Author: Scott McLin

by Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr
University of Potsdam

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It has been a long-standing and passionately discussed hypothesis that important developments in human origins over the last 6-8 Ma coincided with environmental change, including cooling, drying, and wider climate fluctuations. However, testing these hypotheses is difficult as both high resolution climate records and fossil records of early human populations are often incomplete and poorly dated. Thus, to better understand the role that past African climate changes might have played in the evolution and dispersal of our ancestors, in particular Homo sapiens, we have developed a ~620,000 year record of humidity variability from the Chew Bahir basin situated in southern Ethiopia.

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by Daniel Wolf,
Institut für Geographie, TU Dresden

On the Iberian Peninsula terrestrial archives that shed light on palaeoenvironmental conditions during the last glacial period are very rare. Due to the proximity of the North Atlantic a coupling between marine processes and terrestrial environments is suspected, but still difficult to verify.

Based on extensive stratigraphic work and abundant luminescence dating (OSL) on the upper Tagus loess record, multiple phases have been identified that point to brief and vigorous loess deposition related to gusty winds under generally dry conditions. By means of grain-size patterns, heavy mineral distributions, and δ¹³C values of n-alkane compounds we are able to draw a detailed picture of last glacial palaeoenvironmental and palaeohydrological conditions in the Iberian interior. Moreover, findings on human occupation patterns in central Iberia suggest that cultural turnover periods that were often tentatively correlated with Heinrich events in fact appear to be related to extreme environmental conditions.

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by Marco Peresani,
Università di Ferrara, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Ferrara, Italy

One of the most investigated topics in palaeoanthropology is the pivotal phase in human evolution represented by the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic in Western Eurasia. When and how early Homo sapiens replaced the native population, Homo neanderthalensis, and the relations between these biological taxa and their respective material cultures are subjects of heated debate. Pieces of this intriguing puzzle have been unveiled in recent years from the cultural complexes known as the final Mousterian, the Uluzzian and the Protoaurignacian, which spread across the central Mediterranean rim from the Italian peninsula to the south of the Balkans (Palma di Cesnola 1989; Moroni et al. 2013). At present, the Uluzzian is the oldest known cultural expression associated with Anatomically Modern Humans (Benazzi et al. 2011) and is currently best known by its stratigraphic position above the final Mousterian in cave sedimentary sequences. This has also been observed in northern Italian caves, which expanded its cultural borders from what was thought to be exclusively southern after the discovery of assemblages at Grotta Fumane (Peresani et al. 2016) and at Riparo Broion (Peresani et al., 2019). This geographical space constrained from the Apennine, the Southern Alps, the Dinarids and the shallow Adriatic reach of MIS3, features high ecological diversity, and is of pivotal importance for influencing the possible human migratory routes and interactions between these biocultural worlds. To contribute to disentangle the story of the first modern human arrivals and the last Neanderthals in this area, we display on a behavioural perspective the possible relations occurred among different human groups by resuming a set of recently achieved evidence on chronology, human ecology and cultural aspects in the effort to evaluate the implications of innovations recorded in the 50-40 ky BP time frame.

by Katharina Neumann & Barbara Eichhorn,
University Frankfurt

Phytoliths are solid silica bodies formed in various plant tissues and organs, e.g. in leaves, stems, fruits and seeds. Due to their very durable nature, they are often present in ancient sediments and soils where other plant remains have not been preserved. Therefore they can play an important role for reconstructions of palaeoenvironments and human plant use in the past. Grasses (Poaceae) produce a myriad of different phytolith morphotypes and are therefore well-suited for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, especially in Africa where savannas and grasslands constitute the majority of vegetation types. Woody plants and herbs, on the other hand, often have only very few or unspecific phytoliths and are therefore mostly under-represented in phytolith assemblages. We will discuss potential and limitations of phytolith research in West, Central and East Africa, based on recent case studies.