Quaternary Environments and Humans最新文献

{"title":"Ancient biomolecular analysis of 39 mammoth individuals from Kostenki 11-Ia elucidates Upper Palaeolithic human resource use","authors":"Alba Rey-Iglesia ,&nbsp;Alexander J.E. Pryor ,&nbsp;Deon de Jager ,&nbsp;Tess Wilson ,&nbsp;Mathew A. Teeter ,&nbsp;Ashot Margaryan ,&nbsp;Ruslan Khaskhanov ,&nbsp;Louise Le Meillour ,&nbsp;Gaudry Troché ,&nbsp;Frido Welker ,&nbsp;Paul Szpak ,&nbsp;Alexandr E. Dudin ,&nbsp;Eline D. Lorenzen","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100049","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100049","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Circular structures made from woolly mammoth bones are found across Ukraine and west Russia, yet the origin of the bones remains uncertain. We present ten new mammoth radiocarbon dates from the largest circular structure at Kostenki 11-Ia, identifying two mammoth mandibles ∼200–1200 years older than the other dated materials from the site, suggesting skeletal material from long-dead individuals was scavenged and used in the site construction. Biomolecular sexing of 30 individuals showed a predominance of females, suggesting the Kostenki mammoths are primarily from herds. We identify seven mitochondrial lineages across 16 samples, and thus the mammoths are not all from the same matriline. Integrating biomolecular sexing with stable <em>δ</em>¹³C and <em>δ</em>¹⁵N isotope analysis, we find no isotopically-differentiated resource use by females and males, providing the first analysis of foraging differences between sexes in any Late Pleistocene megafauna. Our study highlights the significance of integrating ancient biomolecular approaches in archaeological inference.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 1","pages":"Article 100049"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143140498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Random forest models highlight early Homo sapiens habitats and their relationship to lithic assemblage composition","authors":"Lucy Timbrell ,&nbsp;James Blinkhorn ,&nbsp;Matt Grove","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100048","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100048","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Eastern Africa plays an enduring role in understanding the evolution of modern humans in relation to palaeoenvironmental change. Numerous studies have implicated ecological and geographic factors in determining the spatiotemporal patterning of technological and cultural behaviour seen in the region during the Middle Stone Age (MSA), the technological phase associated with the emergence of <em>Homo sapiens</em> in Africa. We use an eco-cultural niche modelling approach to evaluate the importance of different environmental and geographical variables in determining where early humans could have lived, and the impact of habitat suitability on different aspects of the eastern African MSA lithic record. We apply random forests, a powerful and highly flexible machine-learning tool for niche modelling, in combination with palaeoclimatic simulations at high temporal resolution. Topographic factors, distance to water and net primary productivity are found to be the most important factors in predicting MSA site locations in eastern Africa, followed by a suite of precipitation and then temperature variables. We find that environmental suitability has a significant impact on overall assemblage composition, suggesting that populations occupying optimal and peripheral zones within the landscapes use distinct artefact types and reduction technologies. These include the use of burins, bifacially retouched tools and bipolar technology, which are more likely to occur in the most optimal areas. Core tools, Levallois point and blade technology, and denticulates are associated with more peripheral areas, and thus perhaps could be associated with adapations to riskier ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 1","pages":"Article 100048"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143140442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Constraining the age of the Middle Stone Age locality of Bargny (Senegal) through a combined OSL-ESR dating approach","authors":"E. Ben Arous ,&nbsp;K. Niang ,&nbsp;J.A. Blinkhorn ,&nbsp;M. Del Val ,&nbsp;A. Medialdea ,&nbsp;C. Coussot ,&nbsp;M.J. Alonso Escarza ,&nbsp;M.D. Bateman ,&nbsp;A. Churruca Clemente ,&nbsp;A.F. Blackwood ,&nbsp;J. Iglesias-Cibanal ,&nbsp;C. Saíz ,&nbsp;E.M.L. Scerri ,&nbsp;M. Duval","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100044","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100044","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Middle Stone Age (MSA) is the major chrono-cultural phase associated with the emergence and evolution of <em>Homo sapiens</em> in Africa. Despite its importance, the MSA has not been evenly investigated across Africa, and West Africa in particular remains poorly understood. Although new research is beginning to fill in this crucial gap of knowledge, the existing MSA chronologies in West Africa only rely on Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating. In this context, the increasing use of a multi-method dating approach appears essential to strengthen this emerging geochronological framework. Here, we apply such approach to constrain the age of Bargny locality, located in close proximity to the modern Senegalese coast (South of Dakar), and which documents one of the oldest MSA occupations in West Africa. Specifically, we combine OSL and Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) methods to date the MSA sites of Bargny 3 (BG3) and Bargny 1 (BG1). A mean OSL age of 127±8 ka may be proposed for the MSA of BG3, which is in good agreement with a mean Ti-H ESR age of 125±14 ka from the same unit. Interestingly, similar ages are obtained by OSL (144±7 ka) and Ti-H ESR (138±14 ka) for the MSA horizon from BG1. While these results illustrate the great potential of the combined OSL-ESR dating approach to establish robust chronologies, they also contribute to improve the geographical and chronological resolution of the MSA record in West Africa. More specifically, they also corroborate the presence of MSA occupations along the Senegambian coast around the MIS 6-MIS 5 transition. In combination with the associated estuarine environments and mangrove forest, the evidence from Bargny adds to the known diversity, and likely complex behaviour, of early human populations living by Africa’s coastlines.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100044"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142744005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Data‐Driven Paradigm Shift for the Middle‐to‐Upper Palaeolithic Transition and the Neandertal Debate","authors":"João Zilhão ,&nbsp;Francesco d’Errico ,&nbsp;William E. Banks ,&nbsp;Nicolas Teyssandier","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100037","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100037","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Based on morphologically undiagnostic human remains from the southern Balkans and central Europe, it has been argued that the Bachokirian and Ranisian industries stand for modern humans, have roots in the IUP (Initial Upper Palaeolithic) of the Near East, and emerge ∼45,000 years ago. Coevally, Siberia and Central Asia would also have been reached by IUP moderns and, in the process, Western Europe’s Neandertals would have been acculturated, explaining the innovations (namely, body ornamentation) seen in the Châtelperronian. However, current usage of the IUP label confuses terminology and conceals issues of association raised by syn- and post-depositional disturbance, genomic patterns do not correlate with skeletal morphology, and the people of the Bachokirian and the Ranisian had Neandertal ancestors who lived many centuries after those technocomplexes’ start dates, as did a Neandertal from Spy (Belgium), a site of the Ranisian. Moreover, the stratigraphic provenience and taxonomic affinity of the fossils associated with the Uluzzian, the Protoaurignacian, and the Ahmarian are uncertain. The former is coeval with the Châtelperronian, the latter two emerge no earlier than ∼41,500 years ago, and the sufficiently complete fossils of broadly the same age are of mosaic anatomy and mixed ancestry. For western Eurasia, our review supports the Assimilation model, whereby ten millennia of converging cultural developments and increased demic interaction bridge the initial (Neandertal) and final (Cro-Magnon) terms of a complex evolutionary and historical process. Throughout, the observed diversity cannot be reduced to a taxonomic dichotomy. As human biology varied in a continuous space and material culture varied in a discrete space, no one-to-one correspondence between the two domains can exist. Advancing our understanding of the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition requires abandoning outdated frameworks and fully embracing the taphonomic perspective and the potential of genetics to approach the evidence in terms of communities, populations, and short-term history.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100037"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reconsidering the Vaddas of Sri Lanka: Biological and cultural continuity, and misconceptions","authors":"Wijerathne Bohingamuwa ,&nbsp;Kalangi Rodrigo ,&nbsp;Harendralal Namalgamuwa","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100043","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100043","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper aims to re-examine key scholarly works pertaining to the Sri Lankan Vadda, an indigenous community of the island, in order to explore extant research of the said community. Despite considerable progress, lingering misunderstandings and uncertainties persist regarding their origins, connections to prehistoric populations, affiliations with contemporary ethnic groups, and the interrelationships among different Vadda communities across the island. Furthermore, uncertainties persist regarding the authenticity of Vadda skeletal remains and the adequacy of archaeological samples, which often suffer from fragmentation and incompleteness. It is this archaeological sample that has been used to draw conclusions about the cultural and biological continuity of the Mesolithic population or the Balangoda man (<em>Homo sapiens balangodensis</em>) with the Vaddas and the modern populations of the island, thus perhaps distorting interpretations. Similarly, this study underscores concerns regarding the representation of modern samples collected from diverse Vadda clans inhabiting various ecological zones and engaging in different subsistence practices, potentially skewing the conclusions of preceding research. In this study, fresh ethnoarchaeological data are used to examine some misconceptions prevailing about the <em>Warugas</em> (clans) as well as the use of the term <em>Wanniyalaetto</em> as a synonym for Vaddas. Given the rapid acculturation of Vaddas, there is a pressing need for continued interdisciplinary investigations into the Vadda communities, encompassing different <em>Warugas</em> and geographic regions, to ensure a better understanding of their socio-cultural dynamics with the aim of enhanced insight into their evolutionary pathways.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100043"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Early human foraging paleoecology in the highlands of Potosí, Bolivia","authors":"José M. Capriles ,&nbsp;Juan Albarracin-Jordan ,&nbsp;Sergio Calla Maldonado ,&nbsp;Claudia Rivera Casanovas","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100046","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100046","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>For centuries the Cerro Rico of Potosí in the South American Andes has been known as the richest silver mine in the world but also as a notoriously challenging place for human habitation due to its extreme elevation. Nevertheless, little is known about the temporal depth and socioecological dynamics associated with the initial occupation of this region. In this paper, we present an archaeological and paleoecological assessment of the earliest human peopling of Potosí and the eastern south-central Andes. Systematic surveys in two neighboring regions complemented by test excavations, artifact analysis, and radiocarbon dating revealed evidence of foraging occupations dating to the Early Holocene as well as by agropastoralist communities during the Late Holocene. Local paleoenvironmental records suggest that periods of increased humidity might have fostered ecological productivity that incentivized settlement in this high elevation setting. The nature of the occupations and associated technological organization is consistent with findings from sites elsewhere in the arid Andes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100046"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143172627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A revised terrace stratigraphy and chronology for the Little Ouse River as a framework for interpreting the late Lower and early Middle Palaeolithic of central East Anglia, UK","authors":"Rob Davis ,&nbsp;Simon G. Lewis ,&nbsp;Marcus Hatch ,&nbsp;Nick Ashton ,&nbsp;Pierre Voinchet ,&nbsp;Jean-Jacques Bahain ,&nbsp;Luke Dale ,&nbsp;Frederick Foulds ,&nbsp;Aaron Rawlinson ,&nbsp;Mark White","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100045","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100045","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Breckland of central East Anglia has a Pleistocene geological sequence spanning c. 1 million years, providing a framework for assessing changes in human technology and behaviour within a single changing palaeolandscape. The geological record and its associated Palaeolithic archaeology divides into three chronological periods: the fluvial deposits of the River Bytham, which span c. 1 ma to 450 ka; the Hoxnian interglacial sites (c. 400 ka); and the fluvial terraces of the post-Anglian drainage network, which records the past c. 400,000 years. This paper focuses on the third of these periods, presenting results from new work on the fluvial sediments and Palaeolithic archaeology associated with the Little Ouse River. Fieldwork was conducted at four Palaeolithic sites; Barnham Heath, Redhill, Santon Downham, and Broomhill Pit. The new sedimentological and stratigraphic data are used in conjunction with existing borehole records to construct long profiles for the river terrace aggradations and establish a terrace stratigraphy for the Little Ouse. Correlation with the marine isotope record is supported by age estimates from electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of sand units within the terrace aggradations. The results provide an age-constrained lithostratigraphic framework for understanding the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic records of the Little Ouse. The results can be added to previous work on the Bytham and Hoxnian sites, enabling an assessment of human activity in the region from c. 800–200 ka.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100045"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143173319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sulfur isotope analysis of collagen: Quality controls and proboscidean wetland habitats","authors":"Jessica Z. Metcalfe ,&nbsp;Lauryn E. Eady-Sitar ,&nbsp;Ayumi Hyodo ,&nbsp;Taylor Belot","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100040","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100040","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sulfur isotopes (<em>δ</em>^<em>3</em>4S values) have significant potential for addressing archaeological, paleontological, and paleoecological research questions. Studies of ancient materials rely on the assumption that <em>δ</em>^<em>3</em>4S values have been minimally altered by diagenesis, yet meaningful analyses of sulfur isotope preservation/alteration are rare. This paper has 3 objectives: (1) to review and revise previous approaches to evaluating sulfur isotope alteration of collagen, (2) to evaluate sulfur isotope preservation in Great Lakes mammoth (<em>Mammuthus</em> spp.) and mastodon (<em>Mammut americanum</em>) bone, tooth, and tusk collagen, and (3) to make inferences about proboscidean diets and habitat preferences based on <em>δ</em>³⁴S values. To evaluate sulfur isotope preservation in collagen we recommend 3 approaches. First, researchers should examine collagen %C, %N, and atomic C:N values, and exclude samples whose values fall outside the expected ranges (defined according to context-specific considerations). Second, researchers should examine collagen %S, C:S, and N:S values, and exclude samples that fall outside the ranges for modern taxa. These ranges are subject to revision, but this study provides a new compilation of modern mammalian collagen with %S = 0.14–0.63, C:S = 185–873, and N:S = 55–266 (n=119). Third, researchers should check for correlations between collagen <em>δ</em>³⁴S and %S, C:S, or N:S values, which could suggest systematic alteration of sulfur isotope values due to sulfur contamination or amino acid loss. For our Great Lakes proboscideans, the first approach was insufficient to identify sulfur isotope alteration, but the second and third approaches led to the exclusion of 4 samples with probable alteration. Great Lakes proboscideans had lower <em>δ</em>³⁴S values than recent taxa from the same region, and the <em>δ</em>³⁴S of mastodons tended to be lower than those of mammoths. These results suggest that mammoths and (to a greater extent) mastodons consumed an abundance of plants rooted in anoxic freshwater wetland sediments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100040"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142698828","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Caring for preservation - coring for prehistoric life. Revisiting 15 000 years of sedimentation at the Ageröd peatland, Southern Sweden","authors":"Anton Hansson ,&nbsp;Mathilda Kjällquist ,&nbsp;Adam Boethius","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100039","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100039","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Rönneholm-Ageröd peatland complex, situated in central Scania, contains numerous archaeological sites discovered since the 19th century. Two sediment sequences were obtained at the Ageröd peatland to compare the sediment stratigraphy with a previous sequence obtained in 1960 to detect any modern-day changes and to establish the Holocene environmental development in the area. To clarify the timing of ceased peat-cutting activities, dendrochronological analysis was performed on trees growing on the peatland. The results indicate that the lake transitioned into first a fen stage and later a raised bog stage, at about 7300 cal BP and 6500 cal BP, respectively. Furthermore, the dendrochronological analysis indicates that peat cutting ceased at least before 1960 in the sampled areas. Depending on e.g. hydrological conditions and human impact, the potential for preservation of organic remains varies greatly within the Rönneholm-Ageröd peatland complex. After peat-cutting activities ceased at the Ageröd peatland, the area was abandoned, without being restored to its original state and the drainage systems were left open but without maintenance. Our results show that these drainage ditches are still effective at the Ageröd peatland, which contributes to an active loss of peat at the top of the stratigraphic sequence. This causes the youngest formed peat layers to degrade, in turn, exposing older layers and reducing the buffer zone above the preserved organic cultural heritage from the lake-phase of the wetland with their destruction. To increase the understanding of modern-day processes affecting the preservation of organic remains in peatlands, continued monitoring and measuring of the peatland preservation status is needed in areas with archaeological deposits. We predict that if we fail to take action and establish a routine for finding and mitigating ongoing wetland degradation, the organic cultural and environmental heritage in them will, in the not-too-distant future, collapse and irrevocably deteriorate.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100039"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142698827","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An open letter to evolutionary and human sciences; Statistics has moved on and so should we. A proposal for more transparent research, and some notes on p < 0.003","authors":"Lloyd A. Courtenay","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100041","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100041","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Statistical reasoning and inference have become integral to how we reach conclusions as scientists. Few papers in evolutionary, biological, and human sciences, are published at present without at least one report of a</em> p<em>-value, or the term “statistically significant”. As a product of this, discoveries and results often hinge on</em> p<em>-values below the infamous threshold of 0.05. This is due to how well ingrained these notions are in many of our higher education systems, and our practices as researchers. Nevertheless, the concept of a</em> p<em>-value, borrowed from statistics, and dating as far back as the late 20th and early 21st century, has undergone an evolution that we may not be completely aware of, if we do not follow or keep ourselves up to date with the most recent advances in statistical research. The present short communication can be framed as an opinion piece that simply aims to call our attention to the fact that statisticians, in recent years, have asked that we completely abandon the notion of “statistically significant (</em>p &lt; 0.05)”. It is important to point out that none of these observations are new, however certainly merit being re-addressed. Here I attempt to open a dialogue among archaeologists, palaeontologists, palaeoanthropologists, biological anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, and all researchers in related fields, about such statistical research. Finally, I propose a means of moving forward, suggesting we move from a world where p &lt; 0.05 is considered a binary threshold for conclusive results, to a more nuanced practice where different gradients, down to p &lt; 0.003, are interpreted as increasingly suggestive evidence – provided that findings are supported by additional, transparently reported corroborative data.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100041"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142698829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}