upper Pleistocene times is almost invariably found in geological contexts-in gravels, sands or solifluction deposits of inter-glacial age-so that no deduction could be made as to his living habits, nor was it possible even to determine the full extent and nature of his tool assemblages since the artifacts themselves occurred redeposited and divorced from the place of their original manufacture and use. Many of the misconceptions concerning human cultural development arose from this lack of knowledge of the living places of the early Pleistocene hominids. It seems obvious, therefore, that we must concentrate on man's living sites if we are to learn much about his way of life, culture, physical appearance and capabilities in the earlier stages of his evolution. Recent work in Africa has shown that such living sites exist in many different parts of the continent sealed in datable geological contexts. The excavation of these by techniques not previously applied to such early sites is extending our knowledge of the human populations of those times in a way that would hardly have been believed possible twenty years ago. Because it was not affected by the glaciations that destroyed so much of the evidence in Europe and northern Asia, Africa, previously the Cinderella of the continents where prehistoric investigations are concerned, is now providing more factual evidence on human biological and cultural development in Lower and Middle Pleistocene times than any other part of the world. This is not to say that

The Lascaux Cave

The Lascaux Cave, one of the most important single sites of upper Palaeolithic art ever discovered, is located near Montignac (Dordogne), 16 miles up the Vézère River from the famous town of Les Eyzies. It was found in September 1940 by two French schoolboys out rabbit hunting. Called the “Versailles of Prehistoric Man,” Lascaux ranks among the world's oldest and most remarkable art galleries. It has been completely sealed off from the outside world since late upper Pleistocene times, and it is now generally believed that the majority of the paintings are upper Perigordian (Gravettian) in date—Phase 2 in the upper Palaeolithic art sequence of western Europe. That they were produced during a time of climatic amelioration, possibly the one known as the Achen retreat, is borne out by the fact that the animals depicted belong much more to a steppe and forest type of fauna, than they do to a colder tundra group. For example, there are no mammoths and no reindeer shown, but there are many horses, a considerable quantity of cattle, bison and several ibexes.