European Pleistocene Research Articles

Direct isotopic evidence for subsistence variability in Middle Pleistocene Neanderthals (Payre, southeastern France)

The site of Payre (SE France) is presented as a case study to decipher possible changes in subsistence and land-use strategies during the middle Pleistocene in Europe. This study applies carbon and oxygen isotopic data (δ13C and δ18O) in dental tooth enamel from four distinct Middle Pleistocene Neanderthals coming from two phases of occupation. This allows us to test if these different Neanderthals were similar in their subsistence strategies and mobility during their childhood, and to compare them with terrestrial predators and to herbivores dwelling in different areas around the cave. The results show that Neanderthals were exploiting the environment differently over time in the absence of a significant environmental change. This change of environment exploitation coincides with different durations of occupation. The age of the individuals allows us to discuss the mobility of young Neanderthals and the topographies they lived on before arriving in the cave. The combination of results obtained from various approaches throws a new light on the investigation of Neanderthal ecosystem and land-use patterns during the Early Middle Palaeolithic in Southeastern France.

De la géographie sociale en archéologie paléolithique : concepts et apports du Magdalénien des Pyrénées

Landscape archaeologies that pay attention to cultural importance of place have become increasingly common in recent years in many parts of the world. However, these approaches have largely failed to make inroads into Pleistocene European hunter-gatherer archaeology. This is partly due to a focus on economics, survival, and neo-liberal assumptions of “efficiency” in early modern human behavior. With evidence of lithic use drawn from cave sites, survey, and open-air excavation, I argue that Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers left clues to the importance of certain places in the landscape. Lithic tools in particular have been undervalued for their symbolic meaning, which goes well beyond style and ethnicity models. Raw material has been seen as evidence of mobility and trade, but possible cultural motives behind material choices have been downplayed or ignored.

Continuity versus discontinuity of the human settlement of Europe between the late Early Pleistocene and the early Middle Pleistocene. The mandibular evidence

One of the most interesting aspects of the settlement of Europe is the possible continuity or discontinuity of the populations living in this continent during the Early and Middle Pleistocene. In this paper we present an analysis of the mandibular fossil record from four important Pleistocene European sites, Gran Dolina-TD6-2 (Sierra de Atapuerca), Mauer, Arago, and Atapuerca-Sima de los Huesos. We focus this study in the recognition of key derived mandibular features that may be useful to assess the relationship among the populations represented at these sites. In order to make an approach to the ecological scenario, we also present a short review and discussion of the archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidences at that time. Our results suggest that probably there was a demographic discontinuity between the late Early Pleistocene populations (MIS 21-MIS 19), and those dated to the MIS 15. Hybridization between residents and new settlers cannot be discarded. However, some features of the Gran Dolina-TD6 hominins point to some relationship between the population represented in this site (probably dated to the MIS 21) and the European Middle Pleistocene and early Late Pleistocene populations. A hypothetical scenario is presented in order to understand this apparent contradiction with the model of discontinuity.

Past climate changes, population dynamics and the origin of Bison in Europe.

BackgroundClimatic and environmental fluctuations as well as anthropogenic pressure have led to the extinction of much of Europe’s megafauna. The European bison or wisent (Bison bonasus), one of the last wild European large mammals, narrowly escaped extinction at the onset of the 20th century owing to hunting and habitat fragmentation. Little is known, however, about its origin, evolutionary history and population dynamics during the Pleistocene.ResultsThrough ancient DNA analysis we show that the emblematic European bison has experienced several waves of population expansion, contraction, and extinction during the last 50,000 years in Europe, culminating in a major reduction of genetic diversity during the Holocene. Fifty-seven complete and partial ancient mitogenomes from throughout Europe, the Caucasus, and Siberia reveal that three populations of wisent (Bison bonasus) and steppe bison (B. priscus) alternately occupied Western Europe, correlating with climate-induced environmental changes. The Late Pleistocene European steppe bison originated from northern Eurasia, whereas the modern wisent population emerged from a refuge in the southern Caucasus after the last glacial maximum. A population overlap during a transition period is reflected in ca. 36,000-year-old paintings in the French Chauvet cave. Bayesian analyses of these complete ancient mitogenomes yielded new dates of the various branching events during the evolution of Bison and its radiation with Bos, which lead us to propose that the genetic affiliation between the wisent and cattle mitogenomes result from incomplete lineage sorting rather than post-speciation gene flow.ConclusionThe paleogenetic analysis of bison remains from the last 50,000 years reveals the influence of climate changes on the dynamics of the various bison populations in Europe, only one of which survived into the Holocene, where it experienced severe reductions in its genetic diversity. The time depth and geographical scope of this study enables us to propose temperate Western Europe as a suitable biotope for the wisent compatible with its reintroduction.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12915-016-0317-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Evidence for herbivorous cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) in Goyet Cave, Belgium: implications for palaeodietary reconstruction of fossil bears using amino acid δ15N approaches

ABSTRACTInsights into causes of extinction in fossil animals can contribute to an understanding of how environmental or anthropogenic processes may affect extant animals. Cave bears that went extinct in the late Pleistocene in Europe have been considered largely herbivorous based on tooth, skull and jaw morphology. Nitrogen and carbon isotopic composition (δ15N, δ13C) of bone collagen of many cave bears having values similar to or lower than those of coeval herbivores support an exclusive plant diet and their occurrence in habitats with denser vegetation. A complicating aspect of this hypothesis is that isotopic compositions of bulk collagen, especially those of nitrogen, could reflect environmental fluctuation as well as behavioural and physiological traits, which are not related to trophic position and so may lead to uncertainty in palaeodietary reconstruction. Here we show that δ15N analysis of individual collagen amino acids of fossil bears from Goyet Cave (Belgium) indicates that cave bears had a constant trophic position of 1.9–2.1, indicating purely herbivorous diets, while brown bears had a trophic position of 2.0–2.4, indicating a slightly more omnivorous diet. Results might support the hypothesis of the extinction of cave bear due to the inflexibility in feeding habits.

Hominin-Carnivore Adaptive Strategies in Western Europe During the Early Pleistocene

The fi rst peopling of Europe has been widely discussed for the last decades. The many fi ndings recorded in recent years have confirmed that Europe was occupied by hominins during the Early Pleistocene for over a million years. However, several issues are still questioned in the current debate about the fi rst peopling of Europe, including the continuity or discontinuity of this event. In this regard, a revision of the available zooarchaeological evidence for the Early Pleistocene in Europe is proposed in this article, discussing the infl uence on hominin behavior of meat-resource acquisition. The faunal evidence recovered from the European sites shows that hominins had access to a variety of meat resources, from small animals such as birds and reptiles to large variability of mammals like hippopotamuses and ungulates of varying sizes. This fossil record also suggests that hominins overcame the predation pressure exerted by hyaenids and felids, which competed for these same natural resources. The climatic fl uctuations which characterized this period, as well as the diversity of ecosystems found in the Mediterranean area and in the whole continent, make meat consumption a key resource concerning the adaptive possibilities of local hominins. Thus, the persistence and expansion of hominin settlement throughout Europe during the Early Pleistocene may have depended on the overcoming of these constraining factors, on the basis of the social cohesion of the groups and their capacity to provide with a Mode 1 technology a regular supply of meat resources.

Neandertals revised

The last decade has seen a significant growth of our knowledge of the Neandertals, a population of Pleistocene hunter-gatherers who lived in (western) Eurasia between ∼400,000 and 40,000 y ago. Starting from a source population deep in the Middle Pleistocene, the hundreds of thousands of years of relative separation between African and Eurasian groups led to the emergence of different phenotypes in Late Pleistocene Europe and Africa. Both recently obtained genetic evidence and archeological data show that the biological and cultural gaps between these populations were probably smaller than previously thought. These data, reviewed here, falsify inferences to the effect that, compared with their near-modern contemporaries in Africa, Neandertals were outliers in terms of behavioral complexity. It is only around 40,000 y ago, tens of thousands of years after anatomically modern humans first left Africa and thousands of years after documented interbreeding between modern humans, Neandertals and Denisovans, that we see major changes in the archeological record, from western Eurasia to Southeast Asia, e.g., the emergence of representational imagery and the colonization of arctic areas and of greater Australia (Sahul).

Faunas of Small Mammals of the First Half of the Middle Pleistocene in Europe

The main evolutionary stages of formation of the faunas of small mammals of the Middle Pleistocene in Europe, belonging to the interval ~0.76−0.42 mln years, are described. Based on the analysis of the species composition of the faunas of this interval, six main phases of development of small mammals, corresponding to the main climatic events (interglacials, glaciations) during MIS 18 – MIS 12 are identified. Availability of data for some intervals of the first half of the Middle Pleistocene is not too large. Especially this applies to the cold stages of the first half of the Middle Pleistocene – the Don and Oka (or, that is the same, the Elster and Anglian) glaciations. In several cases the difference in time of the appearance of a number of taxa in Eastern and Western Europe was revealed. So, Arvicola cantianus appeared in Western Europe earlier than in Eastern Europe. This phenomenon can be explained by different rates of evolution in different parts of Europe, and, possibly, insufficient number of related data (geological, geochronological, and paleontological), which subsequently allow to determine the age of a number of localities. The analysis of correlation of the East European and West European faunas of small mammals was carried out. The biostratigraphic scheme and the map of localities of small mammals of the Middle Pleistocene during MIS 18 – MIS 12, i.e. in the first half of the Middle Pleistocene on the international scale (early Neopleistocene according to the scale RISK), were built. The obtained data allows to substantiate more accurately and to clarify the geological age of the deposits, and to reconstruct the palaeogeographical setting of the considered periods. They are also an important component in the establishment of biostratigraphic schemes of the Middle Pleistocene and the Pleistocene in general.

Beavers (Castoridae, Rodentia, Mammalia) from the Quaternary sites of the Sierra de Atapuerca, in Burgos, Spain

The Eurasian beaver, Castor fiber is known from the Pleistocene in Europe, although there are references to the presence of the genus Castor since the Miocene, ca. 10 Ma. Beavers are present in the Iberian Peninsula since the Pliocene, though the first appearance of Castor fiber took place in the Early Pleistocene levels of the localities of the Sierra de Atapuerca, where the fossil beaver remains are found in the lower levels of Sima del Elefante and Gran Dolina (Early Pleistocene), Galería de las Estatuas (Late Pleistocene) and Portalón (Holocene). The presence of fossil beavers suggests humid and mild climatic conditions in the Early Pleistocene levels of Gran Dolina and Sima del Elefante. During the Middle Pleistocene, although conditions for beavers seemed favourable, they disappeared from Atapuerca, appearing again during the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene.

The lithic assemblage from Pont-de-Lavaud (Indre, France) and the role of the bipolar-on-anvil technique in the Lower and Early Middle Pleistocene technology

The lithic assemblage of the Pont-de-Lavaud site (Indre, France) shows a technical choice within the Lower Pleistocene European Mode 1 sites, which is defined by the widespread use of the bipolar-on-anvil knapping technique. Although it is traditionally considered an expedient percussion method, in this lithic assemblage a selective technical behavior regarding the reduction methods and raw material is identified. In this respect, different knapping methods are applied in accordance with a combination of the percussion axis and the recurrence of the reduction series. These features are also observed in the archaeological record from other Lower and Middle Pleistocene sites, which are discussed in the text. The role of this knapping technique in the hominin technology is, in our opinion, greater than previously believed. Its implementation cannot be considered as proof of opportunistic or expedient activities. The bipolar-on-anvil technique is applied in different contexts, on different raw materials and as a technical choice or gesture in the reduction sequences. Because of its low technical requirements, it can be considered as a successful technological strategy for overcoming raw material constraints for producing some specific types of pieces. Its ubiquitous presence, both from a diachronic and geographical point of view, is proof of its considerable technical versatility and, hence, of Mode 1 hominin technological flexibility and capabilities.

Large flake Acheulean in the middle of Tagus basin (Spain): Middle stretch of the river Tagus valley and lower stretches of the rivers Jarama and Manzanares valleys

The highest concentration of Palaeolithic sites known in the Iberian Peninsula is located in the lower stretches of the Manzanares and Jarama rivers. This area, together with a number of zones in the Tagus valley, constitutes one of the most important archives for the knowledge of the European Pleistocene. The purpose of this paper is to establish the chronological frame and the technological strategies implemented in manufacturing lithic tools during the Acheulean techno-complex in the middle stretch of the Tagus basin. Use of large flakes for making bifaces is common in the Acheulean assemblages from this area, as well as in the rest of the Iberian Peninsula and the south of France.The earliest Acheulean evidence has been dated to between MIS 15 and MIS 13. From MIS 11/MIS 9 on, this techno-complex is widespread in the region, until MIS 6, when the last evidence has been recorded. Handaxes, cleavers on flake and trihedral picks dominate in the châines opératoires of façonnage, which are present in significant percentages. Short châines opératoires of débitage prevail in quartzite, and discoid and polyhedric in flint. Most retouched tools are seldom elaborate. Lithic assemblages with châines opératoires of façonnage exclusively represented by handaxes start to be recorded towards the end of the Middle Pleistocene. These handaxes are more elaborate than previous and the retouched tools are more complex.Among the activities identified in the sites excavated in overbank facies, exploitation of large mammals, particularly proboscideans, is outstanding, as well as the manufacture of lithic tools and the exploitation of primary flint outcrops. The recording of long recurrent settlements on the same location is remarkable.

АДАПТАЦИОННЫЕ СТРАТЕГИИ ГОМИНИНОВ И ХИЩНИКОВ НА ТЕРРИТОРИИ ЗАПАДНОЙ ЕВРОПЫ В РАННЕМ ПЛЕЙСТОЦЕНЕ

The fi rst peopling of Europe has been widely discussed for the last decades. The many fi ndings recorded in recent years have confirmed that Europe was occupied by hominins during the Early Pleistocene for over a million years. However, several issues are still questioned in the current debate about the fi rst peopling of Europe, including the continuity or discontinuity of this event. In this regard, a revision of the available zooarchaeological evidence for the Early Pleistocene in Europe is proposed in this article, discussing the infl uence on hominin behavior of meat-resource acquisition. The faunal evidence recovered from the European sites shows that hominins had access to a variety of meat resources, from small animals such as birds and reptiles to large variability of mammals like hippopotamuses and ungulates of varying sizes. This fossil record also suggests that hominins overcame the predation pressure exerted by hyaenids and felids, which competed for these same natural resources. The climatic fl uctuations which characterized this period, as well as the diversity of ecosystems found in the Mediterranean area and in the whole continent, make meat consumption a key resource concerning the adaptive possibilities of local hominins. Thus, the persistence and expansion of hominin settlement throughout Europe during the Early Pleistocene may have depended on the overcoming of these constraining factors, on the basis of the social cohesion of the groups and their capacity to provide with a Mode 1 technology a regular supply of meat resources.

Dispersal events of the saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) in Central Europe in response to the climatic fluctuations in MIS 2 and the early part of MIS 1

The saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica), which today is a specialist steppe herbivore adapted to long-distance migrations in massive herds, appeared at irregular intervals in the Late Pleistocene Europe. Its special ecological requirements limited the number and timing of dispersal events. In the Eemian the saiga was absent on the continent. During MIS 5d-a, MIS 4 and MIS 3 its range was restricted to steppe areas north of the Black Sea. In MIS 2 and the Late Glacial (MIS 1) this species was able to colonize Central Europe at least three or four times and Western Europe at least twice. The most successful second migration dates to part of GS-2c, GS-2b and part of GS-2a, from ca. 19.5 to 15.3 cal ka BP when the saiga reached southern France. During GI-1d (Older Dryas), ca. 14.0 cal ka BP, the saiga reached England. The first migration during the GI-2 warm phase (ca. 23.7–23.3 cal ka BP) and the last one (ca. 13.5 cal ka BP) in the GI–1c2 cool phase were probably restricted to Central Europe.

Marine Resource Exploitation during the Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic in Europe: Overview of the Available Evidence

In this article, we propose a critical analysis of the available information relating to the first evidence of marine resource consumption in European Pleistocene sites, with particular focus on the existing data for the Mousterian and the Aurignacian. This review concentrates on different aspects, such as the identification and quantification of remains, as well as taphonomic characteristics. In spite of the rarity of the available remains, we consider that mollusks, mammals, crustaceans, echinoderms, fish and birds play a secondary role in the diet of both Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans.

Discovery of the Fuyan teeth: challenging or complementing the out-of-Africa scenario?

Discovery of the Fuyan teeth: challenging or complementing the out-of-Africa scenario?

Another window to the subsistence of Middle Pleistocene hominins in Europe: A taphonomic study of Cuesta de la Bajada (Teruel, Spain)

Cuesta de la Bajada is a Middle Pleistocene site (MIS 8–9) in which some of the earliest evidence of Middle Paleolithic stone tool tradition is documented. The small format tool assemblage, dominated by simple flakes and scrapers, is associated to abundant remains of equids and cervids, in which both percussion and cut marks are well represented. The anatomical distribution of these bone surface modifications indicate primary access to fleshed carcasses by hominins. Hunting is further supported by the analysis of age profiles, in which prime adults are predominant both in equids and cervids. The taphonomic analysis of the site adds more information to human predatory behaviors as documented in other Middle Pleistocene sites and is one of the best examples of hunting documented in the Middle Pleistocene European archaeological record.

Late persistence and deterministic extinction of “humid thermophilous plant taxa of East Asian affinity” (HUTEA) in southern Europe

Several terrestrial plant fossils found in the late Cenozoic of Europe belong to thermophilous genera or infrageneric taxa which do not grow in this continent today, and are usually called “exotic elements”. Within this large group we singled out three more precisely defined categories based on the hypothesis that the change of geographic distribution between the late Cenozoic and the present is the result of deterministic extinctions caused by climate change. Among the taxa shared by the modern East Asian and the Plio–Pleistocene European flora, the “humid thermophilous taxa of East Asian affinity” (HUTEA) represent the central category in our study. These were traditionally considered “Pliocene” elements in Europe. In our analysis of 13 reliably dated Italian assemblages the percentage of species belonging to the HUTEA category was found to be higher in Pliocene sites, and very low to null in Pleistocene ones. Also early Pleistocene assemblages across all of Europe did not contain any HUTEA, apart from Eucommia, and Symplocos sect. Lodhra in the refugial area of the Colchis.Our analysis of fruit and seed assemblages in the San Lazzaro section (Umbria, central Italy), recently assigned to the early Pleistocene, provided contrasting evidence, which required a reconsideration of the stratigraphic and palaeontological context of another well known site in central Italy, Cava Toppetti II. Using vertebrate and continental mollusc biochronology the early Pleistocene age of this section was confirmed and its palaeontological records were compared with other assemblages in central Italy and Europe. We show that in central Italy at least three HUTEA species (Sinomenium cantalense, Symplocos casparyi, Toddalia rhenana) persisted after the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary. We conclude that central-southern Italy offered a refugial niche that was warm and wet enough to assure the longer survival of some HUTEA, in contrast to central Europe.

Lower Pleistocene leporids (Lagomorpha, Mammalia) in Western Europe: New data from the Bois-de-Riquet (Lézignan-la-Cèbe, Hérault, France)

Plio-Pleistocene climate oscillations in the different regions of Western Europe substantially influenced the evolutionary history of European leporids. Distinguishing rabbits (Oryctolagus) from hares (Lepus) in the archeological and palaeontological record of Pleistocene Europe is complicated due to the variability of their size and morphology. Here, we present the first description of two Pleistocene leporid species from Bois-de-Riquet (Lézignan-la-Cèbe, Hérault) in southern France. The first, Oryctolagus cf. giberti, exhibits similar characteristics to rabbit species documented in Spain and, thus, for the first time is recorded outside the Iberian Peninsula. The second leporid is a hare represented by very limited number of non-diagnostic remains, which, unfortunately, precludes an exact species identification. Already known from Lower Pleistocene deposits in Central Europe and Spain, the presence of Lepus sp. in southern France sheds new light on the geographic extension of these species. In this respect, Bois-de-Riquet is an important paleontological site that can further our understanding of the evolutionary history and expansion of European leporids.

Dancing to the rhythms of the Pleistocene? Early Middle Paleolithic population dynamics in NW Iberia (Duero Basin and Cantabrian Region)

The Northwest of Iberia has yielded one of the most complete European Middle Paleolithic records. Despite this wealth of information, very little is known about population dynamics during this period. For that reason, the main concern of this paper is to provide socio-environmental models that may help explain Early Middle Paleolithic (EMP) population dynamics in NW Iberia, assessing to what extent they were shaped by climate forces. The archaeological record is analyzed on the basis of the heuristics of ecological models, already employed in the European Pleistocene record but never at a regional scale, in order to detect long-term changes in the composition of EMP populations, and the environmental, biological and sociocultural process influencing those changes. According to the models proposed, we have detected a long-term population dynamic between MIS 11 and MIS 6, characterized by low environmental stress, high biological productivity, interaction among populations and sociocultural complexity. Eventually, this population dynamic was broken due to an extreme climate phase in late MIS 6 that had a profound impact on populations and sociocultural structures. As a result, the Upper Pleistocene population of NW Iberia was concentrated in the Cantabrian region. This area became an isolated Neanderthal glacial refugium that hosted a population with different origins and fragile long-term demographic stability.

Black Feminist Theory in Prehistory

Black feminist theory has been employed in North American historical archaeology, but has not made inroads in other areas of archaeology. This article describes how Black feminist theory may be used to address the sociopolitics of archaeological practice as well as how it may be applied to the study of prehistory. Suggestions for improving the climate for minority researchers are provided, and a brief example is given demonstrating how taking a Black feminist standpoint provides a different way to look at interactions between Neandertals and anatomically modern humans in Pleistocene Europe.