scholarly journals Wooden tools and fire technology in the early Neanderthal site of Poggetti Vecchi (Italy)

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (9) ◽  
pp. 2054-2059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biancamaria Aranguren ◽  
Anna Revedin ◽  
Nicola Amico ◽  
Fabio Cavulli ◽  
Gianna Giachi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fire Technology ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
The Other ◽  
Marine Isotope Stage ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Buxus Sempervirens ◽  
Fossil Bones ◽  
Late Middle Pleistocene

Excavations for the construction of thermal pools at Poggetti Vecchi (Grosseto, Tuscany, central Italy) exposed a series of wooden tools in an open-air stratified site referable to late Middle Pleistocene. The wooden artifacts were uncovered, together with stone tools and fossil bones, largely belonging to the straight-tusked elephant Paleoloxodon antiquus. The site is radiometrically dated to around 171,000 y B.P., and hence correlated with the early marine isotope stage 6 [Benvenuti M, et al. (2017) Quat Res 88:327–344]. The sticks, all fragmentary, are made from boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) and were over 1 m long, rounded at one end and pointed at the other. They have been partially charred, possibly to lessen the labor of scraping boxwood, using a technique so far not documented at the time. The wooden artifacts have the size and features of multipurpose tools known as “digging sticks,” which are quite commonly used by foragers. This discovery from Poggetti Vecchi provides evidence of the processing and use of wood by early Neanderthals, showing their ability to use fire in tool making from very tough wood.

scholarly journals Luminescence dating of a late Middle Pleistocene glacial advance in eastern England

2021 ◽  
Vol 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip L. Gibbard ◽  
Mark D. Bateman ◽  
Jane Leathard ◽  
R.G. West
Keyword(s):  
Previous Investigation ◽  
Alluvial Fan ◽  
Luminescence Dating ◽  
Marine Isotope Stage ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Eastern Margin ◽  
First Time ◽  
Late Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Glacial Advance

Abstract Previous investigation of isolated landforms, on the eastern margin of the East Anglian Fenland, England, has demonstrated that they represent an ice-marginal delta and alluvial fan complex deposited at the margin of an ice lobe that entered the Fenland during the ‘Tottenhill glaciation’ (termed the ‘Skertchly Line’). They have been attributed, based on regional correlations, to a glaciation during the Late Wolstonian (i.e. Late Saalian) Substage (Drenthe Stadial, early Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6). This paper aimed to test this correlation by directly optically luminescence dating, for the first time, sediments found within the Skertchly Line at Shouldham Thorpe, Norfolk, and Maidscross Hill, Suffolk, together with those in associated kame terrace deposits at Watlington, Norfolk. Ages ranged from 244 ± 10 ka to 12.8 ± 0.46 ka, all the results being younger than MIS 8 with some clearly showing the landforms have been subsequently subjected to periglacial processes, particularly during the Late Devensian Substage (∼MIS 2). Most of the remainder fall within the range 169–212 ka and could be assigned to MIS 6, thus confirming the previously proposed age of the glaciation. The local and regional implications of these conclusions are discussed, the maximum ice limit being linked to that of the Amersfoort–Nijmegen glaciotectonic ridge limit in the central Netherlands.

scholarly journals Stratigraphy, sedimentology, and archaeology of Middle Pleistocene localities near Ceprano, Campogrande area, Italy

2019 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 155-171
Author(s):  
Italo Biddittu ◽  
Marie-Hélène Moncel ◽  
Salvatore Milli ◽  
Luca Bellucci ◽  
Massimo Ruffo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Homo Heidelbergensis ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Meandering Channel ◽  
Human Fossil ◽  
Fossil Specimen ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Late Middle Pleistocene

AbstractThe Ceprano human calvarium, dated around 400,000 yr, is a well-known fossil specimen. It represents significant evidence of hominin presence in the Italian peninsula during the Middle Pleistocene and may be considered representative of an archaic variant of the widespread and polymorphic species Homo heidelbergensis. Since its discovery (March 1994), systematic surveys in the Campogrande area near Ceprano, central Italy, identified 12 localities (CG1-12) with archaeological and/or paleontological assemblages. On this basis, fieldwork was carried out at Campogrande between 2001 and 2006, including drilled cores and excavations, allowing a detailed description of the stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental context associated with the human fossil specimen and the archaeological materials. In the present paper we focus on the stratigraphy and sedimentological features of the uppermost deposits, coupled with a detailed appraisal of the available lithic assemblages that mostly belongs to overlying sediments (CG9 and CG10 localities). We conclude that the Ceprano hominin died in a floodplain environment with a low topographic gradient, where a fluvial meandering channel occurred. The archaeological materials describe a network of sites that document common behavioural features of human groups of the mid-to-late Middle Pleistocene, representing evidence of the regionalization observed across Europe after Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 12.

A late–Middle Pleistocene (Marine Isotope Stage 6) vegetated surface buried by Old Crow tephra at the Palisades, interior Alaska

2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 801-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto V. Reyes ◽  
Britta J.L. Jensen ◽  
Grant D. Zazula ◽  
Thomas A. Ager ◽  
Svetlana Kuzmina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Marine Isotope Stage ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Interior Alaska ◽  
Late Middle Pleistocene

Ongoing research at the late Middle Pleistocene site of La Polledrara di Cecanibbio (central Italy), with emphasis on human–elephant relationships

2012 ◽  
Vol 255 ◽  
pp. 171-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Paola AnzideI ◽  
Grazia Maria Bulgarelli ◽  
Paola Catalano ◽  
Eugenio Cerilli ◽  
Rosalia Gallotti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Late Middle Pleistocene

Late Middle Pleistocene glaciofluvial sedimentation in western Norfolk, England

2012 ◽  
Vol 91 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 63-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.L. Gibbard ◽  
S. Boreham ◽  
R.G. West ◽  
C.J. Rolfe
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Internal Structure ◽  
Ground Penetrating Radar ◽  
Marine Isotope Stage ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Previous Description ◽  
Ground Penetrating ◽  
Landscape Morphology ◽  
Late Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Front Movement

AbstractInvestigation of landforms on the eastern margin of the East Anglian Fenland basin has demonstrated that they represent a series of glaciofluvial delta-fan and related sediment accumulations (the Skertchly Line) deposited at the margin of an ice-lobe that entered the depression. This ‘Tottenhill glaciation’ dated to ca 160 ka, or the late Wolstonian (= late Saalian) Stage, is equivalent to that during the Netherlands' Drenthe Substage (Marine Isotope Stage 6). Of these landform complexes, an additional site at Shouldham Thorpe, previously nominated as the stratotype for deposits linked to a pre-Anglian Stage, Midlands'-derived Ingham/‘Bytham river’, has now been studied. Examination of the internal structure and form of the feature, using ground-penetrating radar (GPR), supported by section logging, borehole records, local landscape morphology and previous description, together indicate that the deposits rest on an eroded surface of Lowestoft Formation diamicton (Anglian Stage) and must therefore be of post-, rather than pre-Anglian age. The investigations indicate that the Shouldham deposits were laid down as a glacio-marginal subaerial (‘terminoglacial’) fan at the ice-front. In common with other sequences in the Skertchly Line complexes, deposition at Shouldham Thorpe was accompanied by minor ice-front movement, this fan potentially being deposited before retreat to the Tottenhill locality. The implications of the results are discussed.

Herto Brains and Minds: Behaviour of Early Homo sapiens from the Middle Awash

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonas Beyene
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Early Homo ◽  
Middle Awash ◽  
Late Middle Pleistocene

The discovery of three late Middle Pleistocene hominid crania, Homo sapiens idaltu, at Herto in the Middle Awash research area in Ethiopia in 1997 shed considerable light on this little-known period in Africa. These fossils consist of two adults' and a child's crania. All are morphologically intermediate between geologically earlier African fossils and anatomically modern later Pleistocene humans. The three Herto Homo sapiens idaltu crania show cutmarks indicating defleshing using sharp-edged stone tools. The post-mortem modifications and manipulation of the crania, demonstrated best on the child and broken adult crania, suggest that Homo sapiens idaltu performed ritual mortuary practices of which the dimension, context and meaning might only be revealed by further discoveries.

scholarly journals Changes in Paleovegetation and Paleoclimate in China Since the Late Middle Pleistocene: A Case Study of the Dajiuhu Basin

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4848
Author(s):  
Liwei Wu ◽  
Xinling Li ◽  
Qinghai Xu ◽  
Manyue Li ◽  
Qiufeng Zheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Grain Size ◽  
Asian Monsoon ◽  
East Asian Monsoon ◽  
Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Central China ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Pollen Record ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Late Middle Pleistocene

The East Asian monsoon system is an important part of global atmospheric circulation; however, records of the East Asian monsoon from different regions exhibit different evolutionary rhythms. Here, we show a high-resolution record of grain size and pollen data from a lacustrine sediment core of Dajiuhu Lake in Shennongjia, Hubei Province, China, in order to reconstruct the paleovegetation and paleoeclimate evolution of the Dajiuhu Basin since the late Middle Pleistocene (~237.9 ka to the present). The results show that grain size and pollen record of the core DJH-2 are consistent with the δ18O record of stalagmites from Sanbao Cave in the same area, which is closely related to the changes of insolation at the precessional (~20-kyr) scale in the Northern Hemisphere. This is different from the records of the Asian summer monsoon recorded in the Loess Plateau of North China, which exhibited dominant 100-kyr change cyclicities. We suggest that the difference between paleoclimatic records from North and South China is closely related to the east–west-oriented mountain ranges of the Qinling Mountains in central China that blocked weakened East Asia summer monsoons across the mountains during glacial periods.

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