Quaternary Environments and Humans最新文献

{"title":"Episodic settlement and mound formation context at Cubalel and Siwré sites, Middle Senegal River","authors":"David K. Wright ,&nbsp;Roderick J. McIntosh ,&nbsp;Susan Keech McIntosh","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100093","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100093","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent analysis of sediments recovered in 1991 at the sites of Cubalel and Siwré in the Middle Senegal River Valley have revealed new insights into the context of mound formation beginning ca. 1900 cal BP. In this study, we utilized stable isotopes (<span><math><mi>δ</mi></math></span>¹³C, <span><math><mi>δ</mi></math></span>¹⁵N) from Soil Organic Matter (SOM) and applied a Bayesian deposition model to radiocarbon dates to understand differences in the duration and nature of settlement between the two sites compared to nearby sterile levee deposits. The median calibrated radiocarbon ages dating the aggradation of sediments associated with Phase IB pottery at Siwré 2S occurs between ca. 1650 and 1490 cal BP in a generally stepwise fashion. However, previously identified Phase IIIA ceramic-bearing occupation at the Cubalel C1 mound occurs between ca. 1400 and 1370 cal BP within stratigraphically separated, but temporally indistinguishable contexts applying a Bayesian framework. The results indicate earlier phases of settlement at Siwré were longer in duration than the later occupations at Cubalel, yet isotopic indicators of vegetation cover remain relatively constant with a mix of C₃ and C₄ vegetation as the source of the SOM. Increases in <span><math><mi>δ</mi></math></span>¹⁵N from mound sediments at Cubalel C1 are interpreted as reflecting an increasing reliance on animal husbandry and sedentism, which is also indicated in the archaeological record. The data provide deep understandings of past pastoral systems combined with ecological data, which can be built upon in future studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 4","pages":"Article 100093"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145520723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Late Quaternary Megafaunal Extinction and Upper Paleolithic cultural changes: A hypothesis for bioenergetic-driven human adaptations","authors":"Miki Ben-Dor,&nbsp;Ran Barkai","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100086","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100086","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Late Quaternary Megafaunal Extinction (LQME) represents one of the most significant ecological transformations of the Pleistocene, occurring between 50 and 12 thousand years ago and coinciding temporally with remarkable cultural innovations during the Upper Paleolithic period. Many researchers have identified the human contribution to the LQME, but no attention was directed at the potential influence of the LQME on humans. We propose a hypothesis linking these phenomena through bioenergetic constraints, specifically the human requirement for dietary fat due to protein metabolism limitations. The LQME's systematic reduction in megafauna (over 100 lbs) availability, animals that provided optimal fat content and energetic returns, may have created selective pressures favoring cultural and behavioral innovations. We suggest that Upper Paleolithic developments including complex projectile technology, dog domestication, geographic expansion, accelerated cultural change, Neanderthal extinction, increased symbolic and ritualistic expression and agricultural origins represent adaptive responses to declining prey size driven by the need to maintain adequate energetic returns and fat intake. This hypothesis builds on the well-established principle that predator-prey relationships drive evolutionary adaptations, applying it to human cultural evolution during a period of systematic change in prey composition due to size decline. While requiring extensive testing, this framework offers a potentially unifying explanation for investigating the relationship between environmental change and human cultural evolution. We emphasize the critical need for fine-scale temporal analyses correlating regional prey decline with specific cultural innovations, comprehensive review of alternative explanatory models, and rigorous testing of proposed causal mechanisms before this hypothesis can be validated.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 4","pages":"Article 100086"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145229892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What is that building doing there on Via Borgo Vico? New archaeological perspectives on the Iron Age occupation of the Como (Northern Italy) lakeshores","authors":"E. Martinelli ,&nbsp;B. Grassi ,&nbsp;F. Livio ,&nbsp;M.F. Ferrario ,&nbsp;M. Redaelli ,&nbsp;A.M. Michetti","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100091","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100091","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The city of Como (Lombardia, Northern Italy) is in a plain at the interface between Lake Como and mountain slopes. The most widely accepted narrative states that all the pre-Roman settlements were located on the hills surrounding the Como plain, that was marshy and uninhabited. The present-day downtown lies in the plain. New archaeological remains of a large and complex building dating back to the V cent. BC (Golasecca Culture – Iron Age) were discovered in the “Borgo Vico” site, located in the western suburb of Como. We analysed the new archaeological remains and re-enterpreted the available archaeological, stratigraphic, geomorphological data and historical cartography, to reconstruct the configuration of the Iron Age settlement, and the changes of the lake shoreline position between the Late Glacial and Iron Age/Roman Age. During these periods, the suburb was a strategic obligatory passage between Northern Italy and Central Europe, comprising a fundamental commercial and cultural route. In this context, the large structures could be interpreted as representative buildings. The Late Glacial coastline gradually advanced toward the lake during the Holocene, after repeated alluvial events and anthropogenic landfilling. Geomorphological and stratigraphic evidence and an ancient map suggest the existence of an inlet during the Iron Age/Roman Age, potentially serving as a protected anchorage for merchants or fishing boats. Our findings indicate a more extensive and developed human presence during the Iron Age in the Como area than previously assumed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 4","pages":"Article 100091"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145466982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cultural responses to the 8.2 ka climatic event in North China: Insights from the Jiahu archaeological site","authors":"Yunchen Tan ,&nbsp;Junzo Uchiyama ,&nbsp;Jesper Sjolte ,&nbsp;Peter D. Jordan","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100092","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100092","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While the 8.2 ka abrupt cooling event is increasingly recognised as a major Holocene climatic anomaly, archaeological discussions of its cultural consequences have often been framed in terms of societal distress, including the collapse and abandonment of settlements. However, prehistoric communities must have responded in more diverse ways. This paper investigates the site-based socio-ecological adaptations at the Jiahu settlement in North China, which persisted throughout the entire 8.2 ka climatic downturn, offering insights into how some prehistoric settlements may have exhibited resilience in the face of abrupt environmental change. Drawing on the Baseline Resilience Indicator for Communities (BRIC) model, we integrate environmental and archaeological data to assess key resilience indicators within this prehistoric cultural sequence. Our results indicate that while many settlements across northern China suffered decline or complete abandonment during this interval, Jiahu offers an alternative response scenario, where systemic flexibility supported longer-term adaptation, enabling the local community to survive, endure and even evolve new strategies. Moreover, the abrupt environmental stress may also have displaced regional populations into similar kinds of more resilient environmental locales, generating population “packing”, increased inter-group exchange, and the localized innovation of new adaptive strategies. We argue that local social-ecological systems, buffered by robust natural and cultural resources, may have experienced the 8.2 ka downturn in terms of a catalyst that produced a cascade of wider social and behavioural adjustments. Our tentative conclusions underline the need to move beyond simplistic narratives of cultural decline driven by the sudden onset of harsh environmental conditions, and instead to examine the complex, varied and contingent ways in which prehistoric societies responded to abrupt environmental downturns.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 4","pages":"Article 100092"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145519998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Animals, environments and humans: Diverse perspectives from the Quaternary","authors":"Prabhin Sukumaran,&nbsp;Christine Hertler,&nbsp;Parth R. Chauhan","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100079","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100079","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 3","pages":"Article 100079"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145095309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Two years of Quaternary Environments and Humans: Achievements, directions, and new challenges","authors":"Andrea Zerboni,&nbsp;Silvia M. Bello,&nbsp;Fumie Iizuka,&nbsp;Jan Kolar,&nbsp;Thijs van Kolfschoten","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100082","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100082","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 3","pages":"Article 100082"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145095308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the environmental and cultural consequences of the 8.2 ka cooling event in Kyushu, Southwestern Japan","authors":"Junzo Uchiyama ,&nbsp;Mitsuhiro Kuwahata ,&nbsp;Felix Riede ,&nbsp;Peter D. Jordan","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100081","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100081","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Japan’s rich archaeological record, supported by well-established chronological and typological frameworks, offers valuable opportunities to investigate prehistoric socio-cultural responses to climate change, although comprehensive studies remain limited. This exploratory paper examines the impact of climatic disruptions—particularly the 8.2 ka event—on Jomon foragers in Kyushu, aiming to develop an analytical framework and identify future research directions. The 8.2 ka event is situated within a longer socio-ecological trajectory extending from the onset of the Holocene (11.7 ka) to the Kikai-Akahoya (K-Ah) super-eruption (7.3 ka). Early Holocene Kyushu is typically characterised by the emergence of large, village-based foraging communities, whose abrupt decline has been attributed to the K-Ah eruption, often considered a cultural and demographic watershed. However, this study reconsiders that narrative by comparing environmental changes with archaeological trends in population, settlement, and subsistence. Methods include (a) reviewing environmental history literature; (b) assessing demographic patterns through settlement data and technological trends; and (c) analysing lithic tools and faunal remains at key sites. Our findings suggest a more complex sequence structured by three tempos of environmental change: (1) the gradual postglacial northward move of nut-bearing deciduous forests; (2) short-term climatic downturns, including the 8.2 ka event and other Bond Events; and (3) abrupt volcanic impacts. Each phase appears to have triggered cumulative and adaptive socio-cultural responses. We tentatively conclude that the 8.2 ka event impacted communities already undergoing long-term adaptation to dynamic and unstable ecological conditions, shaped by both environmental constraints and opportunities. These groups responded in cyclical ways to different tempos of change. Ultimately, we argue that the 8.2 ka event in Kyushu should be examined as part of a broader trajectory of socio-ecological transformation, rather than as an isolated moment of major disruption.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 3","pages":"Article 100081"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144813967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Holocene land cover change in the Pannonian (East-Central Europe) forest steppe: The role of prehistoric land exploitation phases","authors":"Ilona Pál ,&nbsp;Enikő K. Magyari ,&nbsp;János Korponai ,&nbsp;Gábor Mesterházy ,&nbsp;Ákos Bede-Fazekas ,&nbsp;Cristina Covătaru ,&nbsp;Gabriella Darabos ,&nbsp;Gusztáv Jakab ,&nbsp;András Füzesi ,&nbsp;Pál Raczky","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100077","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100077","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Pollen analytical studies of Holocene lake and mire sediments provide valuable information on past forest cover changes and help us resolving the long-debated origin of temperate forest steppes in Europe. In this paper we contribute to this debate via the pollen and multi-proxy palaeoecological (macrofossil, charcoal, major and trace element) analyses of a paleolake (Kokad Mire) situated in the temperate deciduous forest steppe zone of the Great Hungarian Plain (GHP). Diverse soil types and microhabitats in this area attracted arable farming communities since the Neolithic. By comparing the local archaeological record with the pollen-based land cover, vegetation composition and fire history changes, and invoking other pollen-based Holocene land cover records from the GHP, we analyze the climatic versus anthropogenic origin of the forest steppe vegetation, determine the ages of significant forest clearance episodes, and examine the relationship between paleo-proxy inferred land use and prehistoric/historic settlement density. Our results suggest that the current potential forest steppe vegetation of the eastern GHP had natural climatic and edaphic origin in the Early and Mid-Holocene, which was maintained by anthropogenic deforestation in the Late Holocene. Without human impact, forest cover must have increased during the last 3000 years, and likely even earlier, since the Early Bronze Age. We found evidence for episodic land use during the Neolithic: Middle and early Late Neolithic (7600–7400 cal BP) coppice management and pastoral farming. Deforestation intensified from 3900 cal BP (during the Bronze Age). We demonstrated very early hemp (<em>Cannabis sativa</em>) cultivation between 5970–5450 cal BP (Middle Copper Age) likely attributable to eastern nomadic pastoral groups (pre-Yamnaya) who left behind several burial mounds in the region. We also showed that the lake was used for hemp retting between 2450–2000 cal BP by the local Celtic groups. The analysis of three pollen records from the GHP furthermore revealed that prehistoric cultures had different occupation intensities until the Late Bronze Age with localized forest clearances followed by afforestation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 3","pages":"Article 100077"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144501496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neolithic, Copper, and Bronze Age woodland composition and exploitation in the Great Hungarian Plain, East‐Central Europe","authors":"Gabriella Darabos ,&nbsp;Máté Róbert Merkl ,&nbsp;Pál Raczky ,&nbsp;András Füzesi ,&nbsp;Attila Gyucha ,&nbsp;Danielle J. Riebe ,&nbsp;William A. Parkinson ,&nbsp;Magdalena Moskal-del-Hoyo ,&nbsp;Szilvia Fábián ,&nbsp;Karola Molnár ,&nbsp;Gabriella Hajdrik ,&nbsp;Tamás Hajdu ,&nbsp;Anett Gémes ,&nbsp;Gábor Csüllög ,&nbsp;Edit Mester ,&nbsp;János Dani ,&nbsp;Vajk Szeverényi ,&nbsp;Viktória Kiss ,&nbsp;Přemysl Bobek ,&nbsp;Dénes Saláta ,&nbsp;Enikő Katalin Magyari","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100078","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100078","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the prehistoric communities of the Great Hungarian Plain (GHP), the exploitation of forest steppe and floodplain woodlands started at ∼6000 cal BC. So far, only scattered and irregular wood charcoal analyses have been performed on Holocene archaeological sites, therefore the species composition of the GHP woodlands is known mainly from pollen records. This study aims to fill this gap by systematic sampling and analysis of key Early, Middle and Late Neolithic, and Copper and Middle Bronze Age archaeological sites. Pollen records from the vicinity of some archaeological sites accompany the charcoal assemblages along with potential vegetation and soil maps. Our results show that oak (<em>Quercus</em> sp.) was dominant in the floodplain and forest steppe, used as construction timber and firewood. Both high and low floodplain forest woody elements (<em>Populus, Salix, Fraxinus</em>) were represented. Elm species (<em>Ulmus</em> spp.) were widespread and often co-dominated the charcoal assemblages. In the long-term charcoal assemblages of the Late Neolithic SE GHP, <em>Ulmus</em> was more frequent than in the NE GHP. Soil and potential vegetation maps of these sites show meadow soil predominance with occasional chernozem meadow soils. Floodplain woodlands predominate in the potential vegetation with the likely presence of <em>U. laevis</em> and <em>U. minor</em> today corroborating the predominance of alluvial forests in SE Hungary during the Neolithic likely with high amplitude water table fluctuation. During the Early Chalcolithic (4500–4000 cal BC), we found a significant decline in <em>Ulmus</em> in the SE GHP both in the pollen and charcoal assemblages suggesting a climate change and/or pathogen induced elm-decline. In comparison with the Balkan region, we demonstrated that the SE border of the GHP was a major environmental barrier, north of which vast riparian and alluvial forests were alternating with steppe oak woods. The Early Neolithic communities had to adapt to this environment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 3","pages":"Article 100078"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144614575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What’s in a name? The messy taxonomy of Oryza sp. and how it has impacted our archaeobotanical modelling of rice domestication","authors":"J. Bates","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100080","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100080","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The domestication of our major cereals has been the focus of numerous branches of science. While some, such as wheat and barley, have fairly established pathways and histories, others remain open to debate, and <em>Oryza sativa</em>, Asian rice, ranks high amongst them. Two main hypotheses have arisen – that rice was domesticated initially in China and carried the genes for domestication to other regions as the crop was traded during the Bronze Age (often called the ‘proto-indica’ hypothesis), the other that rice was independently domesticated in China forming <em>japonica</em> and also in India forming <em>indica</em>. Both hypotheses however have their own challenges around data, but at the heart of them is a key issue that they are not starting at the same taxonomic base – the founder wild ancestor of rice in India remains debated. In this paper the messy taxonomies of rice, both wild and domesticated, are outlined, and the implications of this on the archaeological modelling of rice domestication are unpacked. Only once an established and agreed foundation for assessing these two hypotheses is agreed can they be addressed. The paper outlines how both hypotheses need to be addressed moving forwards using archaeological, (archaeo)botanical, archaeochemical, (archaeo)genetic and other forms of data moving forwards.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"3 3","pages":"Article 100080"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144779323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}