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Living in remote places can strain the adaptive capacities of human settlers. It can also protect communities from external social, political and economic forces. In this paper, we present an archaeological population history of the Kuril Islands. This string of small volcanic islands on the margins of the Northwest Pacific was occupied by maritime hunting, fishing and gathering communities from the mid-Holocene to recent centuries. We bring together (1) 380 new and previously published archaeological radiocarbon dates, (2) a new paleodemographic model based on a radiocarbon-timestamped temporal frequency distribution of archaeological deposits, (3) recently published paleoclimate trends, and (4) recently published archaeological proxy evidence for changes in the extent of social networks. We demonstrate that, over the last two millennia, inhabitants of the Kuril Islands underwent dramatic demographic fluctuations. Explanations of these fluctuations are considered in the context of environmental hazards, social networks and the emergence of an East Asian “World System”, elucidating the tension between local and external adaptive strategies to social and ecological uncertainty. Results suggest that population resilience to local climate and environmental variability was achieved by virtue of social networks that maintained non-local support in times of crisis. Conversely, the expansion of the East Asian political economy into neighboring regions of the southern margin of the Kuril Islands perhaps in conjunction with exposure to epidemic diseases appears to have undermined the adaptive strategies, resulting in an increase in the vulnerability of Kuril populations to environmental fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With increasing collaboration between archeology and natural sciences, research on past human–environment interactions has received more attention in recent years. This paper uses nineteen radiocarbon and OSL dates from three profiles to explore environmental evolution of the Liyang Plain, investigate the spatial and temporal distributions of archaeological sites from the Paleolithic Age to the Shang–Zhou period and discuss relationships between human cultures and environmental changes. The results show that Paleolithic sites are mainly distributed in surrounding mountainous and hilly areas, changing to the plain in the late Paleolithic Age. Climatic cooling during the Last Glacial Maximum did not cause severe damage to the regional vegetation and ecosystem, which allowed the continuous development of the late Paleolithic culture in the Liyang Plain. Suitable environmental conditions and progression of human activities facilitated rice cultivation in the early Holocene, and rice agriculture as an important food resource provided a solid material foundation for social development. The number of archaeological sites increased continuously and their distribution expanded considerably into eastern low-lying plain areas during the Neolithic Age. These trends reversed in the late Shijiahe culture, and social development did not recover until the Shang–Zhou period. Variation of site distribution in the Liyang Plain was primarily influenced by hydrological and geomorphological changes as well as climate change. However, it might also have been affected by broader regional political situations, especially during the Shang–Zhou period. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper discusses the environmental changes in the pile-dwelling period (5.7–3.2 ka) at the Ljubljansko barje (Slovenia) which were revealed during the study of settlement pattern and sedimentary analysis. The archaeological and radiocarbon data have demonstrated that the oldest pile-dwellings were located closer to the edge of the wetland, and the youngest were positioned closer to the central zone of the basin. The reason for the changes in the settlement pattern lies in the lake''s gradual regression: The pile-dwellers at the Ljubljansko barje built their villages on the edge of the relatively deeper water zone as it regressed. The sedimentary analyses have revealed basal shell-rich marls grading upward into clays with terrigenous input, suggesting a complex lacustrine environment evolving with time into a marshland. At the Resnikov prekop site, a depositional hiatus occurs from 7.4 to 2.2 ka, following which the basin filled with terrigenous sediment delivered by streams from the hilly surroundings. Across the Ljubljansko barje at Stare gmajne and Blatna Brezovica, presumably no depositional hiatus occurred, but the pile-dwellings were located in the marsh, not far from the edge of the deep water zone. Both analyses clearly demonstrate the interdependence between the gradual regression of the lake and settlement pattern during the period of pile-dwellings. These results fail to support some alternative hypotheses that the sites on the southeastern edge lined the dry land formed by river banks feeding the barje. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The present paper reports the recently discovered fossil teeth of Early Pleistocene Gigantopithecus blacki and associated mammalian fauna from Baeryan Cave, Bijie County in Guizhou Province, and also reviews briefly the known fossil sites of Gigantopithecus in south China of Pleistocene. In Early Pleistocene, Gigantopithecus had a wider distribution, but withdrew southward in Middle Pleistocene to a limited area mainly in South China, and it disappeared in the Late Pleistocene according to the present fossil records. Diet and habitat analysis from carbon isotope evidence is used to investigate the reasons for the extinction of Gigantopithecus, which fed on a pure C3 diet and lived in a forest habitat. It was clearly different from early hominins in South and East Africa, such as Australopithecus africanus, Paranthropus robustus and Paranthropus boisei, which had C4 diets. The extinction of Gigantopithecus was also related to the great changes of climate and environment of the Pleistocene, especially the last one million years, during which Homo became more and more prosperous and exerted great pressure on G. blacki. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]