This article focuses on hunter-gatherer impact on interglacial vegetation in Europe, using a case study from the Early Holocene (9200–8700 BP). We present a novel agent-based model, hereafter... Show moreThis article focuses on hunter-gatherer impact on interglacial vegetation in Europe, using a case study from the Early Holocene (9200–8700 BP). We present a novel agent-based model, hereafter referred to as HUMLAND (HUMan impact on LANDscapes), specifically developed to define key factors in continental-level vegetation changes via assessment of differences between pollen-based reconstruction and dynamic global vegetation model output (climate-based vegetation cover). The identified significant difference between these two datasets can be partially explained by the difference in the models themselves, but also by the fact that climate is not the sole factor responsible for vegetation change. Sensitivity analysis of HUMLAND showed that the intensity of anthropogenic vegetation modification mainly depended on three factors: the number of groups present, their preferences for vegetation openness around campsites, and the size of an area impacted by humans. Overall, both climate and human activities had strong impacts on vegetation openness during the study period. Our modelling results support the hypothesis that European ecosystems were strongly shaped by human activities already in the Mesolithic. Show less
Gaudzinski-Windheuser, S.; Kindler, L.; MacDonald, K.; Roebroeks, W. 2023
Straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were the largest terrestrial mammals of the Pleistocene, present in Eurasian landscapes between 800,000 and 100,000 years ago. The occasional co... Show moreStraight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were the largest terrestrial mammals of the Pleistocene, present in Eurasian landscapes between 800,000 and 100,000 years ago. The occasional co-occurrence of their skeletal remains with stone tools has generated rich speculation about the nature of interactions between these elephants and Pleistocene humans: Did hominins scavenge on elephants that died a natural death or maybe even hunt some individuals? Our archaeozoological study of the largest P. antiquus assemblage known, excavated from 125,000-year-old lake deposits in Germany, shows that hunting of elephants weighing up to 13 metric tons was part of the cultural repertoire of Last Interglacial Neanderthals there, over >2000 years, many dozens of generations. The intensity and nutritional yields of these well-documented butchering activities, combined with previously reported data from this Neumark-Nord site complex, suggest that Neanderthals were less mobile and operated within social units substantially larger than commonly envisaged. Show less
NIKULINA, A.; MacDonald, K.; Scherjon, F.; Pearce, E.A.; Davoli, M.; Svenning, J.-C.; ... ; Roebroeks, W. 2022
We review palaeoenvironmental proxies and combinations of these relevant for understanding hunter-gatherer niche construction activities in pre-agricultural Europe. Our approach consists of two... Show moreWe review palaeoenvironmental proxies and combinations of these relevant for understanding hunter-gatherer niche construction activities in pre-agricultural Europe. Our approach consists of two steps: (1) identify the possible range of hunter-gatherer impacts on landscapes based on ethnographic studies; (2) evaluate proxies possibly reflecting these impacts for both the Eemian (Last Interglacial, Middle Palaeolithic) and the Early–Middle Holocene (Mesolithic). We found these paleoenvironmental proxies were not able to unequivocally establish clear-cut differences between specific anthropogenic, climatic and megafaunal impacts for either time period in this area. We discuss case studies for both periods and show that published evidence for Mesolithic manipulation of landscapes is based on the interpretation of comparable data as available for the Last Interglacial. If one applies the ‘Mesolithic’ interpretation schemes to the Neanderthal record, three common niche construction activities can be hypothesised: vegetation burning, plant manipulation and impact on animal species presence and abundance. Our review suggests that as strong a case can be made for a Neanderthal impact on landscapes as for anthropogenic landscape changes during the Mesolithic, even though the Neanderthal evidence comes from only one high-resolution site complex. Further research should include attempts (e.g. by means of modelling studies) to establish whether hunter-gatherer impact on landscapes played out at a local level only versus at a larger scale during both time periods, while we also need to obtain comparative data on the population sizes of Last Interglacial and Holocene hunter-gatherers, as these are usually inferred to have differed significantly. Show less
Little is known about the antiquity, nature, and scale of Pleistocene hunter-gatherer impact on their ecosystems, despite the importance for studies of conservation and human evolution. Such impact... Show moreLittle is known about the antiquity, nature, and scale of Pleistocene hunter-gatherer impact on their ecosystems, despite the importance for studies of conservation and human evolution. Such impact is likely to be limited, mainly because of low population densities, and challenging to detect and interpret in terms of cause-effect dynamics. We present high-resolution paleoenvironmental and archaeological data from the Last Interglacial locality of Neumark-Nord (Germany). Among the factors that shaped vegetation structure and succession in this lake landscape, we identify a distinct ecological footprint of hominin activities, including fire use. We compare these data with evidence from archaeological and baseline sites from the same region. At Neumark-Nord, notably open vegetation coincides with a virtually continuous c. 2000-year-long hominin presence, and the comparative data strongly suggest that hominins were a contributing factor. With an age of c. 125,000 years, Neumark-Nord provides an early example of a hominin role in vegetation transformation. Show less
The majority of analyses of hominin learning processes focus on stone tools. However, stone tool production is just one of many skills that were important for forager survival and success in the... Show moreThe majority of analyses of hominin learning processes focus on stone tools. However, stone tool production is just one of many skills that were important for forager survival and success in the past, of which hunting strategies are one of the few documented in the Palaeolithic record. This chapter focuses on hunting skills, as a supplement to lithic studies addressing learning processes in Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. Based on the ethnographic record, the content to be learned while hunting includes a wide range of different sorts of skills and information, some of which are situation specific. The similarities and relatively subtle differences in the record for hunting behaviour between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic make it unlikely that there was a substantial contrast in the content to be learned or processes involved in acquiring hunting skills. Among contemporary hunters, various older individuals undertake some teaching and also frequently provide small tools, take children on hunting trips, and tell hunting stories. Children enthusiastically engage in their own hunting exploits and games with weapons. The widespread distribution of such activities suggests benefits for the speed and quality of learning, among other factors. It is not unlikely that AMH and Neanderthals, for whom hunting was an important skill, also employed some of these processes. Show less
There is no consensus on the chronology of fire use, with suggestions ranging from earliest use by Homo erectus 1.8 mya to relatively recent Anatomically Modern Humans. While it is widely agreed... Show moreThere is no consensus on the chronology of fire use, with suggestions ranging from earliest use by Homo erectus 1.8 mya to relatively recent Anatomically Modern Humans. While it is widely agreed that fire would have been of great assistance in moving into areas with a temperate climate, early sites from middle latitudes across Eurasia lack convincing evidence for fire use before about 400,000 years ago. It is not clear whether this represents a real pattern, or a limitation to past research methods and survival. Establishing a firm chronology for the use of fire requires refined interpretation of fire residues at early sites. An alternative approach, taking the pattern (provisionally) as real, is to investigate how hominins could have solved important survival problems at middle latitudes without using fire. This article addresses strategies for thermoregulation in the absence of fire in conditions experienced by hominins in north-west Europe before 400,000 years ago. Four main hypotheses are proposed, involving strategies based primarily on 1) winter fur and subcutaneous fat, 2) hibernation, 3) enhanced heat production, and 4) a combination of cultural insulation particularly clothing and insulative baby carriers with enhanced heat production. Given the trade-offs of these strategies, I will consider their plausibility for the early occupants of Europe, and discuss how the most plausible strategies could be detected in future research. Show less
Humans today live in a wide range of environments from the iciest to the hottest, thanks to diversecultural solutions that buffer temperature extremes. The prehistory of this relationship... Show moreHumans today live in a wide range of environments from the iciest to the hottest, thanks to diversecultural solutions that buffer temperature extremes. The prehistory of this relationship betweenhuman distribution, cultural solutions and temperature conditions may help us to understand theevolution of human biological adaptations to cold temperature. Fire has long been seen as animportant factor in human evolution and range expansion, particularly into temperate latitudes.Nevertheless, the earliest evidence for hominin presence in Eurasia, and middle latitudes innorthern Europe, substantially predates convincing evidence for fire use in these regions. Thisreview outlines the current state of knowledge of the chronology of hominin dispersal intotemperate latitudes, from the earliest occupants to our own species, and the archeological evidencefor fire use. Given continuing disagreement about this chronology and limitations to thearcheological evidence, new, complementary approaches are worthwhile and would benefit frominformation from studies of current human temperature regulation. Show less
Archaeological indications for off-site burning by late Pleistocene and early Holocene hunter-gatherers present intransigent interpretive problems; by contrast, burning practices by recent hunter... Show moreArchaeological indications for off-site burning by late Pleistocene and early Holocene hunter-gatherers present intransigent interpretive problems; by contrast, burning practices by recent hunter-gatherers are well documented. Here, we present a systematic global inventory of extant burning practices-including the reasons for burning and the environmental setting of firing activities-and also discuss their visibility in the archaeological record. This inventory is based on ethnographic and historical texts. In historical times, off-site fire was used for a wide range of purposes, irrespective of age and gender, with significant advantages for its producers. While the reasons given for burning can vary between individuals, in the longer term, many hunter-gatherer firing practices created more mosaic types of environments than would have occurred naturally. The historical visibility of hunter-gatherer burning activities contrasts with the relative invisibility of such practices in the contemporary archaeological record, highlighting the difficulty of analyzing past use of fire. On the basis of its ethnographic importance, we suggest that diverse off-site fire use is as old as the regular use of fire. New multiproxy data from well-sampled sequences, analyzed at a local scale, is needed to test this hypothesis. Show less
We use climatic and satellite remote sensing data to characterize environmental seasonality in the geographical ranges of extant non-human primates in order to assess the effect of relative brain... Show moreWe use climatic and satellite remote sensing data to characterize environmental seasonality in the geographical ranges of extant non-human primates in order to assess the effect of relative brain size on tolerance of more seasonal habitats. Demonstration of such an effect in living non-human primates could provide a comparative framework for modeling hominin dispersals and geographical range dynamics in the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Our analyses found no such effect: there are neither positive nor negative correlations between relative brain size and either geographical range size or the average and range of values for environmental seasonality, whether analysed at the level of all primates, or within parvorders (strepsirrhine, catarrhine, platyrrhine). Independent analyses by other researchers comparing feeding behaviour and ecology at individual primate study sites demonstrate that in seasonal environments, the year-round metabolic costs of maintaining a relatively large brain are met by adaptive behavioural/dietary strategies. However, consistent with our own results, those comparative studies found that there was no overall association, whether positive or negative, between ‘raw' environmental seasonality and primate relative brain size. We must therefore look elsewhere for a comparative model of hominin geographical range dynamics in the Pleistocene. Show less
