From the Bay of Naples to the River Don: the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption and the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Eastern Europe

The Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption, dated by ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar and various stratigraphic methods to ca. 39,000 cal BP, generated a massive ash plume from its source in southern Italy across Southeastern and Eastern Europe. At the Kostenki-Borshchevo open-air sites on the Middle Don River in Russia, Upper Paleolithic artifact assemblages are buried below, within, and above the CI tephra (which is redeposited by slope action at most sites) on the second terrace. Luminescence and radiocarbon dating, paleomagnetism, and soil and pollen stratigraphy provide further basis for correlation with the Greenland and North Atlantic climate stratigraphy. The oldest Upper Paleolithic occupation layers at Kostenki-Borshchevo may be broadly correlated with warm intervals that preceded the CI event and Heinrich Event 4 (HE4; Greenland Interstadial: GI 12-GI 9) dating to ca. 45,000-41,000 cal BP. These layers contain an industry not currently recognized in other parts of Europe. Early Upper Paleolithic layers above the CI tephra are correlated with HE4 and warm intervals that occurred during 38,000-30,000 cal BP (GI 8-GI 5), and include an assemblage that is assigned to the Aurigancian industry, associated with skeletal remains of modern humans.     

Bohunician technology and thermoluminescence dating of the type locality of Brno-Bohunice (Czech Republic)

Results of thermoluminescence (TL) dating of 11 heated flint artifacts from the 2002 excavation at Brno-Bohunice, Czech Republic, are presented. The samples are from the eponym locality for the Bohunician, an industrial type considered technologically transitional between Middle and Upper Paleolithic core reduction strategies. The Bohunician is the first early Upper Paleolithic technocomplex in the Middle Danube of Central Europe and, therefore, is implicated in several issues related to the origins of modern humans in Europe. The Bohunician provides an example of how one technological strategy combines crested blade initiation of a core with the surficial (almost Levalloisian) reduction of blanks as blades and points. As the Middle Danube lacks antecedents of the behavioral steps within this technology, several hypotheses of inter-regional cultural transmission, with and without hominin gene flow, could explain the appearance of the Bohunician. The elucidation of the temporal context of Bohunician assemblages is, therefore, a critical step in understanding the behavioral, and potentially biological, succession in this region. Radiocarbon age estimates from charcoal associated with Bohunician sites suggest a wide age range between 33 and 41 ka ¹⁴C BP, which is also observed for individual sites. TL dating of heated flint artifacts provides ages on the calendric time scale of an archeological event, the firing. The weighted mean of 48.2 ± 1.9 ka BP_TL for 11 heated flint samples from Brno-Bohunice provides the first non-radiocarbon data on archeological material from the Bohunician. The TL dating, in conjunction with the archeological and sedimentological analysis, allows the evaluation of the integrity of this new type-collection. The hypothetical possibility of the incorporation of Szeletian artifacts (i.e., leaf points) into the site formation processes can therefore be refuted.     

The archeology of modern human origins

Two competing hypotheses have long dominated specialist thinking on modern human origins. The first posits that modern people emerged in a limited area and spread from there to replace archaic people elsewhere. Proponents of this view currently favor Africa as the modern human birthplace.^1–5 The second suggests that the evolution of modern humans was not geographically restricted, but invlved substantial continuity between archaic and modern populations in all major regions of the occupied world.^6–7 Based solely on the fossil record, both hypotheses are equally defensible, but the spread-and-replationships scenario is far more strongly supported by burgeoning data on the genetic relationships and diversity of living humans.^8–16 These data impy that there was a common ancestor for all living humans in Africa between 280,000 and 140,000 year ago, and that Neanderthals and other archaic humans who inhabited Eurasia during the same interval contributed few, if any, genes to living peiple. I argue here that the spread-and-replacement hypothesis is also more compatible with a third line of evidence: the spread-and-replacement hypothesis is also more compatible with a third line of evidence: the archeological record for human behavioral evolution.     

Dating the demise: neandertal extinction and the establishment of modern humans in the southern Caucasus

This paper considers the recent radiometric dating (¹⁴C-AMS, TL, ESR) of 76 late Middle and early Upper Paleolithic samples from Ortvale Klde Rockshelter, located in the Republic of Georgia. We present a critical evaluation of each date based on its stratigraphic and archaeological context, its pretreatment and contamination history, and its resulting accuracy and precision, the goal being to establish a sound chronology for the site. Only by systematically identifying aberrant dates within a data set and isolating them from further analysis can we hope to understand cultural and biological phenomena on an accurate temporal scale. Based on the strict discard protocol outlined here, we omit 25% of the dated samples from the analysis. The remaining data speak to the lengthy tenure of Neandertals in the region, but also to their relatively rapid demise and the establishment of modern human populations ∼38-34 ka ¹⁴C BP (42-39 ka cal BP_Hulu). We compare these chronometric data with those from the neighboring sites of Bronze and Dzudzuana caves, as well as Mezmaiskaya Cave, located in the northern Caucasus. While the lack of key contextual information limit our ability to subject these other data sets to the same critical evaluation procedure, they provide the first interregional temporal assessment of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic “transition,” the results of which suggest an initial expansion of modern humans into the southern Caucasus followed by expansion along the Black Sea coast and into the northern Caucasus.     

古交遗址群文化性质初探

古交盆地地处汾河上游,前后发现的旧石器遗存共有五处,分别属于旧石器时代早、中、晚三期。其中以王家沟时代为最早,约处于中更新世之初。古交旧石器的丰富内涵,对研究汾河流域,以三棱大尖状器为特征文化的传承关系,将会赋予新意。     

The Early Aurignacian human remains from La Quina-Aval (France)

There is a dearth of diagnostic human remains securely associated with the Early Aurignacian of western Europe, despite the presence of similarly aged early modern human remains from further east. One small and fragmentary sample of such remains consists of the two partial immature mandibles plus teeth from the Early Aurignacian of La Quina-Aval, Charente, France. The La Quina-Aval 4 mandible exhibits a prominent anterior symphyseal tuber symphyseos on a vertical symphysis and a narrow anterior dental arcade, both features of early modern humans. The dental remains from La Quina-Aval 1 to 4 (a dm₁, 2 dm₂, a P⁴ and a P₄) are unexceptional in size and present occlusal configurations that combine early modern human features with a few retained ancestral ones. Securely dated to ∼33 ka ¹⁴C BP (∼38 ka cal BP), these remains serve to confirm the association of early modern humans with the Early Aurignacian in western Europe.     

欧洲旧石器时代晚期石器类型学评介及类型学相关问题探讨

类型学是考古材料描述与分析的基础。近年来,学者们对类型学尤其是旧石器时代石器类型学的反思较多,涉及类型学的理论基础、分类原则、类型学的考古解释能力等各个方面,然而少有中国学者系统介绍西方常用的旧石器考古类型学体系。鉴于此,本文主要介绍D. de Sonneville-Bordes与J. Perrot建立且在欧洲、西亚及北非应用较为普遍的旧石器时代晚期石器类型学,并思考旧石器考古学中类型学应用的相关问题。由于文化的区域多样性,描述中国的旧石器考古学材料时显然不能照搬欧洲的类型学体系,但可参考它并建立适宜于中国旧石器时代考古材料描述的体系。若此,一方面,我们可以更好地将中国的旧石器晚期考古材料与其他地区的相关材料进行对比;另一方面,可以揭示中国旧石器时代晚期石器类型的区域多样化。     

陕西长武发现的旧石器时代中期文化遗物

根据地层层位,长武窑头沟遗址的地质时代应为晚更新世的初期;与同时代的丁村遗址相比较,两者在地理分布上和文化内涵上均不相同;因此,在旧石器时代中期华北可能有两种或更多的文化类型;本文所述的泾渭文化与水洞沟文化可能有更密切的渊源关系。     

陕西长武发现的旧石器时代中期文化遗物

根据地层层位,长武窑头沟遗址的地质时代应为晚更新世的初期;与同时代的丁村遗址相比较,两者在地理分布上和文化内涵上均不相同;因此,在旧石器时代中期华北可能有两种或更多的文化类型;本文所述的泾渭文化与水洞沟文化可能有更密切的渊源关系。     

Human remains from the Austrian Gravettian: the Willendorf femoral diaphysis and mandibular symphysis

Early excavations at the Willendorf site complex in Austria yielded a femoral diaphysis collected between 1883 and 1887 and a mandibular symphysis discovered in 1908--1909. The femoral section, Willendorf 1, derives from the Willendorf I site and direct AMS (14)C dating (24,250+/-180 years B.P.) assigns it to layer 9. The Willendorf 2 mandibular piece was excavated from layer 9 of the Willendorf II site, which is AMS (14)C dated to 24,000--23,900 years B.P. The Willendorf 1 femoral piece is relatively small and exhibits a pronounced pilaster and linear aspera, moderately elevated relative cortical area, and a level of diaphyseal robusticity in the middle of the European earlier Upper Paleolithic human range of variation, assuming similar body proportions. The Willendorf 2 mandibular symphysis has an inferior lingual torus, a planum alveolare, and a mental trigone with indistinct lateral tubercles, a clear fossa mentalis and a midline basilar rounding. In these features it is close to the majority of European earlier Upper Paleolithic mandibles.     

Optically stimulated luminescence dating of cave deposits at the Xiaogushan prehistoric site, northeastern China

The Xiaogushan cave site is one of the most important prehistoric sites in North China. The stone and bone artifacts found in the cave are similar to European contemporaneous artifacts. Cave deposits consist of five layers that have been dated from 46,353 ± 1179 to 4229 ± 135 cal. yr BP, using radiocarbon dating techniques on charcoal and bone samples collected from Layers 2-5. In this paper, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques were applied to date six samples taken from Layers 1-3. The luminescence properties of the fine-grained and coarse-grained quartz extracts indicate that the materials are suitable for OSL dating using a single-aliquot regeneration-dose (SAR) protocol. The OSL ages obtained are broadly consistent with the stratigraphy and the associated calibrated radiocarbon ages. The dating results show that the cave was first occupied by humans about 70 ka. The human occupation of the cave may be related to climate change. An occupation hiatus is inferred to between ∼17 to ∼10 ka. The stone and bone artifacts found in Layers 2 and 3 may indicate the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transitions in the region.