The new 14C chronology for the Palaeolithic site of La Ferrassie,France: the disappearance of Neanderthals and the arrival of Homo sapiens in France

The grand abri at La Ferrassie (France) has been a key site for Palaeolithic research since the early part of the 20th century. It became the eponymous site for one variant of Middle Palaeolithic stone tools, and its sequence was used to define stages of the Aurignacian, an early phase of the Upper Palaeolithic. Several Neanderthal remains, including two relatively intact skeletons, make it one of the most important sites for the study of Neanderthal morphology and one of the more important data sets when discussing the Neanderthal treatment of the dead. However, the site has remained essentially undated. Our goal here is to provide a robust chronological framework of the La Ferrassie sequence to be used for broad regional models about human behaviour during the late Middle to Upper Palaeolithic periods. To achieve this goal, we used a combination of modern excavation methods, extensive geoarchaeological analyses, and radiocarbon dating. If we accept that Neanderthals were responsible for the Châtelperronian, then our results suggest an overlap of ca. 1600 years with the newly arrived Homo sapiens found elsewhere in France.     

Age of Middle Pleistocene fauna and Lower Palaeolithic industries from Kent's Cavern,Devon

Kent's Cavern has long been known as potentially among the oldest Palaeolithic sites in the country, with the basal Breccia deposit containing a sparse Lower Palaeolithic industry. The sediment consists of a chaotic clayey conglomerate emplaced as a series of debris flows, which entered the cave via blocked entrances at its southwest end. The Breccia contains a fauna dominated by the bear Ursus deningeri, with lion Felis leo and the voles Arvicola cantiana and Microtus oeconomus, establishing a late Cromerian age for the deposit. The artefacts comprise an industry of crudely manufactured handaxes and flakes, and show damage suggesting that they were brought into the cave by the debris flows, and may thus predate the sediment and fauna. We demonstrate an age of >340 ka for the Breccia using two independant dating methods, consistent with existing models of the age of the British Middle Pleistocene sequence.     

周口店田园洞洞穴发育与充填序列探讨

周口店田园洞遗址是2001年新发现的一处重要的更新世晚期古人类遗址。该遗址经过两次发掘,出土了34件古人类化石和大量哺乳动物化石,是中国目前从人类化石本身所测得的最早现代人遗址。田园洞地处华北地台北部的燕山板内(陆内)构造带西南缘,发育于中元古界蓟县系薄层碳酸盐岩地层内。周围褶皱和次级断裂发育,岩脉侵入和片理化作用明显,为地下水的水平和垂直运动提供了大量不同级序和不同形式的通道,提高了岩石的透水性,有利于岩溶的发育。田园洞的形成以岩溶裂隙水垂直渗流方式沿岩脉和节理裂隙溶蚀而成。洞内地层对比和岩石矿物分析显示洞穴经历了洞穴发育期-快速堆积期-稳定沉积期-充填完成期的充填过程。动物化石和古人类化石属原地埋藏,古人类活动于角砾层快速堆积期。田园洞古人类活动的时间处于距今4万年前的晚更新世M IS 3阶段,对探讨中国现代人起源具有重要意义。     

New palaeontological evidence suggests an early Middle Pleistocene age for the lower levels of Sun Hole Cave,Cheddar, Somerset,UK

Sun Hole, a small fissure cave on the north side of Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, is best known as the site where late Upper Palaeolithic artefacts are associated with human and other mammal remains that immediately pre-date the Lateglacial interstadial. These remains from the upper levels (Unit I) overlie sediments (Unit II) that are thought to have accumulated during a full glacial period, below which are sediments (Unit III) attributed to an interglacial stage. The extinct land snail Retinella (Lyrodiscus) sp., which in Britain was only known from the Hoxnian Stage, had previously been recovered from Unit III. The interglacial at the base of the sequence was therefore assigned to the Hoxnian Stage (Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11, 424–374 kyr). Here we provide additional analyses of samples from Unit III, which as well as containing further Retinella (Lyrodiscus), also yielded a specimen of Monachoides incarnatus, its first record from the British Pleistocene. An associated assemblage of small mammals included a few that are rare in the British Pleistocene, such as birch mouse (Sicista cf. betulina) and garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus). The vole Lasiopodomys gregaloides and the shrew Sorex (Drepanosorex) savini do not occur as late as the Hoxnian and therefore suggest an older age in the early Middle Pleistocene. The record from Sun Hole therefore has parallels with the well-known sequence from the upper Calcareous Member in the nearby cavern system at Westbury-sub-Mendip.     

Additive effects of climate change and human hunting explain population decline and extinction in cave bears

Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) are an iconic component of the European late Quaternary Ice Age megafauna. Recent demographic analyses based on cave bear mtDNA sequences and refined radiocarbon dating indicate that cave bear population size and genetic diversity started to decline some 50 kilo years ago (kya). Hence, neither the coldest phase of the last glaciation (started some 24 kya), nor the colonization of Europe by Palaeolithic hunters (started some 45 kya) coincides with the beginning of population decline. Here, we reconstructed cave bear climatic niche evolution through time. Then, we performed spatially explicit population viability analyses to assess cave bear demographics through time in response to climatic changes, human effects on bear survival and their combination. We found that climate change was responsible for a 10‐fold decrease in cave bear population size after 40 kya. However, climate change on its own could not explain U. spelaeus extinction at 24 kya. Additional negative effects consistent with human population expansion are required to explain both U. spelaeus' retreat from eastern Europe since 40 kya and its final extinction.     

Cryptotephra from the 74 ka BP Toba super-eruption in the Billa Surgam caves,southern India

The ～74 ka BP Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT), from the largest known Quaternary volcanic eruption, has been found for the first time as a non-visible (crypto-) tephra layer within the Billa Surgam caves, southern India. The occurrence of the YTT layer in Charnel House Cave provides the first calendrical age estimate for this much debated Pleistocene faunal sequence and demonstrates the first successful application of cryptotephrochronology within a cave sequence. The YTT layer lies ～50 cm below a major sedimentological change, which is related to global cooling around the MIS 5 to MIS 4 transition. Using this isochronous event layer the Billa Surgam Cave record can be directly correlated with other archaeological sites in peninsular India and palaeoenvironmental archives across southern Asia.     

The latest Ursus spelaeus in Italy,a new contribution to the extinction chronology of the cave bear

The skeleton of a young prime adult cave bear, Ursus spelaeus, was found in Chiostraccio Cave (Siena, Tuscany, central Italy), only slightly buried under rock falls. The specimen was dated yielding a conventional age of 24,030 ± 100 ¹⁴C yr BP (29,200–28,550 cal yr BP), which makes it the latest known representative of the species in Italy. The skeleton was accompanied by the remains of wolf (Canis lupus), wild boar (Sus scrofa), aurochs (Bos primigenius), red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), bat (Vespertinus murinus), and crow (Corvus monedula). The site seems confirming that the latest Italian U. spelaeus populations shared the risk of intrusion. The association of the cave bear with other animals suggests that the assemblage is an attritional palimpsest of remains of different species not originally associated in life. Cave bears were probably more vegetarian than brown bears and possibly became extinct when plant productivity dropped at the onset of MIS 2. Central and southern Italy may have offered isolated and sheltered refugia for cave bears.     

Gibraltar woman and Neanderthal Man

Forbes' Quarry, on the Rock of Gibraltar, yielded a human skull in 1848, one of the earliest Neanderthal skeletal remains known to science. Fragments of a second Gibraltar skull, that of a child, were described from Devil's Tower rock shelter in 1928 and have recently been reconstructed and reinterpreted to emphasize the distinction of Homo neanderthalensis from H. sapiens . Neanderthal skeletal remains are confined to Europe, the Middle East and central Asia, their most recent occurrence arguably a refugium in southern Iberia. The race seemingly became extinct about 30 000 years Before Present, for reasons as yet unknown, but a programme of excavations in Gorham's and Vanguard caves on Gibraltar is in progress to elucidate palaeoenvironmental and behavioural changes as some of the last Neanderthals were succeeded stratigraphically by anatomically modern humans with an Upper Palaeolithic culture.     

Radiometric dating of the Middle Palaeolithic tool industry and associated fauna of Pin Hole Cave,Creswell Crags,England

Uranium-series dating of derived speleothem suggests that the sediments enclosing a Middle Palaeolithic stone artefact assemblage in Pin Hole Cave probably accumulated after about 64 ka, and ¹⁴C dates indicate a likely age of > 40 ka for the large mammal fauna associated with it. Electron spin resonance data from the fauna conform with these age constraints and are consistent with accumulation between 38 and 50 ka. This evidence supports the view that Britain was recolonised by hominids during Oxygen Isotope Stage 3. Stratigraphically higher stone tool industries demonstrate the local presence of both early Upper and late Upper Palaeolithic cultures. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

State-of-the-art overview of the Loess Palaeolithic of Poland

In Poland, loess mainly occurs in the southern part of the country, in the Polish Uplands, and on the northern foreland of the Sudetes and the Carpathians. Most of these sediments come from the time of the last glaciation–the Vistulian (Weichselian) glaciation. Thin covers of loess from the penultimate glaciation have been preserved in Upper Silesia. Only a few sites from the Middle Palaeolithic remain in the loess. In the eastern part of Poland loess creates profiles several metres high. Discoveries in this zone represent the cultural sequence from the transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic. We know more traces of various cultures from the Upper Palaeolithic exist. The study attempts to synchronise profiles from selected archaeological open-air sites, outlines of the history of research on loess sites, and attempts to explain terminological and conceptual issues. The issue of loess in the cave site profiles will not be discussed in the article.     

北京猿人洞堆积旋回与黄土和深海气候旋回对比

北京猿人洞13个堆积层可划分为7个堆积旋回。每个旋回早期的堆积层(砂、粉砂、粘土和钙扳层),含有暖温带气候特征的哺乳动物和孢粉组合;晚期的堆积层(洞穴角砾与巨砾层),含有温带较干冷气候特征的哺乳动物和孢粉组合。堆积层年代测定数据表明北京猿人洞7个堆积旋回形成于更新世中期,年代为128-730ka,与中国黄土层L2-S7,相当,可与深海氧同位素阶段6-19和气候旋回C-I对比。北京猿人在此洞断续生活了约35万年,即从距今约60万年的第5堆积旋回(δ18O第14阶段)至距今约25万年的第2堆积旋回(δ18O第8阶段)。     

河北临城崆山白云洞溶洞地貌和沉积特征及其影响因素*

河北崆山白云洞发育在以中寒武统张夏组厚层鲕粒灰岩为主的碳酸盐岩地层中。通过对洞穴结构、形态以及沉积物特征的观测分析,结合区域地质演化、古气候演变研究,认为：（1）白云洞由3层洞穴构成,上层为大型厅堂状,中层和下层为狭窄廊道状。洞穴展布受控于NNW、NE和近EW向断裂。（2）洞穴发育形态、规模不仅与岩性和构造有关,还取决于洞穴形成时期的构造稳定性及与之耦合的气候条件,其成层分布是间歇性构造抬升的结果。（3）溶洞沉积物形态多样,其中毛细水沉积的网状卷曲石、协同沉积的玉簪对净瓶等极为罕见。（4）溶洞发育过程中历经多次坍塌,损毁严重。现今的白云洞岩石破碎,结构稳定性差,易遭破坏。研究白云洞地貌和沉积特征及影响因素,对预测其未来变化、保护洞穴旅游资源有重要意义。     

Mammal remains at Rantis Cave,Israel, and Middle–Late Pleistocene human subsistence and ecology in the Southern Levant

Rantis Cave is a recently discovered filled cave in central Israel, displaying a rich faunal accumulation of micromammals, ungulates and carnivores. U–Th dating assigns the beginning of accumulation to ca. 140 ka. The accumulation is culturally assigned to the late half of the Middle Paleolithic (MP) period. Single‐grain optically stimulated luminescence measurements attest to a complex sedimentological history. We present the cross‐disciplinary results of taphonomic and geomorphological analyses, which point to the cave serving as a natural pitfall trap for the large fauna, with little human or carnivore activity. The fauna is dominated by Dama among the ungulates and by Microtus among the micromammals. These data in conjunction with ungulate tooth mesowear analysis suggest a xeric Mediterranean environment on the eastern margin of the southern Levantine foothills. The relative taxonomic abundance of ungulate taxa shows some differences from anthropogenic MP sites, possibly reflecting the prey choice patterns of MP hunters. Overall, the natural accumulation scenario for Rantis Cave provides a rare paleoenvironmental and paleoeconomic reference to the rich anthropogenic MP faunas of the Southern Levant, enabling the reconstruction of a rich and diverse environmental setting for this important human dispersal route. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chrono‐stratigraphy of the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sequence in Cova Gran (south‐eastern Pre‐Pyrenees,Iberian Peninsula)

The Cova Gran de Santa Linya (Lleida, Spain) is a recently discovered site, with a broad chrono‐cultural sequence that contains archaeological levels dating to the Middle Palaeolithic, Early Upper Palaeolithic, Late Upper Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. We present the chronometric and stratigraphic context of these occupations, which were dated using ¹⁴C accelerator mass spectrometry and thermoluminescence. The sequence provides important indicators that aid in the reconstruction of the history of human occupation on the southern slopes of the Spanish Pyrenees over the past 50,000 years. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

广西崇左三合大洞新发现的巨猿牙齿化石及其演化意义

文章报告了在广西崇左生态公园三合大洞中新发现的巨猿牙齿化石,这些新化石材料为研究巨猿演化及华南地区更新世动物群时代演化及环境变迁有着重要意义。三合大洞共出土巨猿牙齿56枚,除上犬齿,其他上、下颌牙齿种类齐全;从牙齿发育及磨损情况判断,这些材料代表了婴幼年、青少年、青壮年、中年及老年各年龄阶段的至少5个个体。测量了牙齿大小,并与其他的巨猿化石点的材料进行对比,认为三合大洞的巨猿牙齿与武鸣、巴马的巨猿有可比性。在此基础上,结合动物群组合特征及时代意义,探讨巨猿的牙齿大小时代演化趋势,同时提出存在的问题。     

北京房山世界地质公园岩溶景观特色

北京房山世界地质公园是以岩溶洞穴景观和峰丛地貌景观为主题的地质公园。大石河流域发育中奥陶统马家沟组石灰岩,自上而下,依次发育鸡毛洞、银狐洞、石花洞和孔水洞,由一条地下暗河将其连为一个洞系,其水源补给点在大石河上游,排泄点为孔水洞。周口店猿人遗址属于中奥陶统马家沟组岩溶洞穴。拒马河流域发育中元古界雾速山组白云岩,岩溶洞穴包括云水洞、仙栖洞、龙仙宫和三清洞,均属唐县期夷平面时期的产物。拒马河流域地层平缓的中元古界雾速山组峰丛地貌区东从张坊起,西至大沙地,南临笔架山,北抵石人峰,流域面积395km~2,其中碳酸盐岩岩石面积占360km~2,山体上部的岩石被溶解,形成峰丛地貌景观。     

Last Interglacial peopling of Siberia: the Middle Palaeolithic site Ust''-Izhul'', the upper Yenisei area

Multidisciplinary Quaternary investigations in the Minusinsk Basin in the upper Yenisei River region and other southern Siberian continental depressions have produced evidence of prehistoric peopling pre‐dating the last glacial stage (>100 ka BP). Abundant ‘pebble tools’ and bone artefacts exposed from eroded alluvia of the Yenisei River terraces indicate repeated occupation of this territory since the Middle Pleistocene. A new stage of expansion of the early human occupation habitat occurred around the last interglacial (OIS 5e) by a Middle Palaeolithic (Neanderthaloid?) population characterized by a core and flake stone industry and open‐air occupation sites. The key camp/kill‐processing site at Ust‘‐Izhul’, dated to c. 125 ka BP and documenting complex behavioural activities, is so far the most complete in situ pre‐Late Palaeolithic site found in Siberia. This unique record provides new insights into the timing and the palaeoenvironmental conditions of the Pleistocene colonization of north‐central Asia.     

Changing patterns in the late Pleistocene/early Holocene prehistory of Southern Africa as seen from the Nelson Bay Cave Stone artifact sequence

The dating of the Stone Age sequence in southern Africa has been considerably revised over the last decade, and one of the anomalies which has resulted is that the Middle Stone Age, now dated to beyond 30,000 B.P., does not immediately precede the Later Stone Age sensu stricto. The excavation and analysis of occupation horizons dating between the most recent Middle Stone Age assemblages and the Holocene is therefore of particular interest. Nelson Bay Cave, situated on the southern coast of South Africa, contains deposits which partly fill the “gap” between the Middle and Later Stone Ages, and the occupation horizons dating between about 18,000 and 5000 years ago are described in this paper. Changes in the habitat in the vicinity of the site caused by sea-level and vegetation changes coincident with the amelioration of temperatures at the end of the Pleistocene are clearly marked in the faunal remains at the site. Largely correlated with the faunal changes (which includes the introduction of marine resources to the cave at about 12,000 B.P.) are changes in the stone artifact assemblages. Three industries are recognized in the sequence: the Robberg, characterized by microbladelets produced from bladelet cores and a few small scrapers and backed tools; the Albany, characterized by large scrapers and an absence of backed tools; and the Wilton, characterized by a variety of Formal Tools including relatively large numbers of small scrapers and backed tools. These changes in artifact-manufacturing traditions are interpreted as signaling adjustments to changing environmental conditions. An explanation for these adjustments is not sought in a simple cause-and-effect relationship between the environment and the cultural response; artifact changes are seen instead as the result of a twofold process, with the environment acting as an external stimulus to change, and the direction of the artifact change governed by the selection of a range of possibilities offered by the technology of the Later Stone Age sensu lato that was widespread in subequatorial Africa during the last 20,000 years.     

Formation processes of cemented features in karstic cave sites revealed using stable oxygen and carbon isotopic analyses: A case study at middle paleolithic Amud Cave,Israel

Hearths are important archaeological features, serving to infer past practices related to hominin subsistence and social behaviors. The identification of hearths is not always straightforward due to post‐depositional processes. In karstic cave environments in particular it is not always easy to distinguish, in the field or in the laboratory, between geogenic and anthropogenic cemented features because both are composed of calcite. Here we present a novel study in which bulk oxygen and carbon isotopic analyses were used in order to unequivocally identify anthropogenic calcite derived from hearths in the Neanderthal site of Amud Cave (Israel). We demonstrate that the isotopic composition of wood ash is distinctively different from that of geogenic calcite. The linear relationship observed between carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions of the various sediment types in Amud Cave is interpreted as a mixing line between wood ash and geogenic calcite, thus enhancing our understanding of the origins of sedimentological variability at the site and showing that not all of the cemented sediments in Amud Cave should be regarded as hearths. Our study suggests that the relative abundance of validated hearths in the various areas of the cave may be associated with Neanderthal use of space in Amud Cave. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Effects of bears on rockshelter sediments at Tanay Sur‐les‐Creux,southwestern Switzerland

Sur‐les‐Creux rockshelter is located in the Prealps of southwestern Switzerland. The sequence of deposits in the rockshelter is 80 cm thick and consists of weathered gravels in a phosphate‐rich matrix. A few Middle Palaeolithic artifacts and the bones of cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) were recorded in the fill. We present the results of sedimentological, geochemical, and micromorphological analyses of the rockshelter sediment. All analyses suggest an endokarstic origin of the sediments. The alteration cortices of the gravels imply in situ weathering over a long period. The phosphates are essentially biogenic and have an apatitelike nature. Phosphatization and intense mixing of the sediment are attributed to cave bear (digging of lairs, input of excrements, and carcasses). Only rare carnivore coprolites (lynx) were preserved in the cave deposits. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.