Preparation of Pleistocene Human Bones with an Ultrasonic Scaler: The Case of Mandible ATD6-112 from Atapuerca (Spain)

The preparation of recently recovered fossil bones often consists of removing sediment by means of mechanical cleaning. A variety of tools are commonly employed in this process (hammers and chisels, air abrasion devices, pneumatic engraving pens, etc). Another tool, however, has received less attention in the literature: the ultrasonic scaler. An ultrasonic scaler is an ultrasonic device used by dentists to remove hard calculus deposits and stains from the teeth. In this article, we describe the preparation of the human mandible ATD6-112 from the Pleistocene site of Gran Dolina (Atapuerca, Spain) with an ultrasonic scaler. This article aims to describe the advantages and drawbacks of this tool for use in some cleaning processes.La préparation des ossements fossiles récemment découvert dans les sites archéologiques, consiste souvent à enlever le sédiment par nettoyage mécanique. Pour cela, une variété d’outils a été largement utilisée (marteaux et burins, dispositifs d’abrasion d’air, stylos pneumatiques). Moins rapportée, est l’utilisation d’un détartreur ultrasonique (un appareil à ultrasons utilisé par les dentistes pour enlever le tartre et les taches des dents). Dans cet article, nous décrivons la préparation réussie de la mandibule humaine ATD-112 du site archéologique pléistocène de Gran Dolina (Atapuerca, Espagne) par détartreur ultrasonique. Cet article vise à exposer les avantages et les inconvénients de cet outil à des fins de nettoyage

A demographic history of Late Pleistocene China

This paper proposes a demographic history of China in the last glacial cycle. This history is complex because China lies in both the Palearctic and Oriental biographic realms, and experienced several immigration events before H. sapiens. Immigration by our species into the Oriental Realm of south China from southeast Asia probably began as early as 80,000 years ago. North China has a different history: here, humans immigrated from Mongolia and southern Siberia ca. 45,000 years ago as part of a cold-adapted Palearctic fauna. These populations were largely independent of one another, and each needs to be seen as part of their respective biogeographic realms. The subsequent demographic history of China is one of mixing and inter-breeding of populations from both north and south China. In the LGM, north China (and Mongolia) were largely depopulated, and subsequent recolonization of north China occurred from both the north and the south. Explanations of the demographic history of China have to include developments beyond its borders, immigration, assimilation of new populations, and continuity of local groups

First directional European palaeosecular variation curve for the Neolithic based on archaeomagnetic data

Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age anthropogenic cave sediments from three caves from northern Spain have been palaeomagnetically investigated. 662 oriented specimens corresponding to 39 burning events (ash–carbonaceous couplets) from the three sites with an average of 16 samples per fire were collected. 26 new archaeomagnetic directions have been obtained for the time period ranging from 5500 to 2000 yr cal. BC. These results represent the oldest archaeomagnetic directions obtained from burnt archaeological materials throughout all Western Europe. Magnetisation is carried by pseudo-single domain low-coercivity ferromagnetic minerals (magnetite, magnetite with no significant isomorphous substitution and/or maghaemite). Rock-magnetic experiments indicate a thermoremanent origin of the magnetisation although a thermochemical magnetisation cannot be excluded. Combination of the new data presented here and the recent updated Bulgarian database allows us to propose the first European palaeosecular variation (PSV) curve for the Neolithic. A bootstrap method was applied for the curve construction using penalised cubic B-splines in time. The new palaeosecular variation curve is well constrained from 6000 BC to 3700 BC, the period with the highest density of data, showing a declination maximum around 4700 BC and a minimum in inclination at 4300 BC, which are not recorded by the recent global CALS10K.1b and regional SCHA.DIF.8K models due to the use of lake sediment data. Dating resolution by using the proposed PSV curve oscillates from approximately ±30 yr to ±200 yr for the period 6000 to 1000 yr BC, reaching similar resolution as radiocarbon dating. Considering the good preservation, age-control and widespread occurrence of burnt archaeological materials across Southern Europe, they represent a new source of data for geomagnetic field modelling, as well as for archaeomagnetic dating.Published124-1371A. Geomagnetismo e PaleomagnetismoJCR Journalrestricte

New luminescence ages for the Galeria Complex archaeological site: resolving chronological uncertainties on the Acheulean record of the Sierra de Atapuerca, Northern Spain

Published: October 22, 2014The archaeological karstic infill site of Galería Complex, located within the Atapuerca system (Spain), has produced a large faunal and archaeological record (Homo sp. aff. heidelbergensis fossils and Mode II lithic artefacts) belonging to the Middle Pleistocene. Extended-range luminescence dating techniques, namely post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (pIR-IR) dating of K-feldspars and thermally transferred optically stimulated luminescence (TT-OSL) dating of individual quartz grains, were applied to fossil-bearing sediments at Galería. The luminescence dating results are in good agreement with published chronologies derived using alternative radiometric dating methods (i.e., ESR and U-series dating of bracketing speleothems and combined ESR/U-series dating of herbivore teeth), as well as biochronology and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions inferred from proxy records (e.g., pollen data). For the majority of samples dated, however, the new luminescence ages are significantly (∼50%) younger than previously published polymineral thermoluminescence (TL) chronologies, suggesting that the latter may have overestimated the true burial age of the Galería deposits. The luminescence ages obtained indicate that the top of the basal sterile sands (GIb) at Galería have an age of up to ∼370 thousand years (ka), while the lowermost sub-unit containing Mode II Acheulean lithics (base of unit GIIa) was deposited during MIS 9 (mean age = 313±14 ka; n = 4). The overlying units GIIb-GIV, which contain the richest archaeopalaeontological remains, were deposited during late MIS 8 or early MIS 7 (∼240 ka). Galería Complex may be correlative with other Middle Pleistocene sites from Atapuerca, such as Gran Dolina level TD10 and unit TE19 from Sima del Elefante, but the lowermost archaeological horizons are ∼100 ka younger than the hominin-bearing clay breccias at the Sima de los Huesos site. Our results suggest that both pIR-IR and single-grain TT-OSL dating are suitable for resolving Middle Pleistocene chronologies for the Sierra de Atapuerca karstic infill sequences.Martina Demuro, Lee J. Arnold, Josep M. Parés, Alfredo Pérez-González, Ana I. Ortega, Juan L. Arsuaga, José M. Bermúdez de Castro, Eudald Carbonel

The Atapuerca sites and the Ibeas hominids

The Atapuerca railway Trench and Ibeas sites near Burgos, Spain, are cave fillings that include a series of deposits ranging from below the Matuyama/Bruhnes reversal up to the end of Middle Pleistocene. The lowest fossil-bearing bed in the Trench contains an assemblage of large and small Mammals including Mimomys savini, Pitymys gregaloides, Pliomys episcopalis, Crocuta crocuta, Dama sp. and Megacerini; the uppermost assemblage includes Canis lupus, Lynx spelaea, Panthera (Leo) fossilis, Felis sylvestris, Equus caballus steinheimensis, E.c. germanicus, Pitymys subtenaneus, Microtus arvalis agrestis, Pliomys lenki, and also Panthera toscana, Dicerorhinus bemitoechus, Bison schoetensacki, which are equally present in the lowest level. The biostratigraphic correlation and dates of the sites are briefly discussed, as are the paleoclimatic interpretation of the Trench sequences. Stone artifacts are found in several layers; the earliest occurrences correspond to the upper beds containing Mimomys savini. A set of preserved human occupation floors has been excavated in the top fossil-bearing beds. The stone-tool assemblages of the upper levels are of upper-medial Acheulean to Charentian tradition. The rich bone breccia SH, in the Cueva Mayor-Cueva del Silo, Ibeas de Juarros, is a derived deposit, due to a mud flow that dispersed and carried the skeletons of many carnivores and humans. The taxa represented are: Vrsus deningeri (largely dominant), Panthera (Leo) fossilis, Vulpes vulpes, Homo sapiens var. Several traits of both mandibular and cranial remains are summarized. Preliminary attempts at dating suggest that the Ibeas fossil man is older than the Last Interglacial, or oxygen-isotope stage 5

Earliest evidence of pollution by heavy metals in archaeological sites

Homo species were exposed to a new biogeochemical environment when they began to occupy caves. Here we report the first evidence of palaeopollution through geochemical analyses of heavy metals in four renowned archaeological caves of the Iberian Peninsula spanning the last million years of human evolution. Heavy metal contents reached high values due to natural (guano deposition) and anthropogenic factors (e.g. combustion) in restricted cave environments. The earliest anthropogenic pollution evidence is related to Neanderthal hearths from Gorham's Cave (Gibraltar), being one of the first milestones in the so-called “Anthropocene”. According to its heavy metal concentration, these sediments meet the present-day standards of “contaminated soil”. Together with the former, the Gibraltar Vanguard Cave, shows Zn and Cu pollution ubiquitous across highly anthropic levels pointing to these elements as potential proxies for human activities. Pb concentrations in Magdalenian and Bronze age levels at El Pirulejo site can be similarly interpreted. Despite these high pollution levels, the contaminated soils might not have posed a major threat to Homo populations. Altogether, the data presented here indicate a long-term exposure of Homo to these elements, via fires, fumes and their ashes, which could have played certain role in environmental-pollution tolerance, a hitherto neglected influence.Francisco J. Jiménez Palacios and to the Analytical Chemistry Department (Sevilla University) are gratefully acknowledged for their help in the use of Carbolite electric oven. A.G.-A. was supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship of the 7th Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration (European Commission). R.B. is a Beatriu de Pinós-A post-doctoral fellowship recipient (Generalitat de Catalunya and COFUND Marie Curie Actions, EU-FP7). This work also was partially financed by projects 19434/PI/14 Fundación Séneca, HARP2013-44269P, CGL-BOS-2012-34717, CGL2012-38434-C03-03 and CGL2012-38358 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, 2014 SGR 900 and 2014/100573 Generalitat de Catalunya-AGAUR, RNM 432 Research Group 179 (Junta de Andalucia) and MEXT-Japan

The first hominin of Europe

The earliest hominin occupation of Europe is one of the most debated topics in palaeoanthropology. However, the purportedly oldest of the Early Pleistocene sites in Eurasia lack precise age control and contain stone tools rather than human fossil remains(1-5). Here we report the discovery of a human mandible associated with an assemblage of Mode 1 lithic tools and faunal remains bearing traces of hominin processing, in stratigraphic level TE9 at the site of the Sima del Elefante, Atapuerca, Spain(6-8). Level TE9 has been dated to the Early Pleistocene ( approximately 1.2 - 1.1 Myr), based on a combination of palaeomagnetism, cosmogenic nuclides and biostratigraphy. The Sima del Elefante site thus emerges as the oldest, most accurately dated record of human occupation in Europe, to our knowledge. The study of the human mandible suggests that the first settlement of Western Europe could be related to an early demographic expansion out of Africa. The new evidence, with previous findings in other Atapuerca sites ( level TD6 from Gran Dolina(9-13)), also suggests that a speciation event occurred in this extreme area of the Eurasian continent during the Early Pleistocene, initiating the hominin lineage represented by the TE9 and TD6 hominins.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62855/1/nature06815.pd

Insights on the Early Pleistocene Hominin Population of the Guadix-Baza Depression (SE Spain) and a Review on the Ecology of the First Peopling of Europe

The chronology and environmental context of the first hominin dispersal in Europe have been subject to debate and controversy. The oldest settlements in Eurasia (e.g., Dmanisi, ∼1.8 Ma) suggest a scenario in which the Caucasus and southern Asia were occupied ∼0.4 Ma before the first peopling of Europe. Barranco León (BL) and Fuente Nueva 3 (FN3), two Early Pleistocene archeological localities dated to ∼1.4 Ma in Orce (Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain), provide the oldest evidence of hominin presence in Western Europe. At these sites, huge assemblages of large mammals with evidence of butchery and marrow processing have been unearthed associated to abundant Oldowan tools and a deciduous tooth of Homo sp. in the case of BL. Here, we: (i) review the Early Pleistocene archeological sites of Europe; (ii) discuss on the subsistence strategies of these hominins, including new estimates of resource abundance for the populations of Atapuerca and Orce; (iii) use cartographic data of the sedimentary deposits for reconstructing the landscape habitable in Guadix-Baza; and (iv) calculate the size of the hominin population using an estimate of population density based on resource abundance. Our results indicate that Guadix-Baza could be home for a small hominin population of 350–280 individuals. This basin is surrounded by the highest mountainous reliefs of the Alpine-Betic orogen and shows a limited number of connecting corridors with the surrounding areas, which could have limited gene flow with other hominin populations. Isolation would eventually lead to bottlenecks, genetic drift and inbreeding depression, conditions documented in the wild dog population of the basin, which probably compromised the viability of the hominin population in the medium to long term. This explains the discontinuous nature of the archeological record in Guadix-Baza, a situation that can also be extrapolated to the scarcity of hominin settlements for these ancient chronologies in Europe