Loading...
3 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
- Gruta Nova da Columbeira (Bombarral, Portugal): site stratigraphy, age os the Mousterian sequence, and implications for the timing of Neanderthal extinction in IberiaPublication . Zilhão, João; Cardoso, João Luís; Pike W. G., Alistair; Weninger, BernhardThe Gruta Nova da Columbeira is recurrently mentioned in the literature concerning the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition in Iberia as documenting the persistence beyond 30 000 calendar years ago of a Neanderthal-associated Mousterian. This claim is based on conventional radiocarbon dates obtained in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. In order to assess its validity, we undertook archival research to obtain unpublished details concerning the actual composition and chemistry of the dated samples, replicated the dating of samples of the same kind (carbonaceous sediments) and collected in the same deposits from the back of the cave whence came the 1970’s results, and obtained an U-series age estimate for a bone tool from the base of the Mousterian sequence excavated at the entrance of the cave in 1962. We then cross-checked all the stratigraphic and dating information thus assembled against the original field documents. Our results show that (a) the cave entrance sequence formed between MIS-5 and early MIS-3, (b) the deposits at the back of the cave probably formed in the Tardiglacial, and (c) the presence in these deposits of significant amounts of inherited charcoal derived from the entrance area explains the “Early Upper Palaeolithic” (EUP) age determinations obtained for the 1970’s samples. The association of such determinations with the Mousterian has been based on an unwarranted assumption of lateral stratigraphic continuity. While the entrance deposits correspond to an in situ Mousterian sequence, those from the back of the cave are primarily made of clay accumulated under temporary waterlogged conditions, with the few artefacts of Middle Palaeolithic affinities recovered therein being in secondary position. The evidence from Gruta Nova can no longer be used to counter the existence of a late Aurignacian in the region. In southern and western Iberia, the Neandertal-to-modern and Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transitions occurred no later than about 37 000 years ago.
- Last interglacial Iberian Neandertals as fisher-hunter-gatherersPublication . Zilhão, J.; Angelucci, Diego E.; Igreja, Marina Araújo; Arnold, L. J.; Badal, E.; Callapez, Pedro M.; Cardoso, João Luís; d’Errico, F.; Daura, J.; Demuro, M.; Deschamps, M.; Dupont, C.; Gabriel, Sónia; Hoffmann, D. L.; Legoinha, P.; Matias, H.; Soares, António; Nabais, M.; Portela, P.; Queffelec, A.; Rodrigues, F.; Souto, P.Marine food–reliant subsistence systems such as those in the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) were not thought to exist in Europe until the much later Mesolithic. Whether this apparent lag reflects taphonomic biases or behavioral distinctions between archaic and modern humans remains much debated. Figueira Brava cave, in the Arrábida range (Portugal), provides an exceptionally well preserved record of Neandertal coastal resource exploitation on a comparable scale to the MSA and dated to ~86 to 106 thousand years ago. The breadth of the subsistence base—pine nuts, marine invertebrates, fish, marine birds and mammals, tortoises, waterfowl, and hoofed game—exceeds that of regional early Holocene sites. Fisher-hunter-gatherer economies are not the preserve of anatomically modern people; by the Last Interglacial, they were in place across the Old World in the appropriate settings.
- The beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of Northwest EuropePublication . Olalde, Iñigo; Brace, Selina; Allentoft, Morten E.; Armit, Ian; Kristiansen, Kristian; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; Booth, Thomas; Szécsényi-Nagy, Anna; Mittnik, Alissa; Altena, Eveline; Pinhasi, Ron; Krause, Johannes; Haak, Wolfgang; Barnes, Ian; Lalueza-Fox, Carles; Reich, David; Lipson, Mark; Lazaridis, Iosif; Patterson, Nick; Broomandkhoshbacht, Nasreen; Diekmann, Yoan; Faltyskova, Zusana; Fernandes, Daniel; Ferry, Matthew; Harney, Eadaoin; Knijff, Peter de; Michel, Megan; Oppenheimer, Jonas; Stewardson, Kristin; Barclay, Alistair; Alt, Kurt W.; Fernández, Azucena Avilés; Bánffy, Eszter; Bernabò-Brea, Maria; Billoin, David; Blasco, Concepción; Bonsall, Clive; Bonsall, Laura; Allen, Tim; Büster, Lindsey; Carver, Sophie; Navarro, Laura Castells; Craig, Oliver Edward; Cook, Gordon T.; Cunliffe, Barry; Denaire, Anthony; Dinwiddy, Kirsten Egging; Dodwell, Natasha; Ernée, Michal; Evans, Christopher; Kuchařic, Milan; Farré, Joan Francès; Fokkens, Harry; Fowler, Chris; Gazenbeek, Michiel; Pena, Rafael Garrido; Haber-Uriarte, María; Haduch, Elżbieta; Hey, Gill; Jowett, Nick; Knowles, Timothy; Massy, Ken; Pfrengle, Saskia; Lefranc, Philippe; Lemercier, Olivier; Lefebvre, Arnaud; Maurandi, Joaquín Lomba; Majó, Tona; McKinley, Jacqueline I.; McSweeney, Kathleen; Gusztáv, Mende Balázs; Modi, Alessandra; Kulcsár, Gabriella; Kiss, Viktória; Czene, András; Patay, Róbert; Endrödi, Anna; Köhler, Kitti; Hajdu, Tamás; Cardoso, João Luís; Liesau, Corina; Pearson, Michael Parker; Wlodarczak, Piotr; Price, T. Douglas; Prieto, Pilar; Rey, Pierre-Jérôme; Ríos, Patricia; Risch, Roberto; Guerra, Manuel A. Rojo; Schmitt, Aurore; Serralongue, Joël; Silva, Ana Maria; Smrčka, Václav; Vergnaud, Luc; Zilhão, João; Caramelli, David; Higham, Thomas; Heyd, Volker; Sheridan, Alison; Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Thomas, Mark G.; Stockhammer, Philipp W.From around 2750 to 2500 BC, Bell Beaker pottery became widespread across western and central Europe, before it disappeared between 2200 and 1800 BC. The forces that propelled its expansion are a matter of long-standing debate, and there is support for both cultural diffusion and migration having a role in this process. Here we present genome-wide data from 400 Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age Europeans, including 226 individuals associated with Beaker-complex artefacts. We detected limited genetic affinity between Beaker-complex-associated individuals from Iberia and central Europe, and thus exclude migration as an important mechanism of spread between these two regions. However, migration had a key role in the further dissemination of the Beaker complex. We document this phenomenon most clearly in Britain, where the spread of the Beaker complex introduced high levels of steppe-related ancestry and was associated with the replacement of approximately 90% of Britain’s gene pool within a few hundred years, continuing the east-to-west expansion that had brought steppe-related ancestry into central and northern Europe over the previous centuries.