How did hominins adapt to Ice Age Europe without fire?

Analyses of archaeological material recovered from several Middle Paleolithic sites in southwest France have provided strong corroborating data on Neanderthal use of fire. Both direct and indirect data show that Neanderthals in this region were frequently and/or intensively using fire during warmer periods, but such evidence declines significantly in occupations that took place during colder periods. One possible explanation for this pattern is that it reflects the inability of Western European Neanderthals to make fire, simply because natural sources of fire occur much more frequently during warmer climatic periods. Regardless of the explanation, the long periods of diminished evidence of fire shows that, unlike modern humans, these hominins were not obligate fire users, and this fact in itself raises important questions of how they adapted, physiologically and/or technologically, to the generally harsh glacial conditions of the middle latitude of Europe and to reduced energy returns typical of raw food. As a corollary, it also raises questions regarding their need for and use of fire during the warmer periods.National Science FoundationLeakey FoundationConseil General de la DordogneMax Planck SocietyService Regional de l'Archeologie (Agquitaine)University of Pennsylvania Research FoundationUniversity of Pennsylvania MuseumWenner-Gren Foundationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Late Pleistocene prey mobility in southwestern France and its implications for reconstructing Neandertal ranging behaviors

We thank Sarah Barakat for consultation. We also thank Jenni Henecke, Jen Everhart, Carol Lee, Charisse Carver, and Hope Williams for assistance with 87Sr/86Sr sample preparation. Access to the Metal Geochemistry Center at Yale University was kindly granted by Noah Planavsky, and Dan Asael assisted with 87Sr/86Sr measurement there. Jiuyuan Wang provided important advice on 87Sr/86Sr data correction, and Alice Knaf shared insights into sample elution. We would also like to thank Curtis Marean, Kim Hill, David Strait, Caley Orr, and Ben Schoville for advice and comments on the manuscript. Two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments that improved the quality of the manuscript. Finally, we thank the late Harold Dibble for access to the Roc de Marsal collections. CRediT authorship contribution statement Jamie Hodgkins: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Alex Bertacchi: Formal analysis, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. Kelly J. Knudson: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing. Troy Rasbury: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing. Julia I. Giblin: Methodology, Resources. Gwyneth Gordon: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing. Ariel Anbar: Resources. Alain Turq: Resources. Dennis Sandgathe: Resources, Writing – review & editing. Hannah M. Keller: Visualization, Writing – review & editing. Kate Britton: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing. Shannon P. McPherron: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing.Peer reviewe

Identifying the unidentified fauna enhances insights into hominin subsistence strategies during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition

Understanding Palaeolithic hominin subsistence strategies requires the comprehensive taxonomic identification of faunal remains. The high fragmentation of Late Pleistocene faunal assemblages often prevents proper taxonomic identification based on bone morphology. It has been assumed that the morphologically unidentifiable component of the faunal assemblage would reflect the taxonomic abundances of the morphologically identified portion. In this study, we analyse three faunal datasets covering the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition (MUPT) at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria) and Les Cottés and La Ferrassie (France) with the application of collagen type I peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS). Our results emphasise that the fragmented component of Palaeolithic bone assemblages can differ significantly from the morphologically identifiable component. We obtain contrasting identification rates between taxa resulting in an overrepresentation of morphologically identified reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and an underrepresentation of aurochs/bison (Bos/Bison) and horse/European ass (Equus) at Les Cottés and La Ferrassie. Together with an increase in the relative diversity of the faunal composition, these results have implications for the interpretation of subsistence strategies during a period of possible interaction between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in Europe. Furthermore, shifts in faunal community composition and in carnivore activity suggest a change in the interaction between humans and carnivores across the MUPT and indicate a possible difference in site use between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The combined use of traditional and biomolecular methods allows (zoo)archaeologists to tackle some of the methodological limits commonly faced during the morphological assessment of Palaeolithic bone assemblages

The Roc de Marsal Neandertal child: a reassessment of its status as a deliberate burial

Whether Neandertals buried their dead has considerable bearing on the debate concerning the nature of their cultural behavior. Among the claims for intentional Neandertal burial in Europe, the child from Roc de Marsal has long been one of the less contentious examples because its articulated skeleton was found in what has become widely accepted as an intentionally excavated pit. However, what is known about the context of the Roc de Marsal remains from the original descriptions, coupled with new stratigraphic, sedimentological, and archaeological data on the site from recent excavations, cast serious doubt on this interpretation

The age of three Middle Palaeolithic sites: single-grain optically stimulated luminescence chronologies for Pech de l\u27Azé I, II and IV in France

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements were made on individual, sand-sized grains of quartz from Middle Palaeolithic deposits at three sites (Pech de l\u27Azé I, II and IV) located close to one another in the Dordogne region of southwest France. We were able to calculate OSL ages for 69 samples collected from these three sites. These ages reveal periods of occupation between about 180 and 50 thousand years ago. Our single-grain OSL chronologies largely support previous age estimates obtained by thermoluminescence dating of burnt flints at Pech IV, electron spin resonance dating of tooth enamel at Pech I, II and IV and radiocarbon dating of bone at Pech I and IV, but provide a more complete picture due to the ubiquitous presence of sand-sized quartz grains used in OSL dating. These complete chronologies for the three sites have allowed us to compare the single-grain ages for similar lithic assemblages among the three sites, to test the correlations among them previously proposed by Bordes in the 1970s, and to construct our own correlative chronological framework for the three sites. This shows that similar lithic assemblages occur at around the same time, and that where a lithic assemblage is unique to one or found at two of the Pech sites, there are no deposits of chronologically equivalent age at the other Pech site(s). We interpret this to mean that, at least for these Pech de l\u27Azé sites, the Mousterian variants show temporal ordering. Whether or not this conclusion applies to the wider region and beyond, the hypothesis that Mousterian industrial variation is temporally ordered cannot be refuted at this time

Context, curation, and bias: an evaluation of the Middle Paleolithic collections of Combe-Grenal (France)

The site of Combe-Grenal is arguably the reference site for the Mousterian of southwest France. Bordes excavated the site over a period of 13 years and generated a large collection of lithics and fauna from a deep series of 64 Lower and Middle Paleolithic levels. Though Bordes only partially published his work at the site, its long stratigraphic sequence and particularly its collections have been subjected to numerous studies over the years and have figured prominently in several long-running debates concerning the Mousterian. Recently, the authors undertook a project to inventory and analyzed these collections along with the documentation of their archaeological context. In so doing, however, a number of serious problems became apparent with the collection in its current state, problems that cannot easily be resolved given the state of the available documentation. These problems have important implications not only for results of studies based on these collections, but more generally, they also point to problems in terms of how archaeological collections are curated

Neanderthal plant use and pyrotechnology: phytolith analysis from Roc de Marsal, France

The plant component of Neanderthal subsistence and technology is not well documented, partially due to the preservation constraints of macrobotanical components. Phytoliths, however, are preserved even when other plant remains have decayed and so provide evidence for Neanderthal plant use and the environmental context of archaeological sites. Phytolith assemblages from Roc de Marsal, a Middle Paleolithic cave site in SW France, provide new insight into the relationship between Neanderthals and plant resources. Ninety-seven samples from all archaeological units and 18 control samples are analyzed. Phytoliths from the wood and bark of dicotyledonous plants are the most prevalent, but there is also a significant proportion of grass phytoliths in many samples. Phytolith densities are much greater in earlier layers, which is likely related to the presence of combustion features in those layers. These phytoliths indicate a warmer, wetter climate, whereas phytoliths from upper layers indicate a cooler, drier environment. Phytoliths recovered from combustion features indicate that wood was the primary plant fuel source, while grasses may have been used as surface preparations.US National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [0917739, 0650198, 0551927]Leakey FoundationUniversity of Pennsylvania Research FoundationService Regional de l'ArcheologieConseil General de la DordogneRegion Nouvelle-AquitaineBoston University Graduate Research Abroad Fellowshipinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evidence for Neandertal use of fire at Roc de Marsal (France)

The association of Neandertal occupations with fire has been reported for several European late Middle Paleolithic sites. Renewed excavations at the French site of Roc de Marsal (Dordogne) have exposed a series of well-preserved fire features associated with artifact-rich Neandertal occupations. This paper provides detailed descriptions of the combustion sediments and associated archaeological assemblages, using field observations and laboratory methods, including soil micromorphology, FTIR, and GIS techniques. From an integrity point of view, the available data demonstrate the excellent preservation of the hearths at Roc de Marsal, which display minimal or no post-depositional movement. However, our results suggest that it is often impossible to access the level of contemporaneity between different combustion events, the absence of association between burned objects and the hearths, and that it is often very difficult to distinguish distinct fire events based solely on macroscopic observations. These problems have significant implications for how such features are excavated and analyzed

Les fouilles récentes du Pech de l’Azé IV (Dordogne)

The Mousterian site of Pech de l’Azé IV is located in Carsac (Dordogne) in the Perigord region of southwest of France, very near the town of Sarlat. The site was excavated during the 1970s by F. Bordes but it was never well published. In 2000 we published a study of the lithics from Bordes’ excavations. From 2000 to 2003 we conducted new work at the site to re-study the stratigraphy in order, to better understand the site’s formation processes, and to obtain dates from the sequence. We present here some initial results on the geology, a description of the stone tool industries, and some initial ESR dates (the dating program is still in progress). A detailed micro-and macroscopic study of the eight main stratigraphic levels shows that the sandy deposits come from a vast cave system that likely includes all the sites of Pech de l’Azé (I, II, and IV). The lowest level, which is characterized by dark, organic sediments, is particularly interesting. It includes within it multiple combustion zones that show evidence of having been subsequently trampled and perhaps emptied. Though the deposits come from a temperate climate, the sediments of anthropogenic origin are nevertheless well conserved. Macroscopically, there are traces of solifluction in the sequence, but the micromorphological analysis shows practically no evidence of a cold climate. As for the lithic industries, the new collection is in general comparable to that of Bordes. Nevertheless, there are some new elements including the presence of Quina technology in the upper part of the sequence.Le gisement moustérien du Pech de l’Azé IV se situe à Carsac (Dordogne) en Périgord, près de Sarlat, dans le sud-ouest de la France. Fouillé par F. Bordes durant les années 1970, il n’a jamais été véritablement publié si l’on excepte l’étude que nous avons consacrée en 2000 au matériel issu de ses fouilles. Les travaux de terrain effectués dans ce gisement entre 2000 et 2003 avaient pour but de faire une nouvelle lecture stratigraphique, de préciser les processus de formation du site et de dater la séquence. Nous présentons ici les premiers résultats concernant la géologie, ainsi qu’une description rapide des industries et les premières dates ESR, le programme engagé étant toujours en cours. L’étude microscopique et macroscopique détaillée des huit principales couches stratigraphiques révèle que les dépôts sableux proviennent d’un même et vaste système de grottes englobant probablement l’ensemble des sites moustériens du Pech de l’Azé (I, II et IV). Le niveau inférieur, dépôt sombre et organique, est particulièrement intéressant. Il renferme de multiples surfaces de combustion souvent piétinées et peut-être des vidanges de foyers. Bien que déposés sous un climat tempéré, les sédiments d’origine anthropique sont bien conservés. Si, dans la séquence, l’observation macroscopique a permis d’identifier des phénomènes de solifluxion, l’analyse microscopique n’a montré pratiquement aucun indice d’un climat froid. En ce qui concerne les industries, les nouvelles séries sont globalement comparables aux anciennes. Toutefois, quelques nouveaux éléments sont apparus, notamment la présence d’une technologie Quina dans la partie supérieure de la séquence.Turq Alain, Dibble Harold Lewis, Goldberg Paul, McPherron Shannon P., Sandgathe Dennis M., Jones Heather L., Maddison Kerry, Maureille Bruno, Mentzer Suzanne, Rink Jack W., Steenhuyse Alexandre. Les fouilles récentes du Pech de l’Azé IV (Dordogne). In: Gallia préhistoire, tome 53, 2011. pp. 1-58

Measuring spatial structure in time-averaged deposits insights from Roc de Marsal, France

The use of space, both at the landscape and the site level, is considered an important aspect of hominin adaptations that changed through time. At the site level, spatial analyses are typically conducted on deposits thought to have a high degree of temporal resolution. Sites with highly time-averaged deposits are viewed as inferior for these analyses because repeated site visits obscure individual behavioral events. To the contrary, here, we take the view that behaviors that repeat themselves in a spatially structured way through time are exactly the kinds of behaviors that are potentially significant at an evolutionary timescale. In this framework, time averaging is seen not as a hindrance but rather as a necessary condition for viewing meaningful behavior. To test whether such patterning is visible in time-averaged deposits, we use spatial statistics to analyze a number of indices designed to measure lithic production, use and discard behaviors in a multi-layer, late Neandertal cave site in southwest France. We find that indeed some such patterning does exist, and thus sites with highly time-averaged deposits have the potential to contribute to our understanding of how hominin use of space varied through time. This is useful because a great many archaeological sites have highly time-average deposits. Interpreting the spatial patterning will likely require modeling to create expectations in time-averaged and likely emergent contexts such as these.US National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [09177739, 0551927]Leakey FoundationUniversity of Pennsylvania Research FoundationService Regional de l'Archeologie d'AquitaineRegion Nouvelle-AquitaineConseil General de la DordogneRegion Nouvelle-AquitaineMax Planck SocietyMax Planck SocietyFoundation CELLEXCenter for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at George Washington Universityinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio