Pioneers in a changing world – investigating the elusive settlement and mobility patterns of north European hunter-gather groups from the end of the last Ice Age

Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer groups had to cope with extensive climatic changes. When glaciers melted and water levels rose, large areas were flooded. Familiar landscapes disappeared whereas other areas were slowly made available for colonization. Human groups exploiting these pristine territories were few and their settlements scant. Tracking the movements of these elusive pioneers requires the collaborative effort of several scientific disciplines

Location Modeling of Final Palaeolithic Sites in Northern Germany

Location modeling, both inductive and deductive, is widely used in archaeology to predict or investigate the spatial distribution of sites. The commonality among these approaches is their consideration of only spatial effects of the first order (i.e., the interaction of the locations with the site characteristics). Second-order effects (i.e., the interaction of locations with each other) are rarely considered. We introduce a deductive approach to investigating such second-order effects using linguistic hypotheses about settling behavior in the Final Palaeolithic. A Poisson process was used to simulate a point distribution using expert knowledge of two distinct hunter–gatherer groups, namely, reindeer hunters and elk hunters. The modeled points and point densities were compared with the actual finds. The G-, F-, and K-function, which allow for the identification of second-order effects of varying intensity for different periods, were applied. The results reveal differences between the two investigated groups, with the reindeer hunters showing location-related interaction patterns, indicating a spatial memory of the preferred locations over an extended period of time. Overall, this paper shows that second-order effects occur in the geographical modeling of archaeological finds and should be taken into account by using approaches such as the one presented in this paper

Antler tool’s biography shortens time frame of Lyngby-axes to the last stage of the Late Glacial

International audienceThe topic of this research paper is a discussion on the relevance of the sole use of absolute dating for the culturalattribution of bone artefacts. Lyngby-axes are an artefact-type indicative of a single culture of the Late-Glacial, thoughradiometric dates suggest that a wider time period can be represented. It is discussed whether the direct dating of theutilised animal-based material always accurately reflects the age of the technology used to implement the artefact asa relevant cultural item. The technological approach used here points to the gathering of fossil antler, targeted asa convenient raw material for this tool

A submerged Stone Age hunting architecture from the Western Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea basins, some of which only submerged in the mid-Holocene, preserve Stone Age structures that did not survive on land. Yet, the discovery of these features is challenging and requires cross-disciplinary approaches between archeology and marine geosciences. Here we combine shipborne and AUV hydroacoustic data with up to a centimeter range resolution, sedimentological samples, and optical images to explore a Stone Age mega-structure located in 21 m water depth in the Bay of Mecklenburg, Germany. The structure is made of 1,673 individual stones which are usually less than 1 m in height, placed side by side over a distance of 971 m in a way that argues against a natural origin by glacial transport or ice push ridges. Running adjacent to the sunken shoreline of a paleo-lake (or bog), whose youngest phase was dated to 9143±36 ka BP, the stonewall was likely used for hunting the Eurasian reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) during the Younger Dryas or early Pre-Boreal. It was built by Hunter-gatherer groups that roamed the region after the retreat of the Weichselian Ice Sheet. Comparable Stone Age mega-structures have become known worldwide in recent times, but are almost unknown in Europe. Representing one of the oldest documented hunting structures on Earth, and potentially the largest known Stone Age structure in Europe, the site will become important for understanding subsistence strategies, mobility patterns, and inspire discussions concerning the territorial development in the Western Baltic Sea region

Move or stay put – Two distinct metapopulation responses to environmental degradation during the Gravettian and Late Palaeolithic at their ecological margins

International audienc