holocene palaeoclimates from peat stratigraphy macrofossil proxy climate records from three oceanic raised bogs in england and ireland quantified analyses of plant macrofossil remains have been made from three profiles of peat from raised bogs spanning a distance of 425 km from western ireland to northern england the reconstructed vegetation of each profile is related to changing bog surface wetness bsw and since the bogs are ombrotrophic these bsw changes are interpreted in terms of changing climate using age depth models based on a total of 49 radiocarbon dates a number of wetter and drier phases are identified and phase shifts to wetter and or cooler climates are defined prominent coincident changes to wetter conditions are dated in at least two of the profiles to ca 4400 4000 1750 1400 and 1000 cal bp and in all three profiles at 3200 2750 2350 2250 and around 700 cal bp these phases are related to proxy climate changes in other terrestrial data sets from northwest europe and a broad degree of synchroneity is demonstrated

mode of occupation of tabun cave mt carmel israel during the mousterian period a study of the sediments and phytoliths alternative modes of occupation of tabun cave during the deposition of the mousterian levels b and c have been proposed garrod bate 1937 excavations at the wady el mughara volume 1 oxford clarendon press interpreted the archaeological record of both levels as being indicative of domestic occupational activities jelinek et al 1973 palaeorient 1 151 183 proposed that the presence of articulated limb bones of dama mesopotamica in the level b sediments below the cave chimney indicated that the cave was used as a natural game trap they also noted that the white ash layers in level c extended across the whole cave and proposed that this was due to the burning of natural vegetation in the cave this study aims at clarifying the modes of occupation during these periods level b sediments closely resemble the terra rossa soil that is common in this region burning activity is inferred from charcoal fragments seen in thin sections a minor wood ash component is present based on the preponderance of phytoliths with a variable morphology as compared to those with a consistent morphology as well as phytoliths with shapes characteristic of those formed in wood and bark of local trees thus fires were produced in the cave during this period the cave may also have been used as a game trap level c is composed of multiple layers of brown black and white sediments micromorphology mineralogy and phytolith analyses all show that these layers are mixtures of terra rossa soil and ash with the latter being abundant in the white layers the phytoliths in these layers are derived almost entirely from wood and bark and not from grasses these observations are consistent with a domestic occupational mode 1999 academic press

estimation of ocean subsurface thermal structure from surface parameters a neural network approach 1 satellite remote sensing provides diverse and useful ocean surface observations it is of interest to determine if such surface observations can be used to infer information about the vertical structure of the ocean s interior like that of temperature profiles earlier studies used either sea surface temperature or dynamic height sea surface height to infer the subsurface temperature profiles in this study we have used neural network approach to estimate the temperature structure from sea surface temperature sea surface height wind stress net radiation and net heat flux available from an arabian sea mooring from october 1994 to october 1995 deployed by the woods hole oceanographic institution on the average 50 of the estimations are within an error of 0 5 c and 90 within 1 0 c the average rms error between the estimated temperature profiles and in situ observations is 0 584 c with a depth wise average correlation coefficient of 0 92

a major widespread climatic change around 5300 cal yr bp at the time of the alpine iceman palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data from arbon bleiche lake constance switzerland give evidence of a rapid rise in lake level dated by tree ring and radiocarbon to 5320 cal yr bp this rise event was the latest in a series of three successive episodes of higher lake level between 5550 and 5300 cal yr bp coinciding with glacier advance and tree limit decline in the alps this west central european climate change may have favoured the quick burial and the preservation of the alpine iceman recently found in the tyrolean alps it has possible equivalents in many records from various regions in both hemispheres dating to 5600 5000 cal yr bp and corresponds to global cooling and contrasting patterns of hydrological changes this major mid holocene climate event marks the hypsithermal neoglaciation transition possibly resulting from a combination of different factors including orbital forcing changes in ocean circulation and variations in solar activity copyright 2004 john wiley sons ltd

the archaeology and paleoenvironment of an upper pleistocene hyena den an integrated approach abstract data of high resolution for reconstructions of archaeological site formation processes can be obtained only by the use of precise excavation methods and comprehensive recovery techniques using fine mesh water screening followed by meticulous sorting and quantitative studies of all the small organic components from the screens these methods are generally used at human occupation sites but are not often employed at paleontological or mixed human carnivore sites at the site of bois roche an upper pleistocene hyena den we have used these meticulous recovery techniques in combination with absolute dating geoarchaeological observations taphonomic analyses studies of microvertebrates and pollen analysis correlation of the site environmental data from pollen and microvertebrate assemblages with the vegetation record of a deep sea core taken in the bay of biscay have allowed us to constrain the ages provided by esr dating of bovid teeth and to reconstruct the physical environment of the site with a degree of confidence rarely achieved by the use of fossil remains from archaeological sites alone prior to our excavations the site was interpreted as containing a mixed assemblage with evidence of hyena activities and human occupation in situ quantitative analysis of the small organic components present in large quantities in the sediments deciduous hyena teeth coprolite fragments digested small bone fragments prove more than all other lines of evidence that hyenas were in residence at bois roche thus providing diagnostic criteria for distinguishing between occasional visitors and the main inhabitants of mixed human carnivore sites the analytical procedures presented in this paper have a value beyond the significance of the bois roche site because they can be applied to other sites

the selection of sites for paleovegetational studies the judicious selection of sites for paleovegetational and paleoclimatic studies permits paleoecologists to answer specific research questions that go beyond primary descriptions of past vegetation we present a model that describes the relationship between basin size and pollen source area and predicts the proportions of local extralocal and regional pollen sampled by lake basins of different size the distinctive sampling properties of lakes peats and small hollows can be exploited to provide details of pattern in paleovegetation so long as attention is given to the limitations and problems of these types of sites combinations of site types in a single study most fully exploit the information contained in sediments

a chronicle of crisis the late mousterian in north iberia cueva del esquilleu cantabria spain abstract during the last decades the cantabrian region has become one of the zones of greater interest in the study of the final mousterian on the european scale the particular ecological and physiographic conditions of this region provide an especially attractive picture for analyzing the advanced moments of this period almost all the mousterian levels of cantabrian sites are dated to the later part of wurm ii as occurs in some other european regions close to 35 ka bp the esquilleu sequence expresses a process of change in archaeological record and probably in the subsistence strategies this late occupation extends through the h4 cold event and the interglacial to wurm iii between level vif 34 3 ka bp approx ams and level iv 22 8 ka bp approx ams all the archaeological evidence non selective and directly adjacent to the river catchment limited technical investment with fast discoid production mainly points but objectively indeterminate from a morphological point of view lithic and even microlithic production and their interpretation in a spatial contextual perspective high fragmentation of the chaine operatoire between the river and the cave would indicate changes in the site function within an articulated network archaeologically the change in the significance of el esquilleu intervals is evident the raw material catchment analysis indicates a much more fuzzy relationship of the site in relation to the environment esquilleu would have ceased functioning as a place of integration of elements of the territory there is no evidence of transport or territorial relationship defined between sites another point for reflection is that in the esquilleu sequence different production methods and the archaeological evidence interpretation can be grouped easily into discrete sets the lower interval is technically variable probably representing the time with more functional complexity in the cave subsequently the quina levallois discoid and final intervals occur archaeological evidence of these higher levels including the technical domains changes gradually with clearly recognizable features along the sequence these common elements sometimes very slightly detected selected lithologies very small size discoid productions pointed morphologies from diametric fractures would refer to a cultural continuity in the communities that inhabited the esquilleu region for millennia

persistent solar influence on north atlantic climate during the holocene surface winds and surface ocean hydrography in the subpolar north atlantic appear to have been influenced by variations in solar output through the entire holocene the evidence comes from a close correlation between inferred changes in production rates of the cosmogenic nuclides carbon 14 and beryllium 10 and centennial to millennial time scale changes in proxies of drift ice measured in deep sea sediment cores a solar forcing mechanism therefore may underlie at least the holocene segment of the north atlantic9s 1500 year cycle the surface hydrographic changes may have affected production of north atlantic deep water potentially providing an additional mechanism for amplifying the solar signals and transmitting them globally

isotope calibrated greenland temperature record over marine isotope stage 3 and its relation to ch4 large temperature variations on millennial time scales in greenland characterised the last ice age abrupt warmings known as dansgaard oeschger do events can be traced in the 18oice record of greenland ice cores however it has been shown that 18oice is not a direct temperature proxy measurements of the isotopic composition of gases trapped in the ice can be used to calibrate the paleothermometer here we present a continuous temperature record based on high resolution 15n measurements and firn model studies it covers a sequence of 9 do events 9 17 during the time period from 38 to 64 kyr bp for which temperature changes of 8 to 15 c were estimated the difference between the modern and the glacial 18oice t relationship can be explained by a combination of source temperature changes and changes in the annual distribution of precipitation a detailed comparison of the temperature evolution with reconstructions of the atmospheric methane ch4 concentration shows that ch4 rises lag temperature increases at the onset of do events by 25 to 70 yr within data resolution the strong correlation between greenland temperature and ch4 on millennial and submillennial time scales suggests that variations on these time scales were probably of hemispheric extent

investigating links between ecology and bifacial tool types in western europe during the last glacial maximum we apply eco cultural niche modeling ecnm using the genetic algorithm for rule set prediction to reconstruct the ecological niches exploited by middle solutrean and upper solutrean populations during the latter stages of heinrich event 2 and the early part of the last glacial maximum respectively we focus on the upper solutrean technocomplex and its regionally distinct styles of hunting weaponry to investigate whether regional cultural variability reflects a link between material culture and ecology our analytical approach uses archaeological and geographic data in conjunction with high resolution paleoclimatic simulations and vegetation reconstructions for the two climatic phases in question our results indicate that cultural choices behind the production of specific projectile point types have at some level an ecological basis and are linked to particular environments we also find that the identified pattern of upper solutrean territoriality has an ecological foundation but that its stylistic expression in the variation of diagnostic armature types is likely a byproduct of cultural drift we argue that ecnm is an effective means with which to evaluate the paleoecological pertinence of archaeologically defined artifact types and to identify the ecological and cultural mechanisms underlying material culture variability

characterizing hyena coprolites from two latrines of the iberian peninsula during the early pleistocene gran dolina sierra de atapuerca burgos and la mina barranc de la boella tarragona abstract coprolites are commonly identified in the pleistocene archaeo palaeontological record they have often been described as indirect evidence for the presence of carnivores usually hyenids during the formation of a depositional sequence however coprolites are a much larger source of information that can provide data relating to factors affecting an archaeological assemblage including its taphonomic history and palaeoecology in this paper two fossil coprolite accumulations dating to the late early pleistocene are described level td6 1 of gran dolina sierra de atapuerca burgos and unit ii of la mina barranc de la boella tarragona the results highlight the morphological homogeneity of these hyena coprolites despite a considerable variation in size the presence of microspherulites is clearly identified in all of the analysed hyena coprolites their composition is rich in elements characteristic of bone origin such as calcium ca and phosphorus p a major difference however differentiating the remains from these sites was a higher frequency of bone fragments in the la mina coprolites regarding to td6 1 pollen spores and palynomorphs are scarce in the samples from both sites which in fact share similar ecological characteristics such as the presence of pine wild grasses and coprophilous fungi hyena coprolites are relatively easy to differentiate from those of other taxa however they show intra specific similarities in their micro and macro morphology and composition despite their wide size range the species of hyenids responsible for the coprolites is not possible to identify based exclusively on the size range and the importance of a multidisciplinary study of the latrines and the coprolites is discussed as a source of palaeoecological and taphonomic information in this study coprolites are analysed compared and attributed to a hyenid identified as crocuta crocuta in the case of td6 1 but without specific attribution in the case of la mina

characterization and depositional evolution of hyaena crocuta crocuta coprolites from la valina cave northwest spain archaeological excavation of la valina site a karstic cave located in northwest spain documented a level of human occupation and a later one of carnivores that can be attributed to upper plesitocene 35 000 bp by the 14 c dating obtained from bone samples among carnivore remains many coprolites were recovered which based on morphological and biometrical characteristics correspond to crocuta crocuta micromorphological analysis of thin sections mineralogical and palynological analysis let us deduce the deposition period of scats during the year and also the postdepositional changes undergone by coprolites to reach their present state

holocene climate variability as reflected by mid european lake level fluctuations and its probable impact on prehistoric human settlements abstract a data set of 180 radiocarbon tree ring and archaeological dates obtained from sediment sequences of 26 lakes in the jura mountains the northern french pre alps and the swiss plateau was used to construct a holocene mid european lake level record the dates do not indicate a random distribution over the holocene but form clusters suggesting an alternation of lower and higher climatically driven lake level phases they provide evidence of a rather unstable holocene climate punctuated by 15 phases of higher lake level 11 250 11 050 10 300 10 000 9550 9150 8300 8050 7550 7250 6350 5900 5650 5200 4850 4800 4150 3950 3500 3100 2750 2350 1800 1700 1300 1100 750 650 cal bp and after 1394 ad a comparison of this mid european lake level record with the gisp2 polar circulation index pci record the north atlantic ice rafting debris ird events and the 14 c record suggests teleconnections in a complex cryosphere ocean atmosphere system correlations between the gisp2 pci the mid european lake level the north atlantic ird and the residual 14 c records suggest that changes in the solar activity played a major role in holocene climate oscillations over the north atlantic area

environmental ecological and paleoanthropological implications of the late pleistocene mammalian fauna from equus cave northern cape province south africa abstract the late pleistocene deposits of equus cave northern cape province south africa have provided more than 30 000 taxonomically identifiable mammal bones from 48 species context associations and features of the bone assemblage implicate brown hyenas as the main accumulators the fauna is significant mainly because 1 it supplements previous evidence that regional climate was cooler and possibly also somewhat moister during part s of the late pleistocene but deviated less from the historic norm than in areas farther south 2 it shows that bond s springbok which became extinct in the early holocene differed from the surviving common springbok not only in important morphological respects but also in reproductive pattern and 3 it sustains earlier suggestions that an abundance of carnivores a paucity of small hard bones and increase in the cranial postcranial ratio with species size and exclusively attritional mortality profiles are features that tend to differentiate assemblages accumulated by brown hyenas from those accumulated by people in addition pending firmer dating the fragmentary human fossils from equus cave may support an exclusively african origin for anatomically modern humans

kahlke r d 1999 the history of the origin evolution and dispersal of the late pleistocene mammuthus coelodonta faunal complex in eurasia large mammals the last glacial was characterized by some of the most cold adapted large mammals ever known eurasian glacial faunas were typified by the presence of the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros which gave rise to the so named mammuthus coelodonta faunal complex kahlke s approach focuses on the origin of the various faunal elements that constituted this terminal cold stage the essence of this book is to document the evolutionary history of the faunal complex and in turn to throw light on the ecological conditions that preceded the last glacial maximum in eurasia the

a palynological and geoarchaeological investigation into bronze age farming at belderg beg co mayo ireland abstract this contribution describes the results and interpretations of geoarchaeological and palynological analyses of a soil profile near to a 14 c dated bronze age roundhouse in a sub peat field system at belderg beg north mayo in western ireland which displayed field scale evidence of tillage in the form of cultivation ridges this evidence of arable cultivation was supported by the presence of quernstones in the roundhouse but there was no supporting evidence from other forms of socio economic analysis soil micromorphological analysis was employed to define how the ridges were created and with what tools pollen analysis was used to characterise the surface vegetation and test the purpose of the ridges the results unequivocally showed that a phase of ard cultivation was followed after a brief hiatus by ridge and furrow tillage there were tentative indications of possible amendment of the earlier ard worked soil and more definitive evidence of midden material addition to the ridged soil an ams radiocarbon assay on the base of peat overlying the ridges indicated that tillage occurred in the mid to late bronze age

new u series results for the speleogenesis and the palaeolithic archaeology of the almonda karstic system torres novas portugal abstract the almonda karstic system is an extensive network of cavities associated with the spring of the almonda river among those of archaeological interest the lowermost 5 15 m above the current spring contain deposits of upper palaeolithic and holocene age higher up in a 70 m high escarpment the labyrinth of passages features several collapsed cave entrances two of which have been cleared for archaeological excavation the gruta da aroeira galerias pesadas brecha das lascas complex of acheulean localities and the middle palaeolithic site of gruta da oliveira u series dating of speleothems associated with these deposits places the acheulean of the almonda beyond 390 ka dates the palaeophreatic level of 40 m above the extant outlet back to a time before 200 ka and constrains the accumulation of the gruta da oliveira sediment fill to between 23 ka and at least 102 ka bones from gruta da oliveira layer 8 which contains the uppermost human occupation of the site were dated to the 34 40 ka range by u series diffusion adsorption in good agreement with available radiocarbon results combined with evidence from other sections of the system these results set at half a million years ago or more the earliest human settlement of the atlantic facade of iberia provide the first secure chronometric evidence for the emergence of the acheulean in the peninsula during marine isotope stage 12 at the latest and support the regional persistence of a neanderthal associated middle palaeolithic beyond 41 5 ka the time of emergence elsewhere in western and central europe of the protoaurignacian widely assumed to be modern human related u series dating of speleothems collected in the inner passages of the system suggests uninterrupted speleothem formation through the middle and upper pleistocene enabling the construction of a high resolution continental palaeonvironmental record for comparison with the evidence from the deep sea cores obtained off the portuguese coast

coherent millennial scale patterns in u37k and tex86h temperature records during the penultimate interglacial to glacial cycle in the western mediterranean 1 the tex86h temperature proxy is a relatively new proxy based on crenarchaeotal lipids and has rarely been applied together with other temperature proxies in this study we applied the tex86h on a sediment core from the alboran sea western mediterranean core odp 977a covering the penultimate climate cycle that is from 244 to 130 ka and compared this with previously published sea surface temperatures derived from the u37k of alkenones of haptophyta and mg ca records of planktonic foraminifera the tex86h temperature record shows remarkably similar stadial interstadial patterns and abrupt temperature changes to those observed with the u37k palaeothermometer absolute tex86h temperature estimates are generally higher than those of u37k though this difference 3 c in 81 of the data points is mainly within the temperature calibration error for both proxies suggesting that crenarchaeota and haptophyta experienced similar temperature variations during occasional events 5 of the analyzed time span however the tex86h exhibits considerably higher absolute temperature estimates than the u37k comparison with mg ca records of planktonic foraminifera as well as other mediterranean tex86 and u37k records suggests that part of this divergence may be attributed to seasonal differences that is with tex86h reflecting mainly the warm summer season while u37k would show annual mean biases in the global calibration of both proxies or specific biases in the mediterranean are an alternative though less likely explanation despite differences between absolute tex86h and u37k temperatures the correlation between the two proxies r2 0 59 95 significance provides support for the occurrence of abrupt temperature variations in the western mediterranean during the penultimate interglacial to glacial cycle

the history of the origin evolution and dispersal of the late pleistocene mammuthus coelodonta faunal complex in eurasia large mammals

late pleistocene vertebrate bearing deposits at san teodoro cave north eastern sicily preliminary data on faunal diversification and chronology abstract this paper deals with the chronology and the possible correlations among levels of different excavated areas in the pleistocene vertebrate bearing deposits at the large san teodoro cave north eastern sicily two trenches have been excavated along the eastern side of the cave located at a distance from the entrance respectively of 8 m trench and 28 m trench and at different depths lithological features biometrical data from small mammals and ecological data from molluscs point to similar environmental conditions for the trench deposits and those located along the eastern wall of the cave in the eastern part of the trench the same evidence and the taphonomic features of large mammals points to different environmental conditions and perhaps to different ages for the deposits located in the western part of the trench the survival of elephants in sicily up to 32 000 years ago is a new significant result of the 230 th 234 u dating carried out from a concretionary stratum from the trench and represents the youngest elephant survival in the western mediterranean islands

abrupt climatic changes during the last glaciation based on pollen analysis of the abric romani catalonia spain the abric romani continental pollen record provides evidence of abrupt climate variations during the last glaciation the pollen record reveals a pattern of high frequency variations similar to that in ice cores as shown by oxygen isotopes or dust content analyses of 14 travertine samples yield coherent u series ages in correct stratigraphic order ranging from 40 000 to 70 000 yr according to changes in the composition and structure of the vegetation five paleoclimatic phases have been differentiated the oldest ranging from 70 200 to 65 500 yr ago records thermophilous taxa which correspond to the last warm events of isotopic stage 5 the next phase from 65 500 to 56 800 yr records a cold humid climate that correlates with isotope stage 4 during the third phase from 56 800 to 49 500 yr relatively warm and cold events alternate the fourth phase from 49 500 to 46 200 yr records a cold dry climate the fifth phase ranging from 46 200 to 40 800 yr records a milder phase that is similar in appearance to the beginning of the holocene

mire development pathways and palaeoclimatic records from a full holocene peat archive at walton moss cumbria england plant macrofossil data have been used to identify the successive mire communities occupying both central and marginal locations in the walton moss peatland complex during the last 10 500 years the reconstructed pathways of mire development indicate that early holocene fen and fen carr communities were succeeded by species indicative of deep mire water tables and oligotrophic conditions the character of the fen bog transition fbt is compared with similar records of peatland development from britain and scandinavia and with independent climate data for the early holocene the pseudohochmoor of central europe is suggested as an approximate modern analogue for the dry pioneer oligotrophic mire type and alternative explanations for its presence are explored the first major increase in ombrotrophic sphagna occurred at c 7800 cal bp overlying sphagnum peats provide a continuous record of climate change inferred from fluctuations in raised mire surface wetness the proxy palaeoclimate record reconstr

sea surface temperatures around the australian margin and indian ocean during the last glacial maximum abstract we present new last glacial maximum lgm sea surface temperature sst maps for the oceans around australia based on planktonic foraminifera assemblages to provide the most reliable sst estimates we use the modern analog technique the revised analog method and artificial neural networks in conjunction with an expanded modern core top database all three methods produce similar quality predictions and the root mean squared error of the consensus prediction the average of the three under cross validation is only 0 77 c we determine lgm sst using data from 165 cores most of which have good age control from oxygen isotope stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates the coldest sst occurred at 20 500 1400 cal yr bp predating the maximum in oxygen isotope records at 18 200 1500 cal yr bp during the lgm interval we observe cooling within the tropics of up to 4 c in the eastern indian ocean and mostly between 0 and 3 c elsewhere along the equator the high latitudes cooled by the greatest degree a maximum of 7 9 c in the southwest pacific ocean our maps improve substantially on previous attempts by making higher quality temperature estimates using more cores and improving age control

climate forcing and neanderthal extinction in southern iberia insights from a multiproxy marine record abstract paleoclimate records from the western mediterranean have been used to further understand the role of climatic changes in the replacement of archaic human populations inhabiting south iberia marine sediments from the balearic basin odp site 975 was analysed at high resolution to obtain both geochemical and mineralogical data these data were compared with climate records from nearby areas baexcces was used to characterize marine productivity and then related to climatic variability since variations in productivity were the consequence of climatic oscillations climate productivity events have been established sedimentary regime primary marine productivity and oxygen conditions at the time of population replacement were reconstructed by means of a multiproxy approach climatic oceanographic variations correlate well with homo spatial and occupational patterns in southern iberia it was found that low ventilation u th high river supply mg al low aridity zr al and low values of baexcess coefficient of variation may be linked with neanderthal hospitable conditions we attempt to support recent findings which claim that neanderthals populations continued to inhabit southern iberia between 30 and 28 ky cal bp and that this persistence was due to the specific characteristics of south iberian climatic refugia comparisons of our data with other marine and continental records appear to indicate that conditions in south iberia were highly inhospitable at 24 ky cal bp thus it is proposed that the final disappearance of neanderthals in this region could be linked with these extreme conditions

palaeoecology of neanderthals during dansgaard oeschger cycles in northeastern iberia abric romani from regional to global scale abstract the sequence from abric romani has provided several palaeoecological studies this paper presents a synthesis of the results yielded by palynology including the data from the entire non excavated deposits and the data obtained through the study of large mammals micromammals herpetofauna and anthracology from the excavated layers the palaeobotanical studies show that the sequence is mainly related to pine forests and near or within these dominant forests there were smaller plant formations and or secondary species with a mediterranean and or atlantic character nevertheless continuous forest did not dominate the entire region the fauna occupying the territory indicate open spaces in which seasonal grasslands proliferated dry assemblages in sunny areas and humid ones in mountain shadows the non excavated archaeological layers correspond to mis 4 initially characterized by temperate and humid conditions and thereafter cool and humid until hs 6 and mis 3 afterwards at the beginning of the mis 3 the dansgaard oeschger cycles 1500 yr rapid and abrupt climatic changes occurred during the deposition of the archaeological levels o n m l k and j later these events were interrupted by a cold and dry phase between ca 49 and 47 ka bp which affected levels ja i and h culminating with hs 5 finally this cold episode was followed by the hengelo interstadial or do 12 characterized by a temperate and humid climate identified in levels e and d

mid holocene environmental changes in the bay of skaill mainland orkney scotland an integrated geomorphological sedimentological and stratigraphical study a detailed multidisciplinary investigation of intertidal freshwater sediments exposed in the north of the bay of skaill mainland orkney scotland have revealed a complex sedimentary sequence this provided evidence for dynamic coastal environmental changes in the area since the mid holocene freshwater ponds developed on glacial sediments ca 6550 80 yr bp cal bc 5590 5305 from ca 6120 70 yr bp cal bc 5040 4855 these were infilled by blown sand from the distal edge of a dune ridge located to the west thereafter a series of sand blow events alternating with periods of quiescence occurred until ca 4410 60 yr bp cal bc 3325 2900 between ca 5240 160 and 4660 80 yr bp cal bc 4370 3115 pollen and charcoal records show evidence of anthropogenic activities associated with the nearby neolithic settlement of skara brae agriculture was probably affected by recurrent sand movement and widespread deposition of calcium carbonate in the hinterland of the bay machair development between ca 6100 and 5000 yr bp cal bc 5235 3540 corresponds to a mid holocene phase of dune formation recorded elsewhere in northwest europe the more recent and progressive formation of the bay has probably been related to increasing external forcing via storminess long term relative sea level change and sediment starvation within this exposed environment copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

terrasses de la riera dels canyars gava barcelona the landscape of heinrich stadial 4 north of the ebro frontier and implications for modern human dispersal into iberia abstract terrasses de la riera dels canyars is an upper pleistocene fluvial deposit containing the remains of large mammals principally accumulated in the framework of hyena denning in the area as well as a few artifacts radiocarbon dated to 39 6 ka cal bp the time of heinrich stadial hs 4 this site enables us to reconstruct the environmental conditions then prevalent in the ne of the iberian peninsula the concentration in a single locus of finds generated by different agents relates to a flash flood event the rapidity of which combined with the absence of archaeological ecological or paleontological incongruities in the composition of the assemblage warrants an assumption of broad contemporaneity for its contents the ecofactual evidence fauna pollen charcoal phytoliths indicates a steppe dominated environment for the coastal areas between the pyrenees and the ebro delta the dominant elements are cold and dry adapted species but a mediterranean component is present implying a less rigorous climate than farther north in europe the artifacts are clearly upper paleolithic and assignment to the modern human associated aurignacian technocomplex is supported by the radiocarbon dates and the typology of a bilaterally retouched blade this evidence is consistent with the notion that anatomical modernity spread across europe over open landscape niches available pollen data from deep sea cores indicate that during some of the interstadials of marine isotope stage mis 3 a significant vegetation gradient existed at 40 n broadly coincident with the ebro frontier temperate and warm temperate trees expanded significantly to the south while steppe tundra landscapes remained dominant to the north a contrast best seen during greenland interstadial gi 8 such an environmental boundary must have implied a durable barrier to diffusion and migration during interstadials under the cold and arid conditions of hs4 the site of canyars shows that the eurasian steppe tundra extended as far south as the llobregat delta however the environmental reconstructions available for the lower ebro valley and adjacent mountains of the iberian range farther south suggest that they formed at this time a belt of semi desert or steppe desert landscapes thus maintaining the boundary effect despite the climatic reversal the persistence of such a boundary through hs4 and the interstadials that bracket it must have played a role in the delayed arrival of the aurignacian and modern humans to southern and western iberia which continued to be settled by middle paleolithic neanderthals well beyond 40 ka cal bp

glacial mediterranean sea surface temperatures based on planktonic foraminiferal assemblages we present a new reconstruction of mediterranean sea surface temperatures sst during the last glacial maximum lgm a calibration data set based on census counts of 23 species of planktonic foraminifera in 129 north atlantic and 145 mediterranean core top samples was used to develop summer winter and annual average sst reconstructions using artificial neural networks anns and the revised analogue method ram prediction errors determined by cross validation of the calibration data set ranged between 0 5 and 1 1 c with both techniques being most successful in predicting winter ssts glacial reconstructions are based on a new expanded data set of 273 samples in 37 cores with consistent minimum level of age control the new lgm reconstructions suggest that the east west temperature gradient during the glacial summer was 9 c whereas during the glacial winter the gradient was 6 c both some 4 c higher than that existing today in contrast to earlier studies our results tend to suggest much cooler sst estimates throughout the glacial mediterranean particularly in the eastern basin where previous sst reconstructions indicated a decrease of only 1 c our new sst reconstructions will provide the modelling community with a detailed and updated portrayal of the mediterranean sea during the lgm setting new targets on which glacial simulations can be tested

synchroneity between marine and terrestrial responses to millennial scale climatic variability during the last glacial period in the mediterranean region land sea climatic proxies have been obtained from the last glacial section of images core md95 2043 western mediterranean sea vegetation and alkenone derived sst curves indicate rapid 150 years and synchronous terrestrial and marine climatic changes paralleling the dansgaard oeschger d o climatic variability over greenland this frequency of climate change can be related to shifts between the two modes of operation of the north atlantic oscillation nao transfer functions applied to the pollen data indicate that there was an amplification of the climatic signal during heinrich events hes in comparison with other d o stadials the development and persistence of both scandinavian and atlantic mobile polar highs over southwestern europe may explain the extreme cooling 10 c and dryness 400 mm during heinrich events 5 and 4 in the mediterranean region comparison of the results of core md95 2043 with similar climatic data from images core md95 2042 located off portugal indicates that thermal and precipitation gradients occurred between the mediterranean and the atlantic sides of iberia within hes hes 4 and 5 are associated with more humid conditions in the atlantic by 200 mm than in the mediterranean site as is the case at the present time this comparison also illustrates the different behaviour of these areas during the d o stadials in contrast with the mediterranean site the atlantic site shows similar precipitation and temperature drops for all the d o stadials including those related to the hes here we propose the operation of different mobile polar highs mph as the driving mechanism for this difference in behaviour between the atlantic and mediterranean sides of iberia hes are related to a stronger influence of the scandinavian mph forcing a severe aridification and cooling of the full iberian peninsula the atlantic mph may have been dominant during the other stadials which would preferentially affect southwestern iberia

neolithic population crash in northwest europe associated with agricultural crisis the focus of this paper is the neolithic of northwest europe where a rapid growth in population between 5950 and 5550 cal yr bp is followed by a decline that lasted until 4950 cal yr bp the timing of the increase in population density correlates with the local appearance of farming and is attributed to the advantageous effects of agriculture however the subsequent population decline has yet to be satisfactorily explained one possible explanation is the reduction in yields in neolithic cereal based agriculture due to worsening climatic conditions the suggestion of a correlation between neolithic climate deterioration agricultural productivity and a decrease in population requires testing for northwestern europe data for our analyses were collected during the cultural evolution of neolithic europe project we assess the correlation between agricultural productivity and population densities in the neolithic of northwest europe by examining the changing frequencies of crop and weed taxa before during and after the population boom and bust we show that the period of population decline is coincidental with a decrease in cereal production linked to a shift towards less fertile soils

taphonomic analysis of an ungulate dominated accumulation at the pleistocene cova del rinoceront site near barcelona spain northeastern iberian peninsula abstract the upper pleistocene mis5 site known as cova del rinoceront near barcelona spain contains a large assemblage of ungulate remains among which the most dominant in the uppermost layer i are those of the rare mediterranean deer haploidoceros mediterraneus in this paper zooarchaeological and coprogenic analyses are used to evaluate the taphonomic and geological processes involved in determining the nature of the layer i assemblage the assemblage cannot have been generated by either hyenids or humans nor does it constitute an accidental collection as seen in other pleistocene accummulations instead the skeletal frequencies coprogenic tracemarkers and the diagnostic biological damage on bones suggest it accumulated as a result of the feeding of a carnivore the homogeneous pattern of carcass utilization and the predation of similar sized ungulates suggest a canid as the main biological agent

microstratigraphy and diagenesis at the upper pleistocene site of esquilleu cave cantabria spain ftir and soil micromorphology were applied to selected sediments from the archaeological deposit of esquilleu cave a late middle palaeolithic site in cantabria spain the main goal was to assess the integrity of the archaeological record before continuing with further excavation and research at the site field observations and previous sedimentological studies point to diagenetic alteration of part of the deposit but the extent and precise nature of such processes had not been established the results show that the upper layers are composed of fresh elements and have not undergone diagenetic transformations although their components have been physically disturbed by cryoturbation the rest of the deposit is well preserved with mild phosphatization due to partial dissolution of bone and calcitic ash contained in the sediment and compression from trampling further excavation is necessary to have a more complete picture of the taphonomic processes taking place at the site

neandertal extinction and the millennial scale climatic variability of ois 3 population models seeking climate as a triggering factor for the extinction of neandertals and the colonisation of europe by anatomically modern humans are contradictory due to uncertainties in the dating methods in the cultural attribution of archaeological layers and to the lack of terrestrial continuous and well dated palaeoclimatic sequences this is particularly the case for the iberian peninsula where neandertal populations seem to have survived later than in other regions of europe a review of the available palaeoclimatic evidence for ois3 of iberia reveals that this mainly consists of low resolution fragmentary ill dated and often ill interpreted records correlation between palaeoenvironmental sequences from two images pollen rich deep sea cores and archaeological data from western europe the electronic archive of the radiocarbon dates is available at qsr website http www elsevier nl locate quascirev indicates that aurignacian moderns colonised france and the north of iberia at the onset of the h4 event during this cold episode a probable contraction of neandertal populations is recorded in southern iberia where no aurignacian settlements are detected such a decline in population density is correlated with the particular desert steppe like environments made up of artemisia chenopodiaceae and ephedra characterising the h4 of this area while reducing the size of neandertal populations this inhospitable environment may have favoured their persistence in this region mainly exploiting herds of herbivores adapted to graminees rich grasslands the aurignacian moderns were probably not interested in colonising these arid mediterranean biotopes and did that only after the h4 event

storminess variation during the last 6500 years as reconstructed from an ombrotrophic peat bog in halland southwest sweden cores taken from an ombrotrophic peat bog in the coastal zone of halland southwest sweden were examined for wind transported mineral grains pollen and humidity indicators the core covers the period from 6500 cal yr bp to present ombrotrophic conditions existed from ca 4200 cal yr bp onwards bog surface wetness fluctuated strongly until ca 3700 cal yr bp with an apparent dominance of dry summer conditions from 4800 4500 cal yr bp local wet shifts occurred around 4300 2800 2400 and 1500 cal yr bp whereas the most recent 600 years of the record show increasingly dry conditions mineral grain content interpreted as aeolian sand influx asi was used as a proxy for winter storm frequency and intensity until ca 1500 cal yr bp after which increasing human impact as reconstructed by pollen analysis became a second important potential cause for increased sand drift strongly increased storminess occurred at 4800 4200 2800 2200 1500 1100 and 400 50 cal yr bp indicating a dominance of cold and stormy winters during these periods many of these storm periods apparently coincide with storm events in other sites in southwestern scandinavia suggesting that our asi record reflects a regional scale climatic signal furthermore these stormy periods correlate to well known cold phases in the north atlantic region suggesting a link to large scale fluctuations in atmospheric circulation patterns less

h4 abrupt event and late neanderthal presence in iberia heinrich event 4 h4 is well documented in the north atlantic ocean and the adjacent continents as a cooling event 39 000 yr before present bp to quantify the impact of this event with respect to climate and vegetation over the iberian peninsula we perform numerical experiments using a high resolution general circulation model forced by sea surface temperatures before and during h4 our model simulates an expansion of aridity over the peninsula during h4 a desertification of the south and a replacement of arboreal by herbaceous plants in the north all of which are in agreement with contemporaneous pollen sequences from marine cores located off the iberian peninsula our simulations demonstrate that the h4 marine event imprinted drastic changes over southern iberia which would not have favoured its occupation by anatomically modern humans therefore providing a plausible explanation for the delayed extinction of neanderthals in this region inferred from the archaeological record

an exclusively hyena collected bone assemblage in the late pleistocene of sicily taphonomy and stratigraphic context of the large mammal remains from san teodoro cave north eastern sicily italy a detailed taphonomic analysis of the large mammal assemblage from 1998 to 2006 excavations at san teodoro cave is presented taking into account the stratigraphic context of the deposits three not strictly contemporary fossiliferous levels having different lithological features have been detected here named b i b ii and b iii fossil remains are prevalently accumulated in b i and b ii the three levels are characterized by evidence of crocuta crocuta spelaea occupation represented by their skeletal remains coprolites and distinctive damages on the bones similar to fossil and modern spotted hyena dens from europe and africa a differential distribution of coprolites and small digested bones probably due to different humidity conditions has been recognized in b i and b ii and can be related to different topographic locations within the cave or to different climate conditions during the sedimentation phases the very low density of fossil remains in b iii which is the oldest level could indicate an area that was less inhabited by hyenas probably due to geomorphological conditions taphonomic comparison of the three fossiliferous levels of the san teodoro cave deposits points to a long term perhaps cyclic occupation of the cave by hyenas and confirms the cave as one of the most important pleistocene hyena dens in europe

calcareous plankton and the mid brunhes climate variability in the alboran sea odp site 977 abstract quantitative calcareous plankton analyses have been performed at the ocean drilling program site 977 in the alboran sea through the mid brunhes interval 300 540 ka the results evidence orbital suborbital and millennial scale climate variability which primary reflects temperature change the patterns of increase decrease of coccolithophore and planktonic foraminifera warm water taxa reproduce the stage and substage climate variability in the planktonic 18o in good agreement with other planktonic isotope records from mediterranean sea and atlantic ocean variable conditions characterized by alternating cool nutrient rich or warm and stable sea surface waters occurred during interglacial marine isotope stage mis 13 in response to high amplitude oscillations of insolation during obliquity maximum and to north africa monsoon strength influencing distribution of taxa mis 13a resulted warmer than mis 13c based on the higher abundances of warm water taxa they increase just after insolation maxima suggesting a primary response of calcareous plankton to precessional orbital control following short term warm mis 11e and more humid mis 11d phases a climate optimum lasting about 16 kyr is recognized during mis 11c when major tropical subtropical water arrival into the alboran sea occurred as evidenced by the presence of trilobatus sacculifer mis 11c records unstable climate condition that persisted up to the late mis 11 indicating multiple pulses of southward migrations of subpolar front following the full interglacial mis 11c warm and oligotrophic conditions occurred during mis 9 as during mis 11 especially in mis 9e although without a climate optimum reduced abundance of warm water taxa and decrease of globorotalia inflata highlight colder surface water conditions and decreased atlantic mediterranean water exchange during glacials especially during the prominent sea level low stand of mis 12 short term prominent peaks of the polar subpolar neogloboquadrina pachyderma and coccolithus pelagicus ssp pelagicus and additional key taxa preferring fresher and turbid water together with minima in total nannofossil accumulation rate and enhanced coccolith reworking sustain a correlation with the north atlantic heinrich type ht events ht1 ht1a ht3 ht4 6 thus documenting the sensitiveness of the alboran sea in recording european and laurentide ice sheet dynamics the comparable chronology of most of these cold spells in the available balearic and ionian calcareous plankton records highlights that atlantic melt water entering alboran basin through gibraltar strait may have reached the central mediterranean preserving some of its original polar signature

vertebrate preservation in fluvial channels abstract two taphonomic modes for attritional vertebrate assemblages in channels are proposed based on the sedimentary context of the vertebrate remains and taphonomic features of the bones themselves the channel lag mode includes bones that are buried with coarse lithologies near the bases of active channels the channel fill mode occurs in fine grained to mixed fills of abandoned channels the extreme for a channel lag assemblage would be a cluster of allochthonous abraded unidentifiable fragments and the extreme for a channel fill assemblage would be a cluster of autochthonous unbraded complete skeletons between these extremes there is a broad spectrum of possible taphonomic histories for bones in channels but distinct channel lag vs channel fill modes can be recognized in fluvial deposits in different tectonic and climatic settings throughout the phanerozoic physical and biological processes that affect the different modes produce different samples of vertebrate paleocommunities with bones in the channel lag mode representing transported remains from a variety of habitats whereas channel fill assemblages are more autochthonous and habitat specific channel facies channel pattern and alluvial architecture are used to develop hypotheses concerning how the taphonomic modes relate to different scales of fluvial processes fluvial systems with numerous abandoned channels provide more sites for preservation of relatively complete fossil vertebrates in channel fills while systems that continually rework sediments by lateral migration preserve more vertebrate remains as channel lags large scale physical controls on channel pattern and fluvial architecture probably have had significant effects on the quality and quantity of the vertebrate record throughout the history of land vertebrates taphonomic modes provide a basis for comparing faunas with similar preservational histories throughout the geologic record and they can help to minimize biases in important paleobiological parameters such as diversity estimates and the timing of appearance and extinction events

the greenland ice core chronology 2005 15 42 ka part 2 comparison to other records a new greenland ice core chronology gicc05 based on multi parameter counting of annual layers has been obtained for the last 42 ka here we compare the glacial part of the new time scale which is based entirely on records from the northgrip ice core to existing time scales and reference horizons covering the same period these include the grip and northgrip modelled time scales the meese sowers gisp2 counted time scale the shackleton fairbanks grip time scale sfcp04 based on 14c calibration of a marine core the hulu cave record three volcanic reference horizons and the laschamp geomagnetic excursion event occurring around greenland interstadial 10 gicc05 is generally in good long term agreement with the existing greenland ice core chronologies and with the hulu cave record but on shorter time scales there are significant discrepancies around the last glacial maximum there is a more than 1 ka age difference between gicc05 and sfcp04 and a more than 0 5 ka discrepancy in the same direction between gicc05 and the age of a recently identified tephra layer in the northgrip ice core both sfcp04 and the tephra age are based on 14c dated marine cores and fixed marine reservoir ages for the laschamp event gicc05 agrees with a recent independent dating within the uncertainties

vegetation reconstruction on the basis of pollen in late pleistocene hyena coprolites from san teodoro cave sicily italy vegetation reconstruction based on pollen from coprolites of extinct spotted hyena crocuta crocuta spelaea goldfuss 1832 recovered from excavations carried out in 1998 at san teodoro cave sicily italy supports previous indications of pre late glacial conditions eight of the twelve coprolites analysed contained well preserved pollen grains there is a general similarity between the pollen contents from the coprolites but they show variability they suggest a main vegetation type dominated by steppic taxa poaceae artemisia ephedra chenopodiaceae and asteraceae but also including arboreal taxa pinus and cupressaceae low percentages of pollen of mesophilous woody taxa quercus betula abies alnus pistacia among others are noticeable suggesting the existence of nearby refugia for temperate and mediterranean vegetation a reconstruction of the landscape using the coprolite pollen record and other pollen records from sicily and south italy shows the predominance during the pre late glacial of a wooded steppe biome with elements representing a variety of local environmental conditions

chrono stratigraphy of the upper pleistocene and holocene archaeological sequence in cova gran south eastern pre pyrenees iberian peninsula the cova gran de santa linya lleida spain is a recently discovered site with a broad chrono cultural sequence that contains archaeological levels dating to the middle palaeolithic early upper palaeolithic late upper palaeolithic neolithic and early bronze age we present the chronometric and stratigraphic context of these occupations which were dated using 14c accelerator mass spectrometry and thermoluminescence the sequence provides important indicators that aid in the reconstruction of the history of human occupation on the southern slopes of the spanish pyrenees over the past 50 000 years copyright 2011 john wiley sons ltd

the janda cavity at fruska gora the first cave assemblage from the southeast pannonian lowland vojvodina serbia abstract the recently discovered janda cavity yielded the first large mammal fossil assemblage of the late pleistocene age in the southeast pannonian lowland vojvodina outside the karst region of serbia the cavity is formed in the badenian reef limestone on the northern hillside of the fruska gora mountain the paper provides a paleontological description and taphonomic data on mammal remains collected from the loose sediments or scree herbivores are represented by bison priscus bojanus 1827 which is the most abundant species followed by megaloceros giganteus blumenbach 1803 and equus germanicus nehring 1884 with several remains of mammuthus sp and coelodonta antiquitatis blumenbach 1799 carnivores are represented by ursus spelaeus ingressus rabeder et al 2004 crocuta crocuta spelaea goldfuss 1823 panthera leo spelaea goldfuss 1810 as well as canis lupus linnaeus 1758 wolf remains are characterized by their large size almost reaching the size of hyenas which is in contrast with the finds of rather small pleistocene wolves from the caves in the mountainous part of serbia the faunal composition and the presence of mostly grazing forms among the herbivores indicate glacial conditions and an open landscape in the surroundings of the site during the formation of the janda cavity infill taphonomic observations indicate the cave hyena as a dominant bone accumulating agent in contrast to other cave hyena sites in serbia where mostly small and medium sized prey remains were accumulated prey preference for large and extra large mammals is noted it is supposed that this is the consequence of the differences between mountainous and lowland landscapes and environments climatic conditions different composition of animal and plant associations and also in different modes of competitions between predators

multi proxy evidence for holocene lake level and salinity changes at an loch mor a coastal lake on the aran islands western ireland abstract curves for holocene lake levels and salinity changes are presented for an loch mor a small oligohaline lake on the aran islands off the west coast of ireland based on palaeoecological investigations of a 12 m long lake sediment core new insights are also provided into holocene sea level change in the galway bay region particular emphasis has been placed on the ostracod fauna both past and present salinity and lake level changes were reconstructed from the fossil ostracod assemblages based on the known tolerances of individual species and on the assemblages as a whole additional evidence was provided by other proxies including strontium isotope ratios derived from ostracod shells and other carbonates plant macrofossil and pollen analyses and sedimentological changes the early holocene pre boreal i e 11 5 10 ka was characterised by low lake levels and slightly elevated salinity values probably the result of high evapotranspiration and low precipitation rather than elevated sea levels early holocene plant and animal migration to the island does not seem to have been impeded but relative sea levels were not necessarily so low below 40 m a s l that landbridges were present to the mainland between ca 10 and 8 5 ka relatively high lake levels prevailed at 8 3 and 7 5 ka minor fluctuations lowering of the lake level occurred that are assumed to relate to early holocene abrupt events beginning at 7 05 ka lake levels declined sharply a general trend towards rising lake levels started at ca 6 4 ka and accelerated at ca 5 6 ka as runoff increased as a result of neolithic clearances at ca 4 8 ka lake levels began to rise once again probably in response to changes in rainfall and or evapotranspiration and runoff lower lake levels during the first half of the 1st millennium ad were probably a response to decreased runoff as a result of a drier climate coupled with regeneration of woody vegetation the sharpest rise in both lake levels and salinity began during the ninth century ad which is attributed to a rapid rise in relative sea level

glacial interglacial size variation in fossil spotted hyenas crocuta crocuta from britain abstract the lower carnassial lengths of spotted hyenas crocuta crocuta in 12 late pleistocene samples from britain indicate that on average local hyenas of the last devensian glaciation were significantly larger than their last interglaciation ipswichian counterparts together with the tendency for spotted hyena carnassial length to increase with latitude in present day africa this suggests that spotted hyena body size is inversely related to temperature as predicted by bergmann s rule the implication is that spotted hyena carnassial length can be used as an independent gauge of pleistocene temperature variation though the combined african and british data imply that the relationship between carnassial length and temperature is curvilinear such that as temperature declines equal amounts of further decline produce progressively smaller increases in average carnassial length

complexity of holocene climate as reconstructed from a greenland ice core glaciochemical time series developed from summit greenland indicate that the chemical composition of the atmosphere was dynamic during the holocene epoch concentrations of sea salt and terrestrial dusts increased in summit snow during the periods 0 to 600 2400 to 3100 5000 to 6100 7800 to 8800 and more than 11 300 years ago the most recent increase and also the most abrupt coincides with the little ice age these changes imply that either the north polar vortex expanded or the meridional air flow intensified during these periods and that temperatures in the mid to high northern latitudes were potentially the coldest since the younger dryas event

prediction of sea surface temperatures in the western mediterranean sea by neural networks using satellite observations 1 we use artificial neural networks anns to predict sea surface temperatures ssts in the western mediterranean sea the anns are trained with meteorological variables as input and concurrent satellite derived ssts as target the trained anns predict well both the seasonal and the interannual variability of sst in that region we also reproduce the impact of the heat wave that occurred during the summer of 2003 on the ssts of the western mediterranean sea the ann technique allows us to predict sst maps in the western alboran sea for time coordinates before sst satellite availability the presence and later partial collapse of the western alboran gyre throughout 1980 is detected with good agreement by both the ann predictions and the concurrent results from a 3 d circulation model the same methodology is used to reconstruct incomplete sst satellite images

cave bears carnivora ursidae from the middle and late pleistocene of serbia a revision abstract cave bear remains are known from 36 caves and other karst features and from one open air site in serbia the sites vary greatly by their morphology and size position altitude stratigraphy and diversity of the fossil fauna the cave bear stands out as a dominant species at the majority of the sites at a number of sites it is the single species found there are only few sites where herbivores or predators remains exceed those of the cave bears the majority of cave bear remains originate from the late pleistocene deposits previously they have been identified as ursus spelaeus we present a morphology and metric study of cave bears from three sites two recently discovered localities of middle pleistocene age and the risovaca cave which may be regarded as the reference site for the late pleistocene mammals in the region based on a large number of collected remains and published data the remains of the middle pleistocene spelaeoid bears are described from mala balanica cave eastern serbia and an open air site at ruma brickyard northern serbia for the first time considering the size and morphology of cheek teeth and metapodial bones these cave bears are identified as ursus spelaeus deningeroides the cheek teeth morphology and size as well as metapodial bones metric relate the cave bear from the risovaca cave to the advanced evolutive type of the cave bear established in central and eastern europe ursus spelaeus ingressus

palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction of the latest pleistocene of el portalon site sierra de atapuerca northwestern spain the site of el portalon is the entrance to the cueva mayor karst system located in the sierra de atapuerca burgos spain this is an important holocene archaeological site which was excavated in the 1970s but from which little has been published new excavations starting in 2000 have highlighted a deep stratigraphical sequence with human occupations starting at the end of the late pleistocene in this paper we present for the first time on the basis of the small vertebrate assemblage palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstructions of the latest pleistocene of the sierra de atapuerca well known for its early to middle pleistocene human bearing localities the small vertebrates of el portalon comprise at least 25 species 4 amphibians alytes obstetricans bufo bufo bufo calamita and rana temporaria 3 squamates an indeterminate small size lacertid an indeterminate large colubrine and vipera sp 6 insectivores sorex gr coronatus araneus sorex minutus neomys fodiens neomys anomalus talpa europaea and galemys pyrenaicus 2 bats myotis myotis and myotis gr myotis blythi 10 rodents microtus arvalis microtus agrestis microtus oeconomus iberomys cabrerae chionomys nivalis terricola duodecimcostatus arvicola sapidus arvicola terrestris apodemus sylvaticus and eliomys quercinus these taxa many of which are ecothermal sensitive to temperature show variations in their taxonomic diversity throughout the sequence although with the exception of m oeconomus they do not differ from the extant fauna of the iberian peninsula they do so in the abundance of their taxonomic assemblage when the small vertebrates are grouped and studied in terms of vertical trends through the sequence it is possible to follow environmental and climatic changes results from the small vertebrate associations indicate that the landscape had open habitats in the vicinity of the atapuerca caves throughout the sequence with wet locales in the surrounding area woodland and water stream meadows were more developed during warm periods is5 is6 is7 and is3 is4 whereas during cold periods h3 and lgm the environment was slightly more humid in response to winter precipitation and the opening of the landscape these results are compared with pollen analysis and marine isotopic curves giving a scenario for the palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes that occurred during the latest pleistocene in the sierra de atapuerca

a study of pleistocene and holocene hyaena coprolites abstract hyaena coprolites from a diachronic series of archaeological sites in israel were examined and compared with recent faecal material from striped hyaena dens and zoos three methods were applied in the analysis of all samples gross morphometrical attributes x ray diffraction and petrological thin sections this last method is an innovation in the field of coprolite studies and facilitates the long term preservation of the original textural characteristics and fabric of sections of the coprolite the combination of these three approaches facilitated among other things the assessment of hyaena diet in the past as well as in the present and determination of local environmental factors affecting the composition of the coprolite we also obtained some indication of changes related to ageing of the material

centennial scale holocene climate variability revealed by a high resolution speleothem δ18o record from sw ireland evaluating the significance of holocene submillennial 18 o variability in the greenland ice cores is crucial for understanding how natural climate oscillations may modulate future anthropogenic warming a high resolution oxygen isotope record from a speleothem in southwestern ireland provides evidence for centennial scale 18 o variations that correlate with subtle 18 o changes in the greenland ice cores indicating regionally coherent variability in the early holocene evidence for previously undetected early holocene cooling events is presented but mid to late holocene ice rafting in the north atlantic appears to have had little impact on 18 o at this ocean margin site

use and abandonment of a neolithic field system at belderrig co mayo ireland evidence for economic marginality this paper presents evidence for the nature of early and middle neolithic farming activity its impact upon the landscape and environment and its vulnerability to climatic change at a sub peat field system at belderg beg north co mayo ireland pollen analyses of a 14c dated peat deposit close to the field system indicates that basin peat accumulated from c 5590 to 5330 cal bp probably triggered by farming activities the palynological evidence indicates that the field system was constructed for pastoral farming surrounded by woodland sediment stratigraphic analyses show that the soil in the field system was subject to significant erosion which may have been a causal factor in the local cessation of agriculture in the late sixth millennium cal bp peat humification analyses indicate that surface wetness was greatest at c 4940 cal bp several centuries after abandonment of the field system coincident in age with evidence for higher precipitation from other sites in north mayo comparison with

an introduction to the middle and upper pleistocene loess paleosol sequence at ruma brickyard vojvodina serbia abstract six loess units and five paleosols are preserved in the 20 m thick exposure of middle and late pleistocene sediments at ruma brickyard vojvodina serbia amino acid geochronology provides stratigraphic correlations between loess paleosol units sl l1 s1 sl l2 s2 sl l3 s3 and sl l4 at ruma with loess of glacial cycles b c and d and e respectively at other central and southeastern european localities the profile represents one of the best potential sections in the region for reconstructing detailed paleoclimates and paleoenvironments of the last ca 350 000 yr initial sedimentological magnetic and malacological evidence indicate many episodes of drier conditions in the region than in other parts of central and southeastern europe during the later part of the middle and late pleistocene

evidence for an extreme climatic event on achill island co mayo ireland around 5200 5100 cal yr bp a range of detailed palaeoenvironmental analyses carried out on a series of three peat profiles from achill island co mayo western ireland reveal evidence for an extreme climatic event probably a storm or series of storms around 5200 5100 cal yr bp that caused the deposition of an extensive layer of silt across blanket peat this event followed a period of relatively dry climate during which neolithic communities expanded in the region there was a subsequent period of continuing dry conditions allowing extensive colonisation of the peat by pinus before a shift to wetter conditions characteristic of the later holocene the extreme climatic event is possibly linked to human abandonment of the area comparable to that observed from the work on the internationally significant ceide fields in the same region

the greenland ice core chronology 2005 15 42 ka part 1 constructing the time scale the greenland ice core chronology 2005 gicc05 is extended back to 42 ka b2k before 2000 ad i e to the end of greenland stadial 11 the chronology is based on independent multi parameter counting of annual layers using comprehensive high resolution measurements available from the north greenland ice core project ngrip these are measurements of visual stratigraphy conductivity of the solid ice electrolytical melt water conductivity and the concentration of na c a 2 s o 4 n o 3 n h 4 a n uncertainty estimate of the time scale is obtained from identification of uncertain annual layers which are counted as 0 570 5 years the sum of the uncertain annual layers the so called maximum counting error of the presented chronology ranges from 4 in the warm interstadial periods to 7 in the cold stadials the annual accumulation rates of the stadials and interstadials are on average one third and half of the present day values respectively and the onset of the greenland interstadials 2 3 and 8 based on 20 year averaged d 18 o

the temperature of europe during the holocene reconstructed from pollen data we present the first area average time series reconstructions of warmest month coldest month and mean annual surface air temperatures across europe during the last 12 000 years these series are based on quantitative pollen climate reconstructions from over 500 pollen sites assimilated using an innovative four dimensional gridding procedure this approach combines three dimensional spatial gridding with a fourth dimension represented by time allowing data from irregular time series to be focussed onto a regular time step we provide six regional reconstructed temperature time series as well as summary time series for the whole of europe the results suggest major spatial and seasonal differences in holocene temperature trends within a remarkably balanced regional and annual energy budget the traditional mid holocene thermal maximum is observed only over northern europe and principally during the summer this warming was balanced by a mid holocene cooling over southern europe whilst central europe occupied an intermediary position changes in annual mean temperatures for europe as a whole suggest an almost linear increase in thermal budget up to 7800 bp followed by stable conditions for the remainder of the holocene this early holocene warming and later equilibrium has been mainly modulated by increasing winter temperatures in the west which have continued to rise at a progressively decreasing rate up to the present day

a skeleton of steppe mammoth mammuthus trogontherii pohlig from drmno near kostolac serbia abstract the kostolac mammoth was discovered in 2009 in pleistocene deposits adjacent to the drmno open cast lignite mine in the serbian danube basin on the basis of cranial and dental features the individual is identified as the so called steppe mammoth mammuthus trogontherii the remains are those of an old male of estimated age around 62 years and comprise one of the most complete and best preserved known skeletons of this species and the first from the region skeletal height is estimated as around four metres and body mass 9 5 t the excellent preservation of the skeleton provides new information about the osteology of m trogontherii an evolutionary intermediate between the better known ancestral mammoth mammuthus meridionalis and woolly mammoth mammuthus primigenius the find is also remarkable for the articulated condition of the skeleton the animal occupying a crouching posture which is probably little altered from its original death position this and the depositional environment of the skeleton a broad fast flowing river suggest that the animal died in relatively shallow water and was very rapidly buried in river sediments based on the known european record of typical large sized m trogontherii of this kind the age of the kostolac skeleton and its enclosing sediments is between 1 0 and 0 4 ma

phytoliths in the middle palaeolithic deposits of kebara cave mt carmel israel study of the plant materials used for fuel and other purposes abstract kebara cave israel is a well studied archaeological site it contains abundant visible hearths ash derived minerals are a major component of the mousterian sediments and are present in varying states of preservation furthermore archaeobotanic information is available from charred remains kebara cave is thus an ideal location to study the potential of phytoliths to provide information on the mode of fire use in the cave to assess the input of other plant materials as well as to determine the effects of diagenesis on phytolith preservation twenty samples were analysed in terms of their mineralogy phytolith contents per unit weight of acid insoluble fraction and phytolith morphologies in general the preservation of the phytoliths is good except for the two samples in which the mineral component associated at present with the phytoliths is mainly ash derived calcite the cave sediments contain about ten times more phytoliths than those present in the four samples analysed from outside the cave the major source of plant material input into the cave is clearly from the wood and bark used for the fuel for fires the grass phytoliths present in the samples are also thought in part to have been brought into the cave associated with the wood bark fuel sediments from the hearths as well as those between the hearths contain abundant wood bark phytoliths the two samples of the latter contain appreciable amounts of phytoliths not known to be present in wood and bark as do other hearth derived samples plant materials other than those used as fuel were thus also brought into the cave this study shows that phytolith analyses in conjunction with detailed mineralogical stratigraphic archaeobotanic and field information can provide a more complete understanding of the use of plant materials in prehistoric caves for fuel

using experimental studies of recent faecal material to examine hyaena coprolites from the west runton freshwater bed norfolk u k abstract coprolites fossilized droppings found during the excavation of the west runton elephant in 1992 and 1995 were studied and attributed to the spotted hyaena crocuta crocuta on the basis of their distinctive morphology and content recent droppings of captive spotted hyaenas were compared with the coprolites in terms of size morphology and content and were used in simple laboratory experiments devised to improve understanding of their behaviour in depositional environments generally and their mode of burial at this locality specifically the coprolites are 22 32 larger than the recent droppings consistent with the interpretation that the european spotted hyaenas of the cromerian interglacial were larger than modern african equivalents the fresh spotted hyaena droppings are hard and durable sink rapidly through water and are able to withstand considerable trampling into sediment whilst maintaining a coherent form the droppings have a high threshold entrainment velocity in water far higher than that for silt or fine sand and consequently it is unlikely that the west runton coprolites were transported to the site with the host sediment this suggests three possible histories of deposition 1 the droppings were deposited around the elephant skeleton possibly by the same animals which caused damage to the skeleton and the fine sediment was then washed in around them 2 they were deposited by hyaenas while fine sediment was being deposited 3 they were deposited after the sediment was deposited and then they were subjected to faunal disturbance by trampling and scattering this approach studying the behaviour of in this case modern fresh droppings in experimental situations to answer specific questions may be of use in investigating other sites with similar natural depositional settings not necessarily involving faecal material

millennial scale variability during the last glacial the ice core record the oxygen isotope records from greenland ice cores show a very strong reproducible pattern of alternation between warm greenland interstadials gi and cold greenland stadials gs at millennial scale during the last glacial period here we summarise what is known about this variability from ice core records the typical cycle has a sawtooth pattern with a very rapid warming event occurring in a few decades a slow cooling trend and then a final fast cooling 25 such events have been numbered in the last glacial the recent gicc05 age scale provides the best available age scale that can be directly applied to this stratigraphy and we summarise the timing of the warming events and the length and strength of each event the greenland stratigraphy can be transferred to other records if we make assumptions about the contemporaneous nature of rapid events in different archives other parameters such as the snow accumulation rate and the concentration of terrestrial dust and sea salt recorded in the greenland cores also show a strong contrasting pattern between gi and gs methane concentrations are generally high during gi and lower during gs with the increase from gs to gi occurring within a century antarctic ice cores show a different pattern each gi has an antarctic counterpart but antarctica appears to warm while greenland is in a gs and cool during gi these changes are consistent with a mechanism involving ocean heat transport but the rapid nature of warmings poses a challenge for modellers while the rapid methane changes pose questions about the pattern of land biosphere emissions during the glacial that are also relevant for understanding glacial interglacial methane variability

the padul mammoth finds on the southernmost record of mammuthus primigenius in europe and its southern spread during the late pleistocene abstract fossil remains of at least four mature to old mature male individuals of mammuthus primigenius have been discovered in a peat bog of late pleistocene age situated near to the town of padul in the granada basin southern spain radiocarbon dates indicate the presence of woolly mammoth in southern spain between 35 8 and 25 7 ka bp 40 4 30 6 cal ka bp a time span corresponding with the later part of mis 3 the padul mammoths did not differ morphometrically from individuals of contemporaneous populations of other european regions but represent the westernmost portion of an extended and continuous holarctic belt of mammoth distribution the area immediately northwest of the pyrenees including a slender belt of dry land along the coast of the bay of biscay is considered the immigration route of m primigenius into the iberian peninsula the southernmost extent of iberian woolly mammoths correlates with periods of particularly dry and cold climatic conditions where they are documented in terrestrial and marine sediment sequences of the region the southern expansion of m primigenius during the late pleistocene extended to similar latitudes in europe asia and north america paralleling the distribution of suitable steppe or tundra steppe like environments the woolly mammoth s southernmost advances were limited by the vegetational character of corresponding landscapes by the configuration of marine shore lines and high mountain chains and by the extension of semideserts and deserts phases of mammoth dispersal into the iberian and italian peninsulas during the later part of mis 3 and early mis 2 can be roughly correlated with the southern distribution of the species in the eastern palaearctic along the eastern coast of the pacific ocean the topography and glaciation of the rocky mountains range prevented a similar dispersal of woolly mammoths into western north america the expansion of late pleistocene m primigenius within the inner continental areas of eurasia and north america differs chronologically from those at the continental margins

a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the initial introduction of maize into coastal ecuador multiple lines of evidence are presented to address questions surrounding the origins antiquity and role of maize in coastal ecuador and western south america a new methodology for tracing the use of maize using opal phytolith assemblages from food residues in utilized ceramics is introduced and compared and contrasted to previous palaeoethnobotanical techniques a total of ten carbon residue samples from the interior surfaces of excavated pottery from the valdivia site of la emerenciana were examined for the presence of maize opal phytoliths the carbon residue samples were derived from archaeological features consisting primarily of architectural remains ritual offerings and funerary deposits excavated from an earthen platform mound laboratory results indicate that three of the ten samples analysed contain phytolith assemblages representative of maize cob chaff all of the samples are derived from a stratigraphic layer radiocarbon and ams dated to between c 2400 and 1650 bc measurements of radiocarbon assays and ams dates from residue samples are calibrated and then evaluated to provide a more accurate relative chronology for the introduction of maize at la emerenciana results from these various lines of evidence all support an introduction of maize into coastal ecuador at approximately 2200 1900 cal bc the implications of these data are briefly reviewed with regard to previous research on the importance and role of maize to pre hispanic socio cultural development our conclusions indicate that contrary to previous assumptions maize was initially a secondary plant in the valdivia subsistence economy and maintained a cultural as well as economic significance to andean socio cultural development

steppe lion remains imported by ice age spotted hyenas into the late pleistocene perick caves hyena den in northern germany upper pleistocene remains of the ice age steppe lion panthera leo spelaea goldfuss 1810 have been found in the perick caves sauerland karst nw germany bones from many hyenas and their imported prey dating from the lower to middle weichselian have also been recovered from the perick cave hyena den these are commonly cracked or exhibit deep chew marks the absence of lion cub bones in contrast to hyena and cave bear cub remains in the perick caves and other caves of northern germany excludes the possibility that p leo spelaea used the cave for raising cubs only in the wilhelms cave was a single skeleton of a cub found in a hyena den evidence of the chewing nibbling and cracking of lion bones and crania must have resulted from the importation and destruction of lion carcasses 4 of the prey fauna similar evidence was preserved at other hyena den caves and open air sites in germany the bone material from the perick and other central european caves points to antagonistic hyena and lion conflicts similar to clashes of their modern african relatives

sea surface temperatures and ice rafting in the holocene north atlantic climate influences on northern europe and greenland abstract the oceanographic conditions in the high latitude north atlantic ocean during the holocene were reconstructed through analyses of sea surface temperature sst alkenone unsaturation ratios and ice rafting mineralogy and grain size from two sediment sequences one recovered from the reykjanes ridge at 59 n and the other from the norwegian sea at 68 n comparison of our records to published ice core and terrestrial proxy climate data sets suggests that atmospheric temperature changes over northern europe and greenland were coupled to sst variability and ice rafting the records outline four major climatic phases i an early holocene thermal maximum that lasted until approximately 6 7 kyr bp ii a distinctly cooler phase associated with increased ice rafting between 6 5 and 3 7 kyr bp iii a transition to generally warmer but relatively unstable climate conditions between 3 7 and 2 kyr bp and iv a second distinct sst decline that took place between 2 and 0 5 kyr bp in contrast to the dominant control of northern hemisphere summer insolation on early holocene climate development via strong seasonality the trigger for the onset of relatively unstable climatic conditions in the north atlantic at 3 7 kyr bp is not straightforward however it is possible that this change was triggered by late holocene winter insolation increase at high northern latitude and or by inter hemispheric changes in orbital forcing the late holocene neoglaciation trend which is characteristic of numerous terrestrial archives in northern europe may not only be attributed to a gradual decrease in orbitally forced summer temperature but also to increase snow precipitation at high northern latitudes during generally milder winters

european climatic response to millennial scale changes in the atmosphere ocean system during the last glacial period abstract pollen foraminifer dinocyst and coarse lithic high resolution analyses and 18 o measurements have been carried out for the last glacial section of marine core md95 2042 located near the southwestern margin of the iberian peninsula the pollen data indicate a high frequency of vegetational changes on the adjacent continent during this period suggesting a climatic variability very similar to that of the dansgaard oeschger cycles recorded by the greenland ice cores the detailed direct correlation of the terrestrial and marine proxy data from core md95 2042 indicates a three phase pattern of heinrich events in land and ocean environments the first and last phases of the h5 and h4 events are characterized by a mild and humid climate in southwestern europe probably associated with the european origin of the ice rafted detritus the middle phase exhibits a cold and dry climate in iberia linked with the maximum input of ice rafted detritus this phase seems to correspond with the laurentide ice sheet surges between the heinrich events several cold and dry periods on land are correlated with stades of the dansgaard oeschger cycles the impact of the dansgaard oeschger stades in southwestern europe seems to be preferentially connected to the cold winter air masses reaching this mid latitude region

a 7500 year peat based palaeoclimatic reconstruction and evidence for an 1100 year cyclicity in bog surface wetness from temple hill moss pentland hills southeast scotland analyses of plant macrofossils peat humification and testate amoebae were used to reconstruct a proxy climate record spanning the last 7500 years from an ombrotrophic bog temple hill moss in southeast scotland the plant macrofossil data were subjected to detrended correspondence analysis dca which modelled effectively the significant wet shifts within the record a mean water table depth transfer function was applied to the testate amoebae data to provide quantifiable changes the three proxy records show coherent phase changes which are interpreted as variability in past effective precipitation two tephra horizons glen garry and lairg a were used in conjunction with radiocarbon dates to construct an age depth model producing a robust geochronology from which a time series was calculated the palaeoclimatic reconstruction identified major wet shifts throughout the holocene with specific events occurring around cal 6650 5850 5300 4500 3850 3400 2800 2450 1450 1350 and 250 150 bp spectral analysis of the plant macrofossil dca and colorimetric humification data produced a millennial scale periodicity of 1100 years the same periodicity has also been found in a palaeoclimatic reconstruction from a site in cumbria walton moss and may be linked with millennial scale periodicities found in oceanic palaeoclimatic records