The Site Groß Fredenwalde, NE-Germany, and the Early Cemeteries of Northern Europe

The Mesolithic burial site Groß Fredenwalde, NE-Germany, discovered in 1962, had remained a poorly understood part of the Mesolithic burial record for decades. Since 2012, the site has been under re-investigation. New discoveries confirm the presence of several single and multiple inhumation graves. Groß Fredenwalde stands out as the largest and one of the oldest Mesolithic cemeteries in North-central Europe. Its use period can be separated into two phases: a main phase in the late seventh millennium cal BC to the early sixth millennium cal BC and a later single burial c. 4900 cal BC. Here the state of research on the site is presented and selected characteristics are discussed in the context of early cemeteries of Northern and North-eastern Europe

Late Weichselian landscape development and human settlement in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (NE Germany)

researc

Aeolian sedimentation in the Rhine and Main area from the Late Glacial until the Mid-Holocene

Äolische Sedimente (sandiger Löss, Flugsand) wurden durch pedologische und geochronologische Methoden (OSL) mit dem Ziel untersucht, hieraus Aussagen zur stratigraphischen Abfolge und zum Ablagerungsalter zu gewinnen und diese Ergebnisse auf die Ergebnisse der archäologischen Ausgrabung zu beziehen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Ablagerung des Lösses im Spätglazial auf einer älteren Lage von Windkantern erfolgte und dieser am Ende des Pleistozäns von äolischem Sand überdeckt wurde. Untersuchungen der fundführenden Schichten ergaben eine mittelholozäne Datierung (6.9 ka), die mit einer lokalen Störung durch äolische Sedimentumlagerungen in Folge anthropogener Landschaftsveränderungen während des Neolithikums erklärt werden. Diese Untersuchungsergebnisse werden vor dem Hintergrund vergleichbarer äolischer Stratigraphien und Fundplätz im Rhein-Main-Gebiet diskutiert.researc

Die „Riesenhirschfundstelle" von Endingen: geowissenschaftliche und archäologische Untersuchungen an einem spätglazialen Fundplatz in Vorpommern

Vorgestellt werden Neuuntersuchungen an einem 1899 beim Sandabbau entdeckten spätglazialen Fundplatz im Kr. Nordvorpommern. Die z. T. Bearbeitungsspuren aufweisenden Knochenartefakte stammen zum größten Teil vom Elch, je einmal sind Riesenhirsch und Pferd vertreten. Lithische Artefakte sind nicht überliefert. Der in das frühe Alleröd datierende Elchjägerplatz Endingen VI repräsentiert den ältesten absolut datierten Nachweis einer menschlichen Besiedlung in Nordostdeutschland. Die Fundschicht selbst ist offenbar vollständig zerstört worden. Unmittelbar benachbarte Profile weisen eine Abfolge basaler Geschiebemergel, fluvialer Sand des Pleniglazials, spätglaziale Silikatmudde und fluvialer Sand der Jüngeren Dryas auf. Ein Pollendiagramm aus der Silikatmudde zeigt eine Palynostratigraphie vom „Bölling" (neu: „Hippophaë-Phase") bis zum mittleren Alleröd. Die Sedimentbildung und die Vegetationsentwicklung am Fundplatz werden erläutert sowie spätglaziale Nachweise des Riesenhirsches im nördlichen Mitteleuropa diskutiert.researc

Flesh or fish? First results of archaeometric research of prehistoric burials from Sakhtysh IIa, Upper Volga region, Russia

Graves and their human remains not only shed light on burial customs and social structures of past populations, but also constitute an excellent archive of prehistoric environmental and living conditions. Especially 13C/15N isotope analysis has recently opened up promising perspectives for reconstructing changes in diet and their social, cultural and economic background. Such investigations have been started on material from the Stone and Early Metal Age hunter-gatherer cemetery of Sakhtysh IIa in the Upper Volga region of Central Russia, where 15 burials associated with the early Lyalovo culture (5th mill. calBC) and 57 graves of the Volosovo culture (4th – 3rd mill. calBC) have been excavated. In this paper, we present new AMS dates and isotopic data from four burials, two from the earlier and two from the later group. The results are discussed against the background of existing dates from Sakhtysh IIa burials and compared with information from other burial sites of Northern Europe

The wooden artifacts from Schöningen’s Spear Horizon and their place in human evolution

Ethnographic records show wooden tools played a pivotal role in the daily lives of hunter-gatherers including food procurement tools used in hunting (e.g. spears, throwing sticks) and gathering (e.g. digging sticks, bark peelers), as well as, domestic tools (e.g. handles, vessels). However, wood rarely survives in the archaeological record, especially in Pleistocene contexts and knowledge of prehistoric hunter-gatherer lifeways is strongly biased by the survivorship of more resilient materials such as lithics and bones. Consequently, very few Palaeolithic sites have produced wooden artefacts and among them, the site of Schöningen stands out due to its number and variety of wooden tools. The recovery of complete wooden spears and throwing sticks at this 300,000-year-old site (MIS 9) led to a paradigm shift in the hunter vs scavenger debate. For the first time and almost 30 years after their discovery, this study introduces the complete wooden assemblage from Schöningen 13 II-4 known as the Spear Horizon. In total, 187 wooden artefacts could be identified from the Spear Horizon demonstrating a broad spectrum of wood working techniques, including the splitting technique. A minimum of 20 hunting weapons is now recognised and two newly identified artefact types comprise 35 tools made on split woods, which were likely used in domestic activities. Schöningen 13 II-4 represents the largest Pleistocene wooden artefact assemblage worldwide and demonstrates the key role woodworking had in human evolution. Finally, our results considerably change the interpretation of the Pleistocene lakeshore site of Schöningen

Genetic discontinuity between local hunter-gatherers and Europes first farmers

Following the domestication of animals and crops in the Near East some 11,000 years ago, farming reached much of Central Europe by 7,500 before present. The extent to which these early European farmers ere immigrants, or descendants of resident hunter-gatherers who had learnt farming, has been widely debated. We compare new mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from late European hunter-gatherer skeletons with those from early farmers, and from modern Europeans. We find large genetic differences betwee all three groups that cannot be explained by population continuity alone. Most (82 %) of the ancient hunter-gatherers share mtDNA types that are relatively rare in Central Europeans today. Together, thse analyses provide persuasive evidence that the first farmers were not the descendants of local hunergatherers but immigrated into Central Europe at the onset of the Neolithic

Pyruvate: ferredoxin oxidoreductase and low abundant ferredoxins support aerobic photomixotrophic growth in cyanobacteria

The decarboxylation of pyruvate is a central reaction in the carbon metabolism of all organisms. It is catalyzed by the pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PFOR) and the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex. Whereas PFOR reduces ferredoxin, the PDH complex utilizes NAD+. Anaerobes rely on PFOR, which was replaced during evolution by the PDH complex found in aerobes. Cyanobacteria possess both enzyme systems. Our data challenge the view that PFOR is exclusively utilized for fermentation. Instead, we show, that the cyanobacterial PFOR is stable in the presence of oxygen in vitro and is required for optimal photomixotrophic growth under aerobic and highly reducing conditions while the PDH complex is inactivated. We found that cells rely on a general shift from utilizing NAD(H)- to ferredoxin-dependent enzymes under these conditions. The utilization of ferredoxins instead of NAD(H) saves a greater share of the Gibbs-free energy, instead of wasting it as heat. This obviously simultaneously decelerates metabolic reactions as they operate closer to their thermodynamic equilibrium. It is common thought that during evolution, ferredoxins were replaced by NAD(P)H due to their higher stability in an oxidizing atmosphere. However, the utilization of NAD(P)H could also have been favored due to a higher competitiveness because of an accelerated metabolism.</p

First direct evidence of lion hunting and the early use of a lion pelt by Neanderthals

During the Upper Paleolithic, lions become an important theme in Paleolithic art and are more frequent in anthropogenic faunal assemblages. However, the relationship between hominins and lions in earlier periods is poorly known and primarily interpreted as interspecies competition. Here we present new evidence for Neanderthal-cave lion interactions during the Middle Paleolithic. We report new evidence of hunting lesions on the 48,000 old cave lion skeleton found at Siegsdorf (Germany) that attest to the earliest direct instance of a large predator kill in human history. A comparative analysis of a partial puncture to a rib suggests that the fatal stab was delivered with a wooden thrusting spear. We also present the discovery of distal lion phalanges at least 190,000 old from Einhornhöhle (Germany), representing the earliest example of the use of cave lion skin by Neanderthals in Central Europe. Our study provides novel evidence on a new dimension of Neanderthal behavioral complexity