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Sirocko F, Albert J, Britzius S, Dreher F, Martínez-García A, Dosseto A, Burger J, Terberger T, Haug G. Thresholds for the presence of glacial megafauna in central Europe during the last 60,000 years. Sci Rep 2022; 12:20055. [PMID: 36414639 PMCID: PMC9681729 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-22464-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2022] [Accepted: 10/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Lake sediment records from Holzmaar and the infilled maar of Auel (Eifel, Germany) are used to reconstruct landscape changes and megafauna abundances. Our data document a forested landscape from 60,000 to 48,000 yr b2k and a stepwise vegetation change towards a glacial desert after 26,000 yr b2k. The Eifel landscape was continuously inhabited from 48,000 to 9000 yr b2k by large mammals, documented by the presence of spores of coprophilous fungi from Sordaria and Sporormiella fungi that grow on fecal remains of the megafauna. Megafauna reached higher numbers during cold stadial climates but was present also during the warmer interstadials. Highest abundance was at 56,500/48,500/38,500/33,000/27,000/21,000/16,200/14,000 yr b2k, i.e. under different climate regimes. Some of these dates were associated with clear human presence, which indicates that megafauna was not overkilled by humans. In contrast, human presence could quite likely have been stimulated by the abundant food supply. Megafauna presence decreased significantly when tree abundance increased during interstadials. The Megafauna disappeared finally at 11,400 yr b2k with the development of the early Holocene forest cover, which appears to be the most important threshold for megafauna presence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank Sirocko
- grid.5802.f0000 0001 1941 7111Institute for Geoscience, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany
| | - Johannes Albert
- grid.5802.f0000 0001 1941 7111Institute for Geoscience, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany
| | - Sarah Britzius
- grid.5802.f0000 0001 1941 7111Institute for Geoscience, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany ,grid.419509.00000 0004 0491 8257Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany
| | - Frank Dreher
- grid.5802.f0000 0001 1941 7111Institute for Geoscience, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany
| | | | - Anthony Dosseto
- grid.1007.60000 0004 0486 528XWollongong Isotope Geochronology Laboratory, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW Australia
| | - Joachim Burger
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution (iomE), Palaeogenetics Group, Mainz, Germany
| | - Thomas Terberger
- grid.7450.60000 0001 2364 4210Göttingen, Seminar for Pre- and Protohistory, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Gerald Haug
- grid.419509.00000 0004 0491 8257Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany
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Charlton S, Brace S, Hajdinjak M, Kearney R, Booth T, Reade H, Tripp JA, Sayle KL, Grimm SB, Bello SM, Walker EA, Gilardet A, East P, Glocke I, Larson G, Higham T, Stringer C, Skoglund P, Barnes I, Stevens RE. Dual ancestries and ecologies of the Late Glacial Palaeolithic in Britain. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:1658-1668. [PMID: 36280785 PMCID: PMC9630104 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01883-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Genetic investigations of Upper Palaeolithic Europe have revealed a complex and transformative history of human population movements and ancestries, with evidence of several instances of genetic change across the European continent in the period following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Concurrent with these genetic shifts, the post-LGM period is characterized by a series of significant climatic changes, population expansions and cultural diversification. Britain lies at the extreme northwest corner of post-LGM expansion and its earliest Late Glacial human occupation remains unclear. Here we present genetic data from Palaeolithic human individuals in the United Kingdom and the oldest human DNA thus far obtained from Britain or Ireland. We determine that a Late Upper Palaeolithic individual from Gough's Cave probably traced all its ancestry to Magdalenian-associated individuals closely related to those from sites such as El Mirón Cave, Spain, and Troisième Caverne in Goyet, Belgium. However, an individual from Kendrick's Cave shows no evidence of having ancestry related to the Gough’s Cave individual. Instead, the Kendrick’s Cave individual traces its ancestry to groups who expanded across Europe during the Late Glacial and are represented at sites such as Villabruna, Italy. Furthermore, the individuals differ not only in their genetic ancestry profiles but also in their mortuary practices and their diets and ecologies, as evidenced through stable isotope analyses. This finding mirrors patterns of dual genetic ancestry and admixture previously detected in Iberia but may suggest a more drastic genetic turnover in northwestern Europe than in the southwest. The authors report genetic, archaeological and stable isotopic data from two late Palaeolithic individuals in Britain, from Gough's Cave and Kendrick's Cave. The individuals differ not only in their ancestry but also their diets, ecologies and mortuary practices, revealing diverse origins and lifeways among inhabitants of late Pleistocene Britain.
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Reade H, Grimm SB, Tripp JA, Neruda P, Nerudová Z, Roblíčková M, Sayle KL, Kearney R, Brown S, Douka K, Higham TFG, Stevens RE. Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian chronology and palaeoenvironments at Kůlna Cave, Moravia, Czech Republic. ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCES 2020; 13:4. [PMID: 33365102 PMCID: PMC7746568 DOI: 10.1007/s12520-020-01254-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2020] [Accepted: 12/01/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
UNLABELLED Kůlna Cave is the only site in Moravia, Czech Republic, from which large assemblages of both Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian archaeological materials have been excavated from relatively secure stratified deposits. The site therefore offers the unrivalled opportunity to explore the relationship between these two archaeological phases. In this study, we undertake radiocarbon, stable isotope (carbon, nitrogen and sulphur), and ZooMS analysis of the archaeological faunal assemblage to explore the chronological and environmental context of the Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian deposits. Our results show that the Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian deposits can be understood as discrete units from one another, dating to the Late Glacial between c. 15,630 cal. BP and 14,610 cal. BP, and c. 14,140 cal. BP and 12,680 cal. BP, respectively. Stable isotope results (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S) indicate that Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian activity at Kůlna Cave occurred in very different environmental settings. Magdalenian occupation took place within a nutrient-poor landscape that was experiencing rapid changes to environmental moisture, potentially linked to permafrost thaw. In contrast, Epimagdalenian occupation occurred in a relatively stable, temperate environment composed of a mosaic of woodland and grassland habitats. The potential chronological gap between the two phases, and their associations with very different environmental conditions, calls into question whether the Epimagdalenian should be seen as a local, gradual development of the Magdalenian. It also raises the question of whether the gap in occupation at Kůlna Cave could represent a change in settlement dynamics and/or behavioural adaptations to changing environmental conditions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12520-020-01254-4.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hazel Reade
- Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Sonja B. Grimm
- Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA), Foundation Schleswig-Holsteinian State Museums Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, Germany
| | - Jennifer A. Tripp
- Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK
- Department of Chemistry, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, USA
| | - Petr Neruda
- Anthropos Institute, Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Zdeňka Nerudová
- Anthropos Institute, Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
- Centre for Cultural Anthropology, Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
| | | | - Kerry L. Sayle
- Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride, UK
| | - Rebecca Kearney
- Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Samantha Brown
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Katerina Douka
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Thomas F. G. Higham
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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