The Late Pleistocene clastic deposits in the Romito Cave, southern Italy: a proxy record of environmental changes and human presence

This paper documents the Late-Holocene environmental changes and human presence in the northern Danube delta using a multidisciplinary approach that combines geoscientific data with archaeological findings, historical texts, and maps. It follows the formation and progression of the Chilia distributary and the reconfiguration of socioeconomic activities. Sedimentary facies identified on five new cores by changes in texture properties, magnetic susceptibility, geochemistry, and macro- and microfauna composition together with the newly obtained chronology constrain the complex evolution of the Chilia branch as filling in a long-lasting bay and then of a giant lagoon (Thiagola) which covered most of the northern delta since the Old Danube lobe inception (ca. 7500 yrs BP) till modern Chilia development. It initiated during the Greek Antiquity (ca. 2500 yrs ar BP) at the delta apex, while in Roman times (ca. 1800 yrs BP) it pursued its slow flowing into the vast Thiagola Lagoon. The most dramatic transformations occurred in the last 800 years when the river passed east of the Chilia promontory, rapidly went through the present-day Matița-Merhei basin (several decades), and created its first open-sea outlet. Solid discharge increased in two distinct periods, once in the Middle Ages (ca. 750 yrs BP) and then in the Modern Period (ca. 150 yrs BP) due to human-induced land-use changes in the Danube watershed. The chronology of the cultural remains on the pre-deltaic Chilia promontory and the multiproxy analysis of a sediment core retrieved nearby downstream suggest the terrestrial connection of the island with the mainland in ancient times. The hitherto contended issue of the old Thiagola Lagoon and its location are redefined here, as are the original identifications of ancient and medieval toponyms and hydronyms, especially for Chilia-Licostomo, Byzantine, Genoese, Moldavian, Ottoman, and Russian trading point of great importance in the political and economic history of the Black Sea and neighboring regions.

Download Full-text

Stable isotope composition of Helix ligata (Müller, 1774) from Late Pleistocene–Holocene archaeological record from Grotta della Serratura (Southern Italy): Palaeoclimatic implications

Global and Planetary Change ◽

10.1016/j.gloplacha.2009.05.006 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 71 (3-4) ◽

pp. 249-257 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

André Carlo Colonese ◽

Giovanni Zanchetta ◽

Anthony E. Fallick ◽

Fabio Martini ◽

Giuseppe Manganelli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Stable Isotope ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Southern Italy ◽

Isotope Composition ◽

Archaeological Record ◽

Stable Isotope Composition

Download Full-text

Two new Banksia species from pleistocene sediments in western Tasmania

Australian Systematic Botany ◽

10.1071/sb9910499 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 499 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

GI Jordan ◽

RS Hill

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Extinct Species ◽

The Third ◽

Taxonomic Groups

Subtribe Banksiinae of the Proteaceae was diverse in Tasmania in the early and middle Tertiary, but is now restricted to two species, Banksia marginata and B. serrata. Rapid and extreme environmental changes during the Pleistocene are likely causes of the extinction of some Banksia species in Tasmania. Such extinctions may have been common in many taxonomic groups. The leaves and infructescences of Banksia kingii Jordan & Hill, sp. nov. are described from late Pleistocene sediments. This is the most recent macrofossil record of a now extinct species in Tasmania. Banksia kingii is related to the extant B. saxicola. Banksia strahanensis Jordan & Hill, sp. nov. (known only from a leaf and leaf fragments and related to B. spinulosa) is described from Early to Middle Pleistocene sediments in Tasmania. This represents the third Pleistocene macrofossil record of a plant species which is now extinct in Tasmania.

Download Full-text

The Use and Construction History of Huaca Prieta, North Coast of Peru

Maritime Communities of the Ancient Andes ◽

10.5744/florida/9780813066141.003.0004 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 101-128

Author(s):

Tom D. Dillehay

Keyword(s):

Late Pleistocene ◽

North Coast ◽

Marine Resources ◽

Human Presence ◽

Social Correlates ◽

The North ◽

History Of ◽

Chicama Valley ◽

North Coast Of Peru

Chapter 4 summarizes the construction, subsistence, and social correlates of Huaca Prieta, a mound site in the lower Chicama Valley on the north coast of Peru, from the earliest evidence of human presence in the Late Pleistocene (ca. 12,500 14C BP) through abandonment at 3,800 14C BP. Marine resources were important throughout the sequence, which saw an early advent of agriculture and increasing population, complexity, and monumentality.

Download Full-text

The influence of humans

Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198524977.003.0014 ◽

2004 ◽

Author(s):

Tony Hallam

Keyword(s):

Late Pleistocene ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Oceanic Islands ◽

Northern Eurasia ◽

Large Mammals ◽

Extinction Rates ◽

Human Dispersal ◽

The World ◽

Last Ice Age

We saw in Chapters 5 and 7 that the Quaternary was a time of low extinction rates despite a succession of strong environmental changes induced ultimately by climate. This began to change from a few tens of thousands of years ago with the arrival on our planet of Homo sapiens sapiens, which can be translated from the Latin as the rather smug ‘ultrawise Man’. It is widely accepted today that the Earth is undergoing a loss of species on a scale that would certainly rank in geological terms as a catastrophe, and has indeed, been dubbed ‘the sixth mass extinction’. Although the disturbance to the biosphere being created in modern times is more or less entirely attributable to human activity, we must use the best information available from historical, archaeological, and geological records to attempt to determine just when it began. Towards the end of the last ice age, known in Europe as the Würm and in North America as the Wisconsin, the continents were much richer in large mammals than today: for example, there were mammoths, mastodonts, and giant ground sloths in the Americas; woolly mammoths, elephants, rhinos, giant deer, bison, and hippos in northern Eurasia; and giant marsupials in Australia. Outside Africa most genera of large mammals, defined as exceeding 44 kilograms adult weight, disappeared within the past 100,000 years, an increasing number becoming extinct towards the end of that period. This indicates that there was a significant extinction event near the end of the Pleistocene. This event was not simultaneous across the world, however: it took place later in the Americas than Australia, and Africa and Asia have suffered fewer extinctions than other continents. There are three reasons for citing humans as the main reason for the late Pleistocene extinctions. First, the extinctions follow the appearance of humans in various parts of the world. Very few of the megafaunal extinctions that took place in the late Pleistocene can definitely be shown to pre-date the arrival of humans. There has, on the other hand, been a sequence of extinctions following human dispersal, culminating most recently on oceanic islands. Second, it was generally only large mammals that became extinct.

Download Full-text

Hominin responses to environmental changes during the Middle Pleistocene in central and southern Italy

Climate of the Past ◽

10.5194/cp-9-687-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 687-697 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

R. Orain ◽

V. Lebreton ◽

E. Russo Ermolli ◽

A.-M. Sémah ◽

S. Nomade ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Western Europe ◽

Southern Italy ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Global Climate ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Faunal Remains ◽

Vegetation Dynamic ◽

Local Climate ◽

Global Climate Changes

Abstract. The palaeobotanical record of early Palaeolithic sites from Western Europe indicates that hominins settled in different kinds of environments. During the "mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT)", from about 1 to 0.6 Ma, the transition from 41- to 100-ka dominant climatic oscillations, occurring within a long-term cooling trend, was associated with an aridity crisis which strongly modified the ecosystems. Starting from the MPT the more favourable climate of central and southern Italy provided propitious environmental conditions for long-term human occupations even during the glacial times. In fact, the human strategy of territory occupation was certainly driven by the availabilities of resources. Prehistoric sites such as Notarchirico (ca. 680–600 ka), La Pineta (ca. 600–620 ka), Guado San Nicola (ca. 380–350 ka) or Ceprano (ca. 345–355 ka) testify to a preferential occupation of the central and southern Apennines valleys during interglacial phases, while later interglacial occupations were oriented towards the coastal plains, as attested by the numerous settlements of the Roma Basin (ca. 300 ka). Faunal remains indicate that human subsistence behaviours benefited from a diversity of exploitable ecosystems, from semi-open to closed environments. In central and southern Italy, several palynological records have already illustrated the regional- and local-scale vegetation dynamic trends. During the Middle Pleistocene climate cycles, mixed mesophytic forests developed during the interglacial periods and withdrew in response to increasing aridity during the glacial episodes. New pollen data from the Boiano Basin (Molise, Italy) attest to the evolution of vegetation and climate between MIS 13 and 9 (ca. 500 to 300 ka). In this basin the persistence of high edaphic humidity, even during the glacial phases, could have favoured the establishment of a refuge area for the arboreal flora and provided subsistence resources for the animal and hominin communities during the Middle Pleistocene. This could have constrained human groups to migrate into such a propitious area. Regarding the local climate evolution during the glacial episodes, the supposed displacement from these sites could be linked to the environmental dynamics solely due to the aridity increase, rather than directly to the global climate changes.

Download Full-text