The last interglacial-glacial cycle in the Meuse Valley (southern Belgium) inferred from the amphibian and reptile assemblages: implications for Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans

AbstractThe peopling of Sahul (the combined continent of Australia and New Guinea) represents the earliest continental migration and settlement event of solely anatomically modern humans, but its patterns and ecological drivers remain largely conceptual in the current literature. We present an advanced stochastic-ecological model to test the relative support for scenarios describing where and when the first humans entered Sahul, and their most probable routes of early settlement. The model supports a dominant entry via the northwest Sahul Shelf first, potentially followed by a second entry through New Guinea, with initial entry most consistent with 50,000 or 75,000 years ago based on comparison with bias-corrected archaeological map layers. The model’s emergent properties predict that peopling of the entire continent occurred rapidly across all ecological environments within 156–208 human generations (4368–5599 years) and at a plausible rate of 0.71–0.92 km year−1. More broadly, our methods and approaches can readily inform other global migration debates, with results supporting an exit of anatomically modern humans from Africa 63,000–90,000 years ago, and the peopling of Eurasia in as little as 12,000–15,000 years via inland routes.

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Review Feature: A review of The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art by David Lewis-Williams. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002. ISBN 0-500-05117-8 hardback £18.95 & US$29.95; 320 pp., 66 figs., 29 colour plates

Cambridge Archaeological Journal ◽

10.1017/s0959774303000155 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 263-279 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David Lewis-Williams ◽

E. Thomas Lawson ◽

Knut Helskog ◽

David S. Whitley ◽

Paul Mellars

Keyword(s):

Rock Art ◽

David Lewis ◽

Modern Human ◽

Hominid Evolution ◽

Modern Humans ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Anatomically Modern Humans ◽

The Mind ◽

Cave Art ◽

West European

David Lewis-Williams is well-known in rock-art circles as the author of a series of articles drawing on ethnographic material and shamanism (notably connected with the San rock art of southern Africa) to gain new insights into the Palaeolithic cave art of western Europe. Some 15 years ago, with Thomas Dowson, he proposed that Palaeolithic art owed its inspiration at least in part to trance experiences (altered states of consciousness) associated with shamanistic practices. Since that article appeared, the shamanistic hypothesis has both been widely adopted and developed in the study of different rock-art traditions, and has become the subject of lively and sometimes heated controversy. In the present volume, Lewis-Williams takes the argument further, and combines the shamanistic hypothesis with an interpretation of the development of human consciousness. He thus enters another contentious area of archaeological debate, seeking to understand west European cave art in the context of (and as a marker of) the new intellectual capacities of anatomically modern humans. Radiocarbon dates for the earliest west European cave art now place it contemporary with the demise of the Neanderthals around 30,000 years ago, and cave art, along with carved or decorated portable items, appears to announce the arrival and denote the success of modern humans in this region. Lewis-Williams argues that such cave art would have been beyond the capabilities of Neanderthals, and that this kind of artistic ability is unique to anatomically modern humans. Furthermore, he concludes that the development of the new ability cannot have been the product of hundreds of thousands of years of gradual hominid evolution, but must have arisen much more abruptly, within the novel neurological structure of anatomically modern humans. The Mind in the Cave is thus the product of two hypotheses, both of them contentious — the shamanistic interpretation of west European Upper Palaeolithic cave art, and the cognitive separation of modern humans and Neanderthals. But is it as simple as that? Was cave art the hallmark of a new cognitive ability and social consciousness that were beyond the reach of previous hominids? And is shamanism an outgrowth of the hard-wired structure of the modern human brain? We begin this Review Feature with a brief summary by David Lewis-Williams of the book's principal arguments. There follows a series of comments addressing both the meaning of the west European cave art, and its wider relevance for the understanding of the Neanderthal/modern human transition.

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The Use of Ochre and Painting During the Upper Paleolithic of the Swabian Jura in the Context of the Development of Ochre Use in Africa and Europe

Open Archaeology ◽

10.1515/opar-2018-0012 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 185-205 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Sibylle Wolf ◽

Nicholas J. Conard ◽

Harald Floss ◽

Rimtautas Dapschauskas ◽

Elizabeth Velliky ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Central Europe ◽

Upper Paleolithic ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

Modern Humans ◽

Anatomically Modern Humans

Abstract While the earliest evidence for ochre use is very sparse, the habitual use of ochre by hominins appeared about 140,000 years ago and accompanied them ever since. Here, we present an overview of archaeological sites in southwestern Germany, which yielded remains of ochre. We focus on the artifacts belonging exclusively to anatomically modern humans who were the inhabitants of the cave sites in the Swabian Jura during the Upper Paleolithic. The painted limestones from the Magdalenian layers of Hohle Fels Cave are a particular focus. We present these artifacts in detail and argue that they represent the beginning of a tradition of painting in Central Europe.

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Vegetation and climate change in the Hetao Basin (Northern China) during the last interglacial-glacial cycle

Journal of Asian Earth Sciences ◽

10.1016/j.jseaes.2018.11.024 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 171 ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Maotang Cai ◽

Peisheng Ye ◽

Xingchen Yang ◽

Chenglu Li

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Northern China ◽

Glacial Cycle ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

Vegetation And Climate

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Excursions to C<sub>4</sub> vegetation recorded in the Upper Pleistocene loess of Surduk (Northern Serbia): an organic isotope geochemistry study

Climate of the Past ◽

10.5194/cp-9-1001-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 1001-1014 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

C. Hatté ◽

C. Gauthier ◽

D.-D. Rousseau ◽

P. Antoine ◽

M. Fuchs ◽

...

Keyword(s):

General Pattern ◽

Free Water ◽

Circulation Pattern ◽

Water Evaporation ◽

C3 Plants ◽

Mean Annual Precipitation ◽

Glacial Cycle ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

The Balkans ◽

The Mediterranean

Abstract. Loess sequences have been intensively studied to characterize past glacial climates of the 40–50° north and south latitude zones. Combining different approaches of sedimentology, magnetism, geochemistry, geochronology and malacology allows the general pattern of the climate and environment of the last interglacial–glacial cycle in Eurasia and America to be characterized. Previous studies performed in Europe have highlighted the predominance (if not the sole occurrence) of C3 vegetation. The presence of C3 plants suggests a regular distribution of precipitation along the year. Therefore, even if the mean annual precipitation remained very low during the most extensive glacial times, free water was available for more than 2 months per year. Contrarily, the δ13C record of Surduk (Serbia) clearly shows the occurrence and dominance of C4 plants during at least 4 episodes of the last glacial times at 28.0–26.0 kyr cal BP, 31.4–30.0 kyr cal BP, 53.4–44.5 kyr cal BP and 86.8–66.1 kyr. The C4 plant development is interpreted as a specific atmospheric circulation pattern that induces short and dry summer conditions. As possible explanation, we propose that during "C4 episodes", the Mediterranean Sea would have been under the combined influence of the following: (i) a strong meridional circulation unfavorable to water evaporation that reduced the Mediterranean precipitation on the Balkans; and (ii) a high positive North Atlantic Western Russian (NA/WR)-like atmospheric pattern that favored northerlies over westerlies and reduced Atlantic precipitation over the Balkans. This configuration would imply very dry summers that did not allow C3 plants to grow, thus supporting C4 development. The intra-"C4 episode" periods would have occurred under less drastic oceanic and atmospheric patterns that made the influence of westerlies on the Balkans possible.

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Palynology of the Last Interglacial-Glacial Cycle in Midlatitudes of Southern Chile

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/0033-5894(81)90014-4 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 293-321 ◽

Cited By ~ 50

Author(s):

Calvin J. Heusser

Keyword(s):

Primary Component ◽

Southern Chile ◽

Glacial Cycle ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

The Holocene ◽

Westerly Winds ◽

Pollen And Spores ◽

Components Analysis ◽

Age Relations ◽

Nothofagus Dombeyi

AbstractPollen and spores in stratigraphic sections located between 40 and 42°S range in age from the Holocene, through much of the Llanquihue Glaciation, to the last interglaciation. Chronology of the stratigraphy derives from some 35 14C ages and the age relations of Llanquihue Drift and related deposits. Q-Mode, rotated, principal-components analysis of four key pollen records covering the last interglacial-glacial cycle resulted in four leading components: Nothofagus dombeyi type, Gramineae, Weinmannia-Fitzroya type, and Myrtaceae. Analysis emphasizes interaction between the first two components. Loadings of Gramineae during the interglaciation are high, unlike the Holocene; Weinmannia-Fitzroya-type loadings, prominent in the Holocene, are negligible during the interglaciation. N. dombeyi type is the primary component during Llanquihue Glaciation; it becomes modified by increases of Gramineae sometime after 31,000 and before 14,000 yr B.P. and of Myrtaceae later. The Myrtaceae with Weinmannia-Fitzroya type also registers some activity around 42,000 yr B.P. Fluctuations in the belt of westerly winds, reflecting changing meteorological conditions in polar latitudes, are suggested by these data. With the belt located farther south than it is today, interglacial climate was much drier and warmer than during the Holocene; more northerly displacement of the belt obtained when climate was colder during Llanquihue Glaciation. Evidence from comparable latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere points toward a synchrony of major climatic events indicating harmonious fluctuations in the position of the westerlies.

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Revisiting the Out of Africa event with a novel Deep Learning approach

10.1101/2020.12.10.419069 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Francesco Montinaro ◽

Vasili Pankratov ◽

Burak Yelmen ◽

Luca Pagani ◽

Mayukh Mondal

Keyword(s):

Deep Learning ◽

Sequential Monte Carlo ◽

Whole Genome Sequence ◽

Learning Approach ◽

Whole Genome ◽

Modern Humans ◽

Anatomically Modern Humans ◽

Out Of Africa ◽

Approximate Bayesian ◽

Back To Africa

AbstractAnatomically modern humans evolved around 300 thousand years ago in Africa1. Modern humans started to appear in the fossil record outside of Africa about 100 thousand years ago though other hominins existed throughout Eurasia much earlier2–4. Recently, several researchers argued in favour of a single out of Africa event for modern humans based on whole-genome sequences analyses5–7. However, the single out of Africa model is in contrast with some of the findings from fossil records, which supports two out of Africa8,9, and uniparental data, which proposes back to Africa movement10,11. Here, we used a novel deep learning approach coupled with Approximate Bayesian Computation and Sequential Monte Carlo to revisit these hypotheses from the whole genome sequence perspective. Our results support the back to Africa model over other alternatives. We estimated that there are two successive splits between Africa and out of African populations happening around 60-80 thousand years ago and separated by 12-13 thousand years. One of the populations resulting from the more recent split has to a large extent replaced the older West African population while the other one has founded the out of Africa populations.

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Correlation and interpretation of paleosols and loess across European Russia and Asia over the last interglacial–glacial cycle

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/s0033-5894(03)00069-3 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 60 (1) ◽

pp. 101-109 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Nathaniel W. Rutter ◽

Dean Rokosh ◽

Michael E. Evans ◽

Edward C. Little ◽

Jiri Chlachula ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Loess Plateau ◽

European Russia ◽

Chinese Loess Plateau ◽

Russian Plain ◽

Glacial Cycle ◽

Last Interglacial ◽

Central Siberia ◽

Chinese Loess ◽

Loess Deposition ◽

The Chinese Loess Plateau

AbstractLoess-paleosol sequences of the last interglacial-glacial cycle are correlated from European Russia to central Siberia and the Chinese Loess Plateau. During cold periods represented by marine oxygen isotope stages (OIS) 2 and 4, loess deposition dominated in the Russian Plain and the Loess Plateau. In central Siberia, loess deposition took place also, but five to seven thin, weakly developed paleosols are identified in both stages. OIS 3, in the Chinese Loess Plateau near Yangchang, consists of a loess bed that is flanked by two weakly developed paleosols. At Kurtak, Siberia, OIS 3 is represented by two distinct, stacked paleosols with no loess bed separating the paleosols. In the Russian Plain, OIS 3 consists of a single, possibly welded paleosol, representing upper and lower stage-3 climates. Brunisols and Chernozems dominate the profiles in China and Siberia, whereas Regosols, Luvisols, and Chernozems are evident in the northern and southern Russian Plain, respectively. OIS 5 is represented in China and the Russian Plain by pedo complexes in a series of welded soils, whereas in contrast, the Kurtak site consists of six paleosols with interbedded loess. The paleosols consist largely of Brunisols and Chernozems. Although the three areas examined have different climates, geographical settings, and loess source areas, they all had similar climate changes during the last interglacial-glacial cycle.

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