Quaternary Environments and Humans最新文献

{"title":"Coasting into India? - Assessing lithostratigraphic context of Middle Palaeolithic occupation in Saurashtra Peninsula","authors":"Gopesh Jha ,&nbsp;Divyansh Kumar Sinha ,&nbsp;Deepak Kumar Jha ,&nbsp;P. Ajithprasad","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100034","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100034","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The coastal rim of the Indian subcontinent is believed to have played a crucial role in the dispersal of early Modern Humans from Africa into the Indian subcontinent during the Late Pleistocene. However, the paucity of substantial evidence along the Indian coastal margins has made it difficult to assess this hypothesis directly. The peninsular region of Saurashtra in Gujarat (India) is one of the key regions that possesses a vast coastline of ∼1600 km, located east of the Indus Delta. Earlier research has revealed widespread evidence of Late Acheulian and Middle Palaeolithic occupations in the region during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Here, we report evidence of new Middle Palaeolithic localities from the central (Bhadar river basin) and northern (Aji river basin) parts of the Saurashtra peninsula. This study reviews the lithostratigraphic context of hominin occupation across Saurashtra and provides crucial insights into the chronology of Middle Palaeolithic localities. Our comparative data suggest that most of the Middle Palaeolithic assemblages in Saurashtra belong to the Gt2 horizon, which dates back to the onset of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3. These findings are further examined in light of ongoing discussions on Late Pleistocene hominin population dynamics, dispersal patterns, and eustatic fluctuations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100034"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142529301","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":"Insights into archaeological and modern neotropical biomes: Examining diet and shape variation through white-tailed deer lower third molar","authors":"María Fernanda Martínez-Polanco ,&nbsp;Ana Belén Galán López ,&nbsp;Florent Rivals","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100035","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100035","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The white-tailed deer (<em>Odocoileus virginianus</em> Zimmermann 1780) holds significant ecological importance across the Americas, both historically and in modern times. This species ranges from southern Canada to Brazil and exhibits polytypic characteristics, adapting well to diverse habitats including temperate, subtropical, semi-arid, rainforest, and savanna environments. In paleontology and archaeology, the comparison of dental characteristics between extant mammal species with known diets is commonly employed to infer the feeding behaviors of their ancient counterparts. This method assumes that extant and fossil species share similar dietary preferences, aiding in the identification of past environmental contexts. Consequently, we employed a multiproxy approach, combining the study of dental wear and 2D geometric morphometrics, to investigate potential relationships between molar shape, diet, and biomes among extant white-tailed deer populations across the Americas. Our analysis included a comparison with archaeological data from Panama. We sampled 274 extant lower second molar specimens for micro- and mesowear analysis, along with 105 lower third molar specimens from natural science museums for 2D geometric morphometric analysis. These were compared with a sample of 65 archaeological specimens from Panama. Our findings revealed distinct variations in the shape of lower m3 molars among extant white-tailed deer populations across different biomes, with notable differences observed in the archaeological samples as well. Micro- and mesowear analyses also indicated biome-related differences, suggesting a general browsing diet for white-tailed deer with nuanced variations across biomes. Mesowear analysis further suggested a dietary spectrum ranging from pure browsers to browser-mixed feeders. These findings offer valuable insights for the interpretation of fossil deer specimens recovered from archaeological sites.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100035"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142586295","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":"Stable isotope analysis of Late Pleistocene mammalian teeth from western, central, and north-central India and the associated Palaeolithic archaeology of the Indian Subcontinent","authors":"Shashi B. Mehra ,&nbsp;Shailesh Agrawal ,&nbsp;Vijay Sathe ,&nbsp;August G. Costa ,&nbsp;Parth R. Chauhan","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100033","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100033","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The oxygen (δ¹⁸O) and carbon (δ¹³C) ratios in bioapatite from dental tissues of fossil mammals are well-established proxies for climatic conditions and dietary patterns. In the present study, a total of 24 Late Pleistocene mammalian teeth belonging to Cervid, Bovid, Suid, Hippopotamid, Canid, Equid from Gopnath in Gujarat, ten separate localities from the Narmada Basin, and one in Son River Basin, India were analysed for δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values to understand palaeoclimatic conditions and associated dietary habits between marine isotope stages (MIS) 5 and 3 as estimated from stratigraphic and archaeological record. The δ¹³C values in the samples of Gopnath, Narsinghpur and Doma range from −3.1 to 2.3 ‰, −3.2 to 1.3 ‰, and −2.0 ‰, respectively. The higher δ¹³C values in these specimens suggest a diet based predominantly on C4 plants. On the other hand, a relatively lower and large range of δ¹³C values from Nehlai (−11.1 to −3.5 ‰) suggests a predominately C3 to mixed C3-C4 diet. The δ¹⁸O values in Gopnath, Nehlai, Narsinghpur and Doma are −4.1 to −3.1 ‰, −4.7 to −2.1 ‰, −4.0 to −1.9 ‰ and −5.8 ‰, respectively. The relatively lower δ¹⁸O value points towards humid climatic conditions and the relatively higher δ¹⁸O values suggest relatively arid climatic conditions. The regional contexts are dominated by Late Pleistocene geological records predominantly associated with Middle Palaeolithic evidence, and the preliminary isotope results indicate that contemporary hominin groups occupied warm and semi-humid environments. This study attempts to examine the Late Pleistocene environments and hominin adaptations across western, central, and north-central India on a comprehensive scale.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100033"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142554853","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":"Interpreting the edge angle efficiency of middle palaeolithic lithic assemblage with Artifact-3D – A case study Barwaniya W1, North Karanpura Valley, Eastern India","authors":"Shubham Rajak,&nbsp;Pronil Das","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100031","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100031","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The lithic technology is directly linked with knapping skills, cognition, and economic production of a particular culture. The central objective of lithic production was to obtain desirable edge angles and sharpness for cutting/ butchering work in an efficient manner to achieve the highest utility/ efficiency and low production ratio. The angle of an edge, whether unaltered or retouched and as part of the overall tool design, is undoubtedly a parameter that influences the behavioural dimension of a lithic artefact. Thus, lithics artefacts' work efficiency or knapping efficiency depends on their working (cutting) edge angle, length of the parallel edge, centre of gravity, length of lithic, and lesser rate of edge angle damage. The present research has analysed the working edge angle of the Middle Palaeolithic Levallois assemblage from the newly discovered site of Barwaniya W1 from the North Karanpura Valley (North of Upper Damodar Basin), Jharkhand, India with the help of semi-automated 3D edge angle analysis technique. the current study scrutinises the entirety of an artefact's edge angle through automated positioning based on surface tension and a higher number of reference measurement points on the 3D scan surface of the artefact. This research has digitally measured the Middle Palaeolithic quartzite flake-based assemblage from Barwaniya W1 and their working edge angle, parallel edge (thick blunt side used for hafting), and centre of gravity with <em>Artefact-3D</em> software which has provided us with precise measurement without human errors and ambiguity. Further, this research has replicated the quartzite lithic assemblage of Barwaniya W1 with the Levallois reduction technique to interpret the edge angle efficiency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100031"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142561195","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":"Understanding the presence of Cannabis across the Holocene in Central India","authors":"Meghna Agarwala ,&nbsp;Charuta Kulkarni","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100032","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Pollen records from sediment cores do not allow understanding of past human use of <em>Cannabis</em> because <em>Cannabis</em> may also grow naturally or increase incidentally in the presence of human settlements. This is particularly true in Asia, where <em>Cannabis</em> was not used as hemp as often as it was in Europe; hemp retting makes it easy to identify <em>Cannabis</em> use as it causes characteristically high increases in <em>Cannabis</em> fossil pollen in strata where it was used. In this study, we evaluate the evidence for <em>Cannabis</em> cultivation and use in Central India, where <em>Cannabis</em> fossil pollen occur in sediment cores from ∼ 12.2 ka (1 ka= 1000 y ago). While the public perception is that <em>Cannabis</em> has a long history of use in South Asia, textual sources suggest significant increases in <em>Cannabis</em> use ∼1–2 ka. To disentangle <em>Cannabis</em> presence due to natural dispersal and due to use, we develop a new approach. <em>Artemisia</em> grows alongside <em>Cannabis</em> and disperses in similar conditions, whether naturally or due to increase in human settlements. We investigate when <em>Cannabis</em> increased in the paleo-record independent of <em>Artemisia,</em> and find that <em>Cannabis</em> increased ∼ 2.5 ka in areas close to major early historic settlements, where <em>Cannabis</em> displays characteristic patterns of cultivation. <em>Cannabis</em> does not display these patterns away from the early historic settlements. These dates are similar to findings of <em>Cannabis</em> use as hemp in the Himalayas (2.5 ka) and as a drug in China (2.7 ka), but pre-date the proliferation of <em>Cannabis</em> presence in textual sources. Overall, <em>Cannabis</em> pollen presence in pre-historic India (&lt;2.5 ka), although common, is likely to be because of natural dispersal of <em>Cannabis</em>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100032"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142593679","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":"Human activities, early farming and natural environment in the north-western Kanto Plain (Central Japan) during the Final Jomon–Early Kofun period (990 cal BCE–330 cal CE) inferred from palynological and archaeobotanical records","authors":"Christian Leipe ,&nbsp;Franziska Kobe ,&nbsp;Anna Schubert ,&nbsp;Eiko Endo ,&nbsp;Maya Yasui ,&nbsp;Hirotaka Koshitsuka ,&nbsp;Michiko Ono ,&nbsp;Pavel E. Tarasov ,&nbsp;Mayke Wagner","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100030","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100030","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The emergence, spread and intensification of agriculture, the impact of early agriculture on the natural environment and the possible role of climate on subsistence economies and population dynamics are important research questions in Japanese geoarchaeology. New directly dated archaeobotanical records of the Middle Yayoi (390–200 cal BCE, 1σ error) and Early Kofun (210–330 cal CE) periods from the Ikegami archaeological site and a 1300-year palynological record from the nearby Morinji Marsh help address these questions in the Kanto Plain of Central Japan. The pollen record suggests that management of chestnut and horse-chestnut by Final Jomon people in the study region declined around 750 cal BCE. The microcharcoal record indicates that human-induced fire activity decreased after 990 cal BCE and reached a minimum 500 years later, which coincides with the hemispheric-scale Iron Age Cold Epoch and late Bond event 2. Increasing use of fire from ca. 500 cal BCE is contemporaneous with the earliest evidence of millet-rice cultivation from south-western Kanto and the Central Highlands. This and pollen-based indicators of crop cultivation around Morinji Marsh ca. 200 cal BCE are consistent with the ¹⁴C-dated arrival of the first full-scale rice farmers at Ikegami. Their food economy still had a noticeable wild plant component (e.g. beans, walnut, horse-chestnut and acorn), however, the archaeobotanical assemblages from the Early Kofun period show a higher focus on rice cultivation and no evidence of a wild plant component. Variations in the charcoal concentrations and archaeobotanical data from the study region help postulate three phases of farming intensification related to cultural diffusion and/or migration. These phases, dated to ca. 500–300, 300–100 cal BCE and 100 cal BCE–250 cal CE, correspond to the pottery typologically defined late Early–early Middle Yayoi, middle–late Middle Yayoi and Late Yayoi periods, respectively.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100030"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142444726","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":"The ancient Maya and limestone","authors":"Barbara Voorhies ,&nbsp;George H. Michaels","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100028","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100028","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article posits that the ancient Maya were uniquely advantaged by the limestone bedrock of their homeland, the Yucatán Peninsula. This happenstance was unintentional, but limestone provided a resource that helped promote Maya society to become a civilization. The most significant innovation was the elevation of one cultivated plant, maize, to the role of a dietary staple, which was made possible by nixtamalization, an innovative processing technology that increased the plant’s nutritional value. Nixtamalization relies on soaking maize kernels in an alkaline solution, which the Maya usually made with burned limestone. Before maize became a staple, earlier prehistoric Maya likely cultivated many crops, with maize among them. The consequent dietary and intense cultural focus on maize by later prehistoric Maya blinded researchers from recognizing that the earliest Maya on the peninsula were broad-spectrum farmers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100028"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142444727","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 Pleistocene freshwater fish from Dursunlu (Ilgın Basin, south-western Türkiye): Implications for early hominin dispersals out of Africa","authors":"Àngel Blanco-Lapaz ,&nbsp;Àngel H. Luján ,&nbsp;Elvan Demirci ,&nbsp;Josep Sanjuan","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100029","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100029","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Dursunlu, located in the Ilgın Basin (south-western Türkiye), represents one of the most prolific sites to explore early human occupations in Anatolia. This paper describes the lacustrine fish assemblage from this site during the Early Pleistocene (Günz glaciation). The fish community comprised two families, namely Cyprinidae and Cobitidae. Within the cyprinids, the genera had a wide range of ecological diversity. The most frequently observed genera in Dursunlu are <em>Chondrostoma</em> and <em>Squalius</em>, but <em>Capoeta</em> and <em>Barbus</em> are also present. These genera prove that a very shallow and well-oxygenized paleolake occupied the Ilgın Basin with a dense palustrine vegetation belt and partially rocky-gravelly substrate. This paleolake constituted a hotspot for the presence and early dispersal out of Africa of the genera <em>Homo</em> in this region and Eurasia during the Lower Paleolithic/Early Pleistocene.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100029"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142417134","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":"The Magdalenian horse (Equus ferus arcelini) from Roc-aux-Sorciers (Angles-sur-l’Anglin, France): Seasonality and paleoecology","authors":"Patricia Valensi ,&nbsp;Nicolas Boulbes ,&nbsp;Florent Rivals","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100027","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100027","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Roc-aux-Sorciers is one of the most emblematic sites of Magdalenian culture, particularly known for its bas-relief and high-relief sculpted frieze depicting animals and humans, dated to the Middle Magdalenian. The stratigraphic sequence contains archaeological deposits corresponding to the occupations from the Middle Magdalenian, overlain by deposits from the Upper Magdalenian. The study of the horse <em>Equus ferus arcelini</em>, the preferentially hunted species, was conducted through various approaches (paleontological, zooarchaeological, palaeoenvironmental, dental wear analyses) to highlight a possible adaptation of these animal populations to the climatic and environmental changes recorded within the Magdalenian sequence, and to better understand the subsistence strategies of Magdalenian groups towards this fauna. In the Middle Magdalenian, in a steppe environment under cold and dry climate conditions, the site was repeatedly occupied for long durations by Magdalenian sculptors. Seasonality data indicate horse hunting in all seasons, suggesting sedentary to semi-sedentary equine populations in the territory. The results are consistent with dental wear analyses. In the Upper Magdalenian, the climate was cold and wet, and the environment more diversified and semi-open. Dental wear analyses show that horses were adapted to a more diversified and less abrasive diet compared to those of the Middle Magdalenian. Occupations were characterised as brief and seasonal.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 6","pages":"Article 100027"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142442320","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":"Ecomorphological study of Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) distal phalanx: Insights from 3D geometric morphometrics for paleoenvironmental reconstructions","authors":"Ana Belén Galán López ,&nbsp;Nicole Torres-Tamayo ,&nbsp;María Fernanda Martínez-Polanco","doi":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100026","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100026","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Reindeer mobility patterns exhibit significant variability in modern ecosystems, especially between open and wooded environments. This variability makes it difficult to reconstruct past reindeer migration patterns, which is key to understand the role of reindeer herds in the sustenance and territorial organization of Prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies. By examining morphology associated with different habitats and movement patterns, insights into prehistoric reindeer behavior can be obtained. Investigating the relationship between locomotor anatomy and substrate type in present-day animals allows for paleoecological inferences, as previous research indicates that an animal's environment affects bone morphology. In the present study, 3D geometric morphometrics is employed to examine the influence of habitat type and mobility patterns on distal phalanx morphology from extant caribou (<em>Rangifer tarandus caribou</em>). Our analysis reveals significant morphological adaptations linked to different habitats (boreal forest, mountain, and tundra) and mobility types (sedentary, migratory, and altitudinal). However, the potential impact of sex remains uncertain due to incomplete data. The significant variations in shape and size of caribou distal phalanges across different habitats and mobility types underscore the complex interactions between morphology, ecology, and evolutionary pressures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101053,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Environments and Humans","volume":"2 5","pages":"Article 100026"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142318817","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}