multidisciplinary approach for fault detection integration of ps insar geomorphological stratigraphic and structural data in the venafro intermontane basin central southern apennines italy abstract a multidisciplinary methodology integrating stratigraphic geomorphological and structural data combined with gis aided analysis and ps insar interferometric data was applied to characterize the relationships between ground deformations and the stratigraphic and the morphostructural setting of the venafro intermontane basin this basin is a morphostructural depression related to nw se and ne sw oriented high angle normal faults bordering and crossing it in particular a well known active fault crossing the plain is the aquae juliae fault whose recent activity is evidenced by archeoseismological data the approach applied here reveals new evidence of possible faulting acting during the lower to upper pleistocene which has driven the morphotectonic and the environmental evolution of the basin in particular the tectonic setting emerging from this study highlights the influence of the nw se oriented extensional phase during the late lower pleistocene early middle pleistocene in the generation of ne sw trending se dipping high angle faults and nw se trending high angle transtensive faults this phase has been followed by a ne sw extensional one responsible for the formation of nw se trending both nw and se dipping high angle normal faults and the reactivation of the oldest ne sw oriented structures these nw se trending normal faults include the aquae juliae fault and a new one unknown until now crossing the plain between the venafro village and the colle cupone mt hereinafter named the venafro colle cupone fault vccf this fault has controlled deposition of the youngest sedimentary units late middle pleistocene to late upper pleistocene suggesting its recent activity and it is well constrained by ps insar data as testified by the increase of the subsidence rate in the hanging wall block

high resolution u series dates from the sima de los huesos hominids yields 600 66 kyrs implications for the evolution of the early neanderthal lineage the sima de los huesos site of the atapuerca complex near burgos spain contains the skeletal remains of at least 28 individuals in a mudbreccia underlying an accumulation of the middle pleistocene cave bear ursus deningeri we report here on new high precision dates on the recently discovered speleothem sra 3 overlaying human bones within the sima de los huesos earlier analyses of this speleothem by tims thermal ionization mass spectrometry showed the lower part to be indistinguishable from internal isotopic equilibrium at the precision of the tims instrumentation used yielding minimum age of 350 kyr kyr 103 yr before present reanalysis of six samples of sra 3 by inductivelycoupled plasma multicollector mass spectrometry icp ms produced high precision analytical results allowing calculation of finite dates the new dates cluster around 600 kyr a conservative conclusion takes the lower error limit ages as the minimum age of the speleothem or 530 kyr this places the sh hominids at the very beginnings of the neandertal evolutionary lineage

single crystal 40ar 39ar dating of the olorgesailie formation southern kenya rift single crystal laser fusion sup 40 ar sup 39 ar analyses and several conventional bulk fusion sup 40 k sup 40 ar dates have been used to determine the age of volcaniclastic strata within the olorgesailie formation and of associated volcanic and sedimentary units of the southern kenya rift in the principal exposures along the southern edge of the legemunge plain the formation spans the interval from approximately 500 to 1 000 ka deposition continued to the east along the ol keju nyiro river where a tuff near the top of the formation has been dated at 215 ka in these exposures the formation is unconformably overlain by sediments dated at 49 ka a possible source for the olorgesailie tephra the ol doinyo nyokie volcanic complex contains as ash flow dated at approximately 1 ma extending the known age range of this complex to encompass that of virtually the entire olorgesailie formation in the legemunge plain these geologic examples illustrate the importance of the single crystal sup 40 ar sup 39 ar dating technique whereby contaminant altered or otherwise aberrant grains can be identified and eliminated from the determination of eruptive ages for reworked or altered pyroclastic deposits the authors have presented a computer modeling procedure based on an inverse isochron analysis thatmore promotes a more objective approach to trimming sup 40 ar sup 39 ar isotope data sets of this type less

the sessano intra montane basin new multi proxy data for the quaternary evolution of the molise sector of the central southern apennines italy abstract an integrated geomorphological geological structural and stratigraphic approach was applied to the sessano intra montane basin molise central southern apennines to understand the quaternary environmental and sedimentary evolution of the basin and the surrounding areas the morpho evolutionary and sedimentary changes were mainly controlled by tectonics and strongly influenced by the huge amount of volcaniclastic input from the roccamonfina volcano located ca 50 km to the south west as well as by climatic changes chronological constraints supported by 40ar 39ar ages of tephra layers archaeo tephro stratigraphy and pollen analysis permit identification of the main phases of the geological geomorphologic evolution of the sessano basin from the middle pleistocene onwards the sedimentation within the basin was controlled by ne sw extensional tectonics and occurred from the end of oxygen isotope stage ois 15 to the beginning of ois 11 allowing the deposition of ca 85 m of fluvial to lacustrine sediments mainly made up of reworked volcaniclastic material the first phase of sedimentation was lacustrine while an important sedimentary change from lacustrine to fluvial marshy environment occurred during ois 14 after this phase the variable input of volcaniclastic material from the roccamonfina volcano together with climatic influences caused repeated changes from palustrine to fluvial sedimentation and the formation of various palaeosols present mainly in the upper portion of the infill towards the end of ois 11 nnw sse extensional tectonics caused the tilting of the fill succession and the drying up of the basin the fill succession was then affected by fluvial erosion and denudation that generated an erosion surface nowadays hanging at 700 720 m asl this surface can be related to the limbs of a palaeo surface at about 600 m asl present in the adjacent carpino le piane intra montane basin and referred to a fourth order tyrrhenian ward oriented palaeo landscape this palaeo landscape can be dated to ca 350 300 ky and therefore represents an important morpho chronological stage it provides a robust maximum and minimum age framework for reconstructing the geological and geomorphological evolution of the study area and in general of the molise apennines including the boiano carpino le piane and sessano intra montane basins in particular the morpho chronological data from the sessano basin allow us to date more precisely the main tectonic phases that occurred during the middle pleistocene in this sector of the apennine chain finally the multi proxy data derived from the sessano basin can be compared and integrated with those referring to other proximal intra montane basins in order to improve our knowledge on the relationships between tectonics volcanism and climate and the stratigraphic sedimentary features geomorphologic evolution and palaeoenvironmental changes that characterized the central southern apennines during middle pleistocene

evaluating the impact of homo carnivore competition in european human settlements during the early to middle pleistocene fossil remains and the technological complexes recorded in archaeological sites suggest that the human presence in europe late in the early and middle pleistocene was discontinuous moreover competition for meat with other secondary consumers could have delayed the human dispersal through europe however evaluation of the extent competition intensity among secondary consumers suggests this influenced the discontinuity of the human settlement of europe between 1 1 and 0 2 ma using a mathematical model we estimate the amount of biomass available in a community for secondary consumers the amount of available biomass is subsequently distributed among the guild of secondary consumers according to their requirements and prey preferences indexes that quantify the competition intensity among secondary consumers to compare the conditions in different paleoecosystems show that the competition intensity late in the early pleistocene early in the middle pleistocene and late in the middle pleistocene does not support the view that an increase in competition intensity constrained the expansion of human populations early in the middle pleistocene somewhat paradoxically the lowest competition intensity is estimated to have occurred early in the middle pleistocene most likely because of an increase in the number of large herbivore species and a decrease in the number of secondary consumers the early pleistocene paleoecosystems supported higher competition intensity than the middle pleistocene ecosystems likely because of the different configuration in the food webs of these two periods the early and middle pleistocene

40ar 39ar dating of latest pleistocene 41 ka marine tephra in the mediterranean sea implications for global climate records abstract fifty one 40 ar 39 ar laser heating analyses of sanidine crystals in the c 13 tephra layer recovered out of a piston core raised from 3000 m depth in the tyrrhenian sea yielded apparent ages between 25 and 112 ka twenty four of these measurements define an age probability maximum and generate an isochron of 41 1 2 1 ka 2 with a 40 ar 36 ar intercept of 288 21 that is indistinguishable from the modern atmosphere however the entire population is skewed toward older apparent ages with smaller peaks at 48 ka 55 ka 67 ka and 110 ka the composition of glass shards in the c 13 tephra overlaps that of the sio 2 rich phase of the 150 km 3 campanian ignimbrite which erupted from the campi flegrei caldera 130 km northwest of the core site although the 41 1 2 1 ka isochron is 15 older than k ar and 14 c ages for the campanian ignimbrite it is indistinguishable from recent 40 ar 39 ar age determinations the campanian ignimbrite eruptions were also chemically similar to and correlated with the y 5 ash layer the most voluminous and widely dispersed late pleistocene tephra in the mediterranean region the age of the y 5 layer was constrained originally at 38 0 2 5 ka on the basis of astronomical dating of o isotope stages the 40 ar 39 ar ages astronomical dating plus chemical similarities permit correlation of the c 13 tephra layer with both the campanian ignimbrite and the y 5 tephra layer the older ages preserved in the c 13 tephra layer may reflect xenocrysts incorporated during the explosive eruption accompanying collapse of the campi flegrei caldera 41 ka the c 13 tephra layer is correlated with a 10 be peak in an adjacent marine core o isotope stage 3 12 and immediately preceded a cooling episode corresponding to heinrich event 4 thus the age of these features is constrained by radioisotope dating the 41 ka peak in 10 be deposition is a global phenomenon whose age matches that of the laschamp geomagnetic excursion thus our results provide a new tie point among several polar ice core and marine proxy records of paleoclimate during the past 50 kyr precise age information independent of radiocarbon dating can be recovered from latest pleistocene marine tephra using the 40 ar 39 ar laser heating method despite the presence of multiple components that may have been incorporated during or after its deposition

new 40ar 39ar stratigraphic and palaeoclimatic data on the isernia la pineta lower palaeolithic site molise italy abstract the archaeological deposits of isernia la pineta are a milestone in the european context being composed of very rich and large sized occupation layers the archaeological remains are characterised by the use of anvils in a very opportunistic and rapid way to produce a large number of flakes and residual cores usually of very small size the lithic instruments are associated with remains of large mammals which give a clear indication of the diet they are represented by bison schoetensacki freudenberg stephanorhinus hundsheimensis toula elephas palaeoloxodon namadicus falconer e cautley ursus deningeri von reichenau hippopotamus cf antiquus desmarest sus scrofa l hemitragus cf bonali harle e stehlin megaceroides solilhacus robert cervus elaphus cf acoronatus beninde dama dama cf clactoniana falconer capreolus sp and panthera leo fossilis von reichenau the rodent fauna is represented by clethrionomys sp pliomys episcopalis mehely pliomys lenki heller microtus aff arvalis pallas microtus brecciensis gieber microtus terricola gr multiplex subterraneus and arvicola cantiana hinton the insectivores are talpa sp sorex cf runtonensis hinton and crocidura sp two main archaeological layers have been identified the lower one sector i layer 3c rests on a phytoclastic travertine passing laterally to a phytohermal travertine which generated a small step in the watercourse a sandy silt layer of lacustrine environment layer 3b deposited inside travertine pools and very limited phytostromatolitic travertine sediments cover this layer the second occupation layer layer 3a rests on these sediments as well as on the travertines cross bedded fine gravelly sands cover the deposits and are interlayered with tuffs very rich in pyroxene and sanidine the latter gave 40ar 39ar ages of 610 10 and 606 2 ka 2 error this layer is covered by cross bedded gravels weathered by a thick alfisols with a well expressed bt horizon the uppermost part of the series is composed of gravels and colluvia containing another pyroclastic layer sanidines of this layer yield scattered ar ar ages with a main population at about 504 14 ka a maximum age of 474 3 ka is inferred for this layer the isernia travertines are not associated with hot water springs and indicate that the area was frequented at the end of an interglacial period the new ages demonstrate that the human frequentation occurred at the beginning of the middle pleistocene

oldest human expansions in eurasia favouring and limiting factors 1 introductionon november 26e28 2008 an international conference wasorganised at the museum national d histoire naturelle paris france the topic was the oldest human expansions in eurasia under theaspect of the factors which could favour or limit the humansettlements while fossil human remains are scarce in eurasia lithicassemblages suggest at least two phases of human settlement or and techno cultural spread from africa to eurasia the rst one attested by mode 1 lithic industries is observed at dmanisi georgia at 1 8 ma in asia in china and pakistan around 2 ma and in europe for example in spain since 1 2e1 4 ma at orce atapuerca in italy monte poggiolo ca 1 ma pirro nord at least1 3 ma and in france pont de lavaud le vallonnet around 1 ma some dates in china and indonesia support the idea of earliersettlementsincontinentalandislandasiathanineurope whiletheoldest tool kit in africa dates to 2 6 ma kada gona ethiopia a second phase is marked by the appearance of new tools especially handaxes and cleavers these large tools do occur inafrica around 1 6e1 7 ma konso ethiopia kokiselei kenya andaround 1 4e1 2 ma in the middle east ubeidiya israel they areconsideredasthe rstindicatorsofacheuliantradition ormode2 consisting in shaping large tools on akes or blocks these toolsappear outside africa with different time lags according togeographical areas in asia the rst ones occur around 1 2 ma isampur india and then become more signi cant with anincreasing number of sites around 800 ka in eastern asia e china and south eastern asia ngebung java in western and southerneurope acheuliansitesonlyappeararound600e700ka asattestedbythe recent discoveriesin centreregion france la noira in chervalley and they become more numerous from 500 ka onwards inspain atapuerca galeria ambrona in italy visogliano castel diguido in northern and southern france somme river terraces caune de l arago in the european continent assemblages withbifaces characteristic of acheulian onlyoccurin a geographical areastretching from southern europe to great britain however theyare lacking in central europe and the rhine river is considered asa frontier but they do exist in the caucasus near the central asianborder while they are unknown further east in tadjikistan these two waves of populating probably include numerousarrivals and we do not know whether these arrivals led each timeto a permanentsettlement particularlyif the hominin groups weresmall and geographically dispersed this time lag between asia and europe regarding the peoplingphases and their consequences is debated today within the scien ti c community what could be the migratory paths from africa toboth asia and europe or from africa to asia then to europe whomoved homo antecessor homo heidelbergensis were there somecontacts between distinct human groups rather than shiftingpopulations these questions also concern the diffusion modalitiesof technical traditions and the effect of climatic and environmentalconditions on human movements the latter could explain chro nological lags and restriction of human settlements to some areasonly however it has to be kept in mind that convergencephenomena could also happen at a regional scale in the tool kits this may be the case for acheulian people the present state of knowledge on the earth s climatic storyduringthelasttwomillionyearsshowslocalphenomenacombinedto global changes for example increase of glaciations around800ka whenclimaticcyclesshiftedtothe100kaperiodicity astheeccentricity parameter of terrestrial orbit became more importantthan the obliquity of earth s axis earlier periodicity of 41 ka mis20 characterised by strong marine regression took place at thesame time as the matuyamaebrunhes geomagnetic inversion 780 ka and is considered as an accurate chronological marker recent results of various research teams contribute to builta more complete and precise picture of the past the betterknowledge of the palaeoenvironment allows a new appraisalregarding the spread of technical behaviours in relation to theenvironmental context highlighted by new issues concerningafrica some major questions were discussed during the conference 1 the geographical dispersal of each type of lithic industry 2 the chronological gaps in the hominin settlements in thevarious areas of eurasia 3 the periods when climatic or topographic variations had animportant role favouring or limiting the human expansion insome regions

biostratigraphic and aminostratigraphic constraints on the age of the middle pleistocene glacial succession in north norfolk uk considerable debate surrounds the age of the middle pleistocene glacial succession in east anglia following some recent stratigraphical reinterpretations resolution of the stratigraphy here is important since it not only concerns the glacial history of the region but also has a bearing on our understanding of the earliest human occupation of north western europe the orthodox consensus that all the tills were emplaced during the anglian marine isotope stage mis 12 has recently been challenged by a view assigning each major till to a different glacial stage before during and after mis 12 between trimingham and sidestrand on the north norfolk coast datable organic sediments occur immediately below and above the glacial succession the oldest glacial deposit happisburgh till directly overlies the sidestrand unio bed here defined as the sidestrand hall member of the cromer forest bed formation dating of these sediments therefore has a bearing on the maximum age of the glacial sequence this paper reviews the palaeobotany and describes the faunal assemblages recovered from the sidestrand unio bed which accumulated in a fluvial environment in a fully temperate climate with regional deciduous woodland there are indications from the ostracods for weakly brackish conditions significant differences are apparent between the sidestrand assemblages and those from west runton the type site of the cromerian stage these differences do not result from contrasting facies or taphonomy but reflect warmer palaeotemperatures at sidestrand and a much younger age this conclusion is suggested by the higher proportion of thermophiles at sidestrand and the occurrence of a water vole with unrooted molars arvicola rather than its ancestor mimomyssavini with rooted molars amino acid racemisation data also indicate that sidestrand is significantly younger than west runton these data further highlight the stratigraphical complexity of the cromerian complex and support the conventional view that the happisburgh till was emplaced during the anglian rather than the recently advanced view that it dates from mis 16 moreover new evidence from the trimingham lake bed sidestrand cliff formation above the youngest glacial outwash sediments briton s lane formation indicates that they also accumulated during a middle pleistocene interglacial probably mis 11 all of this evidence is consistent with a short chronology placing the glacial deposits within mis 12 rather than invoking multiple episodes of glaciation envisaged in the new glacial stratigraphy during mis 16 12 10 and 6 copyright 2009 john wiley sons ltd

the late holocene tufa decline in europe over much of europe it has been postulated that in the late holocene since c 2500 bp there was a marked decline in the deposition of tufa there has been considerable debate about the causes of this phenomenon with some authors postulating the importance of natural climatic changes and others asserting that miscellaneous human influences have been crucial this article discusses the role that various changes both natural and anthropogenic may have played and suggests ways in which the large number of possible hypotheses can be tested

a 300 600 ka esr u series chronology of acheulian sites in western europe for a long time the establishment of the chronology of acheulian settlements in western europe was restrained by the lack of reliable dating methods during the middle pleistocene the archaeological sites in this area are generally associated with fluvio lacustrine and karstic contexts the main geochronological methods e g k ar ar ar u series osl and tl could not be applied because of a lack of suitable material for dating or the expected ages were beyond the upper limit of the dating technique for several years the combination of esr and u series data has allowed the direct dating of palaeontological remains from the entire middle pleistocene period combined esr u series dating was applied to several major acheulian sites in spain italy and france this paper presents the dating results their implications for the chronology of the acheulian in western europe as well as the methodological limits of the esr u series dating method caused by the effect of weathering on the uranium uptake into the teeth

reversed magnetic polarity at an early lower palaeolithic site in central italy isernia la pineta central italy is an extensive open air archaeological site of early lower palaeolithic aspect radiometric and palaeomagnetic dating place it in the matuyama reversed epoch hence before 0 73 myr its early date stratified context abundant stone tool industry of choppers and flakes and rich faunal remains make it one of the most important localities for the question of the earliest human colonization of europe the archaeological horizons fig 1 were discovered during recent road building operations at 4 m below surface near the city of isernia upper volturno basin province of molise see fig 2 excavations in 1979 and 1980 carried out in two areas sectors i and ii fig 2 revealed dense scatters of limestone choppers flint flakes and disarticulated bones of large mammals similar occurrences have been found elsewhere in the valley previous accounts1 2 are revised herein

thermal effects of magmatic sills on coal seam metamorphism and gas occurrence igneous intrusions in coal seams are found in 80 of coal mines in the huaibei coalfield china and coal and gas outburst accidents have occurred 11 times under a 120 m thick sill in the haizi mining field the magma s heat had a significant controlling effect on coal seam gas occurrence based on theoretical analysis experimental tests and site validation we analyzed the temperature distribution following magma intrusion into coal measure strata and the variations in multiple physical parameters and adsorption desorption characteristics between the underlying coal seams beneath the sill in the haizi mining field and coal seams uninfluenced by magma intrusion in the adjacent linhuan mining field the research results show that the main factors controlling the temperature distribution of the magma and surrounding rocks in the cooling process include the cooling time and the thickness and initial temperature of the magmatic rock as the distance from sill increases the critical effective temperature and the duration of sustained high temperatures decrease the sill in the haizi mining field significantly promoted coal seam secondary hydrocarbon generation in the thermally affected area which generated approximately 340 m3 t of hydrocarbon in the magma affected area the metamorphic grade micropore volume amount of gas adsorption initial speed of gas desorption and amount of desorption all increase fluid entrapment by sills usually causes the gas pressure and gas content of the underlying coal seams to increase as a result the outburst risks from coal seams increases as well

the early and early middle pleistocene context of human occupation and lowland glaciation in britain and northern europe abstract this paper reviews the stratigraphical and environmental contexts of early human occupation and lowland glaciation in britain and northern europe it highlights the fragmentary nature of most of the critical sequences and the inadequacy of existing stratigraphical frameworks the earliest archaeology known from nw europe has been reported from happisburgh 3 a site on the norfolk coast the flint artefacts from here were recovered from sediments previously assigned to the pastonian stage of the early pleistocene however the mammalian assemblage from happisburgh 3 differs from other local sites attributed to the pastonian indicating a younger age within the early pleistocene the sediments have reversed palaeomagnetic polarity and have palynological features inviting correlation with the leerdam interglacial in the dutch bavelian complex the interglacials of the british cromerian complex are compared and their archaeological record reviewed at most of these sites the archaeology includes hand axes associated with a mammalian assemblage containing the water vole arvicola but at pakefield suffolk a core and flake industry is associated with the ancestral mimomys savini this together with the even older record from happisburgh 3 indicates earlier periods of human occupation than previously known from nw europe at least five temperate episodes with distinct faunal assemblages are now recognized in the british early middle pleistocene but these are unlikely to equate directly with odd numbered stages of the marine isotope record this biostratigraphical framework conflicts with a new glacial stratigraphy for east anglia which proposes glaciations during mis 16 12 10 and 6 evidence is reviewed from sidestrand and trimingham where datable organic sediments occur directly beneath and above the middle pleistocene glacial succession indicating that it was emplaced entirely during the anglian glacial stage mis 12 a new stratigraphical framework is provided ranking british sites in order of relative age which is then compared with a revised scheme for the dutch late early and early middle pleistocene succession the revisions involve the relocation of the waardenburg interglacial interglacial 1 to the bavelian complex and the use of the brunhes matuyama palaeomagnetic reversal to define both the base of the dutch cromerian complex and the early middle pleistocene boundary moreover following recent re interpretation the noordbergum interglacial interglacial iv and glacial c are removed from the cromerian complex and are correlated with mis 11 and mis 12 respectively this scheme imposes greater consistency between the british and dutch successions as well as conformity with guidelines recommended by the international stratigraphic commission

the lower early middle pleistocene small debitage productions in western europe new data from isernia la pineta t 3c upper volturno basin italy abstract isernia la pineta archaeological site in central italy dated to about 0 6 ma is one of the earliest archaeological sites of the italian peninsula and one of the key sites for the knowledge of human behaviour during the early middle pleistocene in western europe several archaeostratigraphic units have been recognized and systematically excavated core and flake assemblages were studied as a bulk in the eighties of last century with a typo metrical approach not taking into account a precise stratigraphic provenance here we present a review of the lithic collection from the lowermost archaeostratigraphic unit t 3c which is the first techno economic analysis based on the concept of chaine operatoire our results contrast with those from previous studies our analysis demonstrates that the technical criteria employed in small debitage are not opportunistic and unstructured as previously inferred by contrast they correspond to well established mental templates that led knappers 1 to use mainly a discoid method 2 to apply this debitage method regardless of the size and shape of the original matrix 2 to maintain a high productivity and 3 to produce medium sized flakes to be turned into small tools the new data are discussed in the framework of the lower early middle pleistocene technological complexes of western europe calling into question a number of allegations about the first technical traditions that have been previously accepted without reservation

insights on the opening of the galerian mammal migration pathway from magnetostratigraphy of the pleistocene marine continental transition in the arda river section northern italy abstract we investigated the magnetostratigraphy of the arda river section northern italy where the transition from marine to continental sedimentation occurring in the po river basin during the pleistocene is registered four magnetic polarity reversals were used to construct an age model of sedimentation aided by marine biostratigraphy and tied to a standard 18o curve from the literature the section spans from the olduvai subchron 1 94 1 78 ma across the jaramillo subchron 1 07 0 99 ma up to the brunhes matuyama boundary 0 78 ma the onset of continental deposition occurred during marine isotope stage mis 30 at 1 04 ma an association of villafranchian and early galerian mammals including sus strozzii and ursus dolinensis has been found in the continental sediments dated to mis 29 27 0 99 ma above follows a prominent fluvial conglomerate attributed to the first major lowstand of the pleistocene culminating with mis 22 at 0 9 ma during the late early pleistocene climate turnover ept these and other data from the literature are used to reconstruct the onset of continental deposition in the greater po basin and shed light on the opening of the migration pathway that brought far traveled galerian mammal immigrants to enter europe for the first time during the ept

an integrated stratigraphical approach to the middle pleistocene succession of the sessano basin molise italy abstract an integrated stratigraphical approach was applied to the sessano sedimentary succession molise investigated through an 80 m core and an 11 m trench section the lithostratigraphical study allowed reconstruction of the palaeoenvironmental conditions during the existence of a palaeo marsh based on tephrostratigraphical analysis the significant volcanoclastic inputs recorded along the sessano succession were correlated to the explosive activity of the nearby roccamonfina volcano and in particular to the high k series hks period of activity lasted from 546 to 364 ka the 40 ar 39 ar age of 437 9 1 9 ka obtained at the base of the trench section which stratigraphically overlaps the core succession confirms the tephrostratigraphical model and indicates that the marsh dried up during the glacial phase of marine isotope stage mis 12 on this basis the glacial interglacial cycle recognised in the core through pollen analysis was ascribed to mis 14 and 13 while the interglacial phase identified at the core base was tentatively ascribed to mis 15 the duration of the marshy phase was estimated between 130 and 150 ka the floral composition of the pollen spectra shows a more modern character with respect to coeval pollen records from campania confirming that the heterochronous disappearance of the last subtropical elements from italy had a latitudinal character

the middle pleistocene site of guado san nicola monteroduni central italy on the lower middle palaeolithic transition abstract the archaeological site of guado san nicola monteroduni central italy under excavation since 2008 is located in the upper volturno valley near the top of a fluvial terrace attributed to the middle pleistocene several anthropic levels have been recognized within a stratigraphic sequence of more than two meters in thickness characterized by alternating gravelly and sandy fluvial layers rich in pyroclastic materials attributable to the end of mis 11 beginning of mis 10 according to the obtained radiometric dates 40 ar 39 ar and esr u series in this paper we discuss the chrono stratigraphic record the paleontological and zooarchaeological data and we provide a detailed techno economic analysis of the lithic industry characterized by the coexistence of handaxes and levallois debitage the site of guado san nicola represents the oldest evidence of the emergence of prepared core technologies in the italian peninsula adding new data to the debate on the lower middle palaeolithic transition in western europe

flake modification in european early and early middle pleistocene stone tool assemblages early and early middle pleistocene archeological sites provide data about human dispersals into europe from at least 1 2 ma up to now the fragmentary archeological record indicated only sporadic hominin presence with punctated migration waves not necessarily leading to colonization we consider an alternative demographical picture in which hominin presence in europe could have been sustained from this time this paper explores the possibility that early hominin groups confronted different landscapes by adapting their technology to changing ecosystems innovative technological achievements were developed into new forms out of potential existing within the variability of early stone industries leading to the production of a more diversified toolkit among these innovations the increased secondary knapping of flakes points to conceptually more complex production sequences this paper proposes a comparative view of secondary knapped flakes from some key early middle pleistocene sites in order to explore the hypothesis of demographical stability in western europe from this time

the early to middle pleistocene boundary in the baza basin spain abstract the continental vertebrate fauna of cullar baza 1 granada spain occur immediately above the matuyama brunhes polarity boundary and therefore represent an initial record for the middle pleistocene all polarity zones for the late pliocene through middle pleistocene are found in an 80 m section which includes this fossil quarry the existing collection of abundant remains of micro mammals macro mammals and lithic artifacts indicating human activity can now be assigned an earliest middle pleistocene age of 0 75 ma another section 25 km across the neogene baza basin also has the matuyama brunhes polarity boundary however in this case the huescar 1 fossil quarry and the puerto lobo sites are both below the polarity boundary thus representing a record of the late early pleistocene at 0 9 ma differences in micro mammal species across these matuyama brunhes boundaries are significant and justify an approximately coincident biostratigraphic boundary between the biharian and toringian stages

multi proxy study of soil organic matter dynamics in permafrost peat deposits reveal vulnerability to climate change in the european russian arctic soil organic carbon soc in permafrost terrain is vulnerable to climate change perennially frozen peat deposits store large amounts of soc but we know little about its chemical composition and l

the european small mammal faunas related to the first half of the middle pleistocene abstract by now the abundant european small mammal data have been collected from the deposits of the first part of the middle pleistocene mis 18 mis 11 the significant number of global climatic events glaciations and interglacials corresponds to this period we analyzed the evolutional changes of small mammals of the middle pleistocene revealed the reactions of small mammals on the different climatic events glaciations interglacials and correlated the western and the eastern european faunas the collected data also help us to divide the geological deposits age and permit to reconstruct the palaeogeographic picture of the past the obtained results may serve as an important component for compiling biostratigraphic schemes of the middle pleistocene and the pleistocene in general

one million years of cultural evolution in a stable environment at atapuerca burgos spain abstract the present paper analyses the evidence provided by three sites sima del elefante gran dolina and galeria located in the trinchera del ferrocarril of the sierra de atapuerca these three sites are cave infillings that contain sediments deposited from approximately 1 2 ma to 200 kyr pollen herpetofauna and small and large mammal remains are used as proxies to obtain a general picture of the environmental changes that occurred at the sierra de atapuerca throughout the one million year period represented at these sites similarly cultural changes are tracked analyzing the evidence of human behavior obtained from the study of several bone and lithic assemblages from these three sites at least three periods with different cultural features involving technology subsistence and behavior are determined from the available evidence the first two periods correspond to the mode 1 technology and homo antecessor the first is dated around 1 2 to 1 0 ma and reflects opportunistic behavior both in technology and subsistence the second period is around 800 kyr bp mode 1 technology is still maintained but subsistence strategies include systematic hunting and the use of base camps the third period is dated between 500 ka and 200 ka and corresponds to the mode 2 technology and the acquisition of directional hunting and other organizational strategies by homo heidelbergensis a transition from mode 2 to mode 3 seems to appear at the end of this time range and may reflect the early phases of a fourth cultural change with regard to the environment our main conclusion is that there was an absence of extremely harsh conditions at atapuerca throughout this time period the presence of mediterranean taxa was constant and the dominant landscape was a savannah like open environment probably with small forest patches an alternation of mediterranean and mesic species as the dominant component of the tree storey was induced by the climatic cycles and steppes spread across the landscape during the drier periods in any case it is not possible to establish clear cut off points separating entirely different environmental episodes our results show no evidence of any relationship between environmental change and cultural change at the sierra de atapuerca

biochronology and biochron boundaries a real dilemma or a false problem an example based on the pleistocene large mammalian faunas from italy abstract reconstructing the neogene quaternary biostratigraphy in continental environments and recognising boundaries between successive mammalian faunal complexes is a problematic task the definition and application of biochronology has been often tainted by references to and inferences from biostratigraphy actually the discontinuities in the continental sedimentary record environmental conditions taphonomic and sampling biases are responsible for the fact that the stratigraphical order of the lowest and highest occurrences of fossil remains stratigraphic datum does not necessarily reflect the temporal order of actual first last appearances of taxa palaeobiological events in time nonetheless the first last appearance bioevents recorded by lowest highest occurrences of fossil remains in fossiliferous levels of different continental stratigraphical successions have been the principal foundation for establishing the biochronological setting of continental mammal faunas therefore from a theoretical point of view boundaries should be defined by the oldest and or youngest historical occurrence of one or more taxa what about an operational approach some examples of the italian faunas are presented focusing on the transition from the villafranchian to the galerian and from the galerian to the aurelian land mammal ages the results obtained indicate the difficulty of defining a stable scheme that can be applied for correlation by the international scientific community

tephro stratigraphy and the age of ancient southern italian acheulean settlements the sites of loreto and notarchirico venosa basilicata italy the stratigraphic and chronological positions of the palaeolithic sites of loreto and notarchirico have been revised by adopting a litho tephro stratigraphic approach applied to the deposits of the venosa basin relating them to the evolution of volcanic eruptions of mount vulture the notarchirico tephra dated to around 640 ka is a geological marker of paramount importance in the study of ancient southern italia settlements and identifies the assemblage from level f at notarchirico as one of the oldest acheulean in europe

palaeoenvironment and dating of the early acheulean localities from the somme river basin northern france new discoveries from the high terrace at abbeville carriere carpentier dating the earliest human occupations in western europe and reconstructing links with climatic and environmental constraints is a central issue in quaternary studies amongst the discovery of palaeolithic artefacts ascribed to the early pleistocene in southeast britain and central france the somme basin where the acheulean type site amiens saint acheul is located is a key area for addressing this topic research undertaken over the past 20 years on both quaternary fluvial and loess sequences of this area has provided a unique dataset for the study of the relations between human occupations and environmental variations studies based on an interdisciplinary approach combining sedimentology palaeontology and geochronology have highlighted the impact of the 100 kyrs cycles on terrace formation during the last million years in this terrace system the earliest in situ acheulean settlements known in the 1990s were dated to early mis 12 450 ka but new field discoveries at amiens rue du manege dated to 550 ka significantly increase the age of the oldest human occupation in the area in this context new fieldwork has been undertaken in abbeville at the carriere carpentier site famous for its white marl deposit attributed to the cromerian and in the same terrace level where the former discoveries of abbevillian bifaces were made by d ault du mesnil this research is based on an interdisciplinary approach combining sedimentology paleontology dating esr on quartz and esr u series on teeth and archaeology according to the various bio proxies molluscs large vertebrates small mammals the white marl was deposited during the early part of an interglacial phase in an aquatic slow flowing environment as emphasized by the development of oncoliths and the presence of fish and aquatic molluscs the landscape was composed of a mosaic of open bush and forest areas in which wet and grassy vegetation developed on riverbanks on the basis of terrace stratigraphy esr and esr u series dating results and biostratigraphic data the fluvial deposits of the white marl can be securely attributed to mis 15 in addition some acheulean bifaces were discovered at the base of the slope deposits directly overlying the fluvial sequence these artefacts are most likely coeval with the end of mis 15 or an early stage of mis 14 between 550 and 500 ka and represent together with the artefacts from amiens rue du manege the oldest in situ evidence of acheulean occupation in northern france however no unquestionable artefacts have been discovered in the white marl or in the underlying gravel layer these discoveries contribute to the chronology of the earliest evidence of hominin occupations in north western europe which may be related to homo heidelbergensis

pleistocene magnetochronology of early hominin sites at ceprano and fontana ranuccio italy article i nfo paleomagnetic analyses were conducted on two cores drilled at ceprano in central italy where an incomplete hominin cranium was discovered in 1994 as well as on two additional cores from the nearby site of fontana ranuccio that yielded hominin remains associated with an acheulean industry no evidence for the 0 78 ma brunhes matuyama boundary was found at ceprano down to 45 m below the level that yielded the hominin cranium the ceprano lithostratigraphy and the paleomagnetic age constraints are broadly consistent with the stratigraphy of the liri lacustrine sequence of the latina valley constrained by published k ar ages between 0 6 and 0 35 ma and according to an age model with magnetic susceptibility supported by pollen facies data suggest that the level that yielded the hominin cranium has an age of 0 45 0 05 0 10 ma evidence for the brunhes matuyama boundary was found at fontana ranuccio about 40 m below the hominin level consistent with a k ar age of 0 46 ma reported for this level hence the ceprano and fontana ranuccio hominin occurrences may be of very similar mid brunhes age