Early modern human settlement of Europe north of the Alps occurred 43,500 years ago in a cold steppe-type environment.

The first settlement of Europe by modern humans is thought to have occurred between 50,000 and 40,000 calendar years ago (cal B.P.). In Europe, modern human remains of this time period are scarce and often are not associated with archaeology or originate from old excavations with no contextual information. Hence, the behavior of the first modern humans in Europe is still unknown. Aurignacian assemblages--demonstrably made by modern humans--are commonly used as proxies for the presence of fully behaviorally and anatomically modern humans. The site of Willendorf II (Austria) is well known for its Early Upper Paleolithic horizons, which are among the oldest in Europe. However, their age and attribution to the Aurignacian remain an issue of debate. Here, we show that archaeological horizon 3 (AH 3) consists of faunal remains and Early Aurignacian lithic artifacts. By using stratigraphic, paleoenvironmental, and chronological data, AH 3 is ascribed to the onset of Greenland Interstadial 11, around 43,500 cal B.P., and thus is older than any other Aurignacian assemblage. Furthermore, the AH 3 assemblage overlaps with the latest directly radiocarbon-dated Neanderthal remains, suggesting that Neanderthal and modern human presence overlapped in Europe for some millennia, possibly at rather close geographical range. Most importantly, for the first time to our knowledge, we have a high-resolution environmental context for an Early Aurignacian site in Central Europe, demonstrating an early appearance of behaviorally modern humans in a medium-cold steppe-type environment with some boreal trees along valleys around 43,500 cal B.P.We thank the Leakey Foundation (2006–2012), Max Planck Society (2006–2012), University of Vienna (2006–2011), Hugo Obermaier Society (2006), Federal Office for Scientific Affairs of the State of Belgium (projects Sc-004, Sc-09, MO/36/021), and the Hochschuljubiläumsfonds of the City of Vienna (2007) for funding our research. We further acknowledge the support of the Department of Prehistory (Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria; W. Antl-Weiser), Marktgemeinde Aggsbach (H. Gerstbauer), Museumsverein Willendorf (K. Kappelmüller), and the Satzl and Perzl families.This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available from PNAS at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/09/16/1412201111.abstract

Effects of Bias-Corrected Regional Climate Projections and Their Spatial Resolutions on Crop Model Results under Different Climatic and Soil Conditions in Austria

The quality, reliability, and uncertainty of Austrian climate projections (ÖKS15) and their impacts on the results of the crop model DSSAT for three different orographic and climatic agricultural regions in Austria were analyzed. Cultivar-specific grain yields of winter wheat, spring barley, and maize were simulated for different soil classes to address three main objectives. First, the uncertainties of simulated crop yields related to the ÖKS15 projections were analyzed under current climate conditions. The climate projections revealed that the case study regions with higher humidity levels generally had lower yield deviations than the drier regions (yield deviations from −19% to +15%). Regarding the simulated crop types, spring barley was found to be less sensitive to the climate projections than rainfed maize, and the response was greater in regions with a low soil water storage capacity. The second objective was to simulate crop yields for the same cultivars using future climate projections. Winter wheat and spring barley tended to show increased yields by the end of the century due to an assumed CO2-fertilization effect in the range of 3–23%, especially under RCP 8.5. However, rainfed and irrigated maize were associated with up to 17% yield reductions in all three study regions due to a shortened growth period caused by warming. The third objective addressed the effects of crop model weather input data with different spatial resolutions (1 vs. 5, 11, and 21 km) on simulated crop yields using the climate projections. Irrigated grain maize and rainfed spring barley had the lowest simulated yield deviations between the spatial scales applied due to their better water supply conditions. The ranges of uncertainty revealed by the different analyses suggest that impact models should be tested with site representative conditions before being applied to develop site-specific adaptation options for Austrian crop production

Des Alpes à l’Europe centrale (Autriche, République tchèque, Slovaquie et Hongrie)

International audienc

Revisiting Carpathian obsidian

<p>Archaeological interest in sourcing obsidian artefacts has increased exponentially since Renfrew’s ground-breaking work with Aegean obsidian (Renfrew et al. 1965; Aspinall et al. 1972). Although Mediterranean obsidian has received the lion’s share of attention, sources in Central and Eastern Europe have recently become the focus of characterisation efforts. This is timely—Carpathian obsidian was first exploited during the Middle Paleolithic, and was traded widely throughout Europe during later times (Williams Thorpe et al. 1984, Kilikoglou et al. 1996). Identifying Carpathian sources of obsidian artefacts may therefore provide data on human cultural interactions ranging from social boundaries to resource-procurement patterns over a considerable period of time. Despite increased international collaboration aimed at characterising Carpathian obsidians (Bigazzi et al. 1990; Kilikoglou et al. 1997; Oddone et al. 1999; Constantinescu et al. 2002), advances in understanding of the archaeological significance of Central and Eastern European obsidian sources have been hampered by difficulties of language and access (Kunov et al. 2003; Biró 2004; Ryzhov et al. 2005)</p