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This paper introduces the aims and scope of the RESET project (. RESponse of humans to abrupt Environmental Transitions), a programme of research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) between 2008 and 2013; it also provides the context and rationale for papers included in a special volume of Quaternary Science Reviews that report some of the project's findings. RESET examined the chronological and correlation methods employed to establish causal links between the timing of abrupt environmental transitions (AETs) on the one hand, and of human dispersal and development on the other, with a focus on the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic periods. The period of interest is the Last Glacial cycle and the early Holocene (c. 100-8 ka), during which time a number of pronounced AETs occurred. A long-running topic of debate is the degree to which human history in Europe and the Mediterranean region during the Palaeolithic was shaped by these AETs, but this has proved difficult to assess because of poor dating control. In an attempt to move the science forward, RESET examined the potential that tephra isochrons, and in particular non-visible ash layers (cryptotephras), might offer for synchronising palaeo-records with a greater degree of finesse. New tephrostratigraphical data generated by the project augment previously-established tephra frameworks for the region, and underpin a more evolved tephra 'lattice' that links palaeo-records between Greenland, the European mainland, sub-marine sequences in the Mediterranean and North Africa. The paper also outlines the significance of other contributions to this special volume: collectively, these illustrate how the lattice was constructed, how it links with cognate tephra research in Europe and elsewhere, and how the evidence of tephra isochrons is beginning to challenge long-held views about the impacts of environmental change on humans during the Palaeolithic. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd., RESET was funded through Consortium Grants awarded by the Natural Environment Research Council, UK, to a collaborating team drawn from four institutions: Royal Holloway University of London (grant reference NE/E015905/1), the Natural History Museum, London (NE/E015913/1), Oxford University (NE/E015670/1) and the University of Southampton, including the National Oceanography Centre (NE/01531X/1). The authors also wish to record their deep gratitude to four members of the scientific community who formed a consultative advisory panel during the lifetime of the RESET project: Professor Barbara Wohlfarth (Stockholm University), Professor Jørgen Peder Steffensen (Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen), Dr. Martin Street (Romisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Neuwied) and Professor Clive Oppenheimer (Cambridge University). They provided excellent advice at key stages of the work, which we greatly valued. We also thank Jenny Kynaston (Geography Department, Royal Holloway) for construction of several of the figures in this paper, and Debbie Barrett (Elsevier) and Colin Murray Wallace (Editor-in-Chief, QSR) for their considerable assistance in the production of this special volume.

Rapport de diagnostic archéologique édité par l'INRAP Centre-Ile-de-France, DRAC Centre, Orléans en 2009. 86 p.- 1 pl. h.- t.

Rapport de diagnostic archéologique édité par l'INRAP Centre-Ile-de-France, DRAC Centre, Orléans en 2009. 40 p.

Ratione: Non-enzymatic deamidation accumulates in aging tissues in vivo and has been proposed to be potentially useful as a molecular clock. The process continues post mortem, and here we explore the increase in levels of deamidation in archaeological collagen, as measured during Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) analysis. Methods: With the high sensitivity of current generation mass spectrometers, ZooMS provides a non-destructive and highly cost-effective method to characterise collagen peptides. Deamidation can be detected by mass spectrometry as a +0.984 Da mass shift; therefore, aside from its original purpose, peptide mass-fingerprinting for bone identification, ZooMS concurrently yields a 'thermal indicator' of the samples. RESULTS: By analysis of conventional ZooMS spectra, we determined the deamidation rate for glutamine residues in 911 bone collagen samples from 50 sites, with ages varying from medieval to Palaeolithic. The degree of deamidation was compared to diagenetic parameters and nearby sequence properties. CONCLUSIONS: The extent of deamidation was found to be influenced more by burial conditions and thermal age than, for example, chronological age, the extent of bioerosion or crystallinity. The method lends itself mostly to screening heterogenic deposits of bone to identify outliers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The authors and three students met for workshops on several occasions in Cape Town and Stellenbosch with the goal of defining a taxonomic system for chipped stone artefacts that can be applied to materials from the Early, Middle and Later Stone Age. The motivation for defining a 'unified taxonomy' stems from the need to develop a system for classifying multicomponent surface assemblages. The proposed taxonomy revises southern African systems by applying ideas and methods from European approaches to lithic technology. Given that much confusion exists on the classification of cores and core reduction, the lithic workshops focused on this class of artefact. Most of the variation encountered when examining material from Anyskop, Blombos, Geelbek, Hollow Rock Shelter and Klasies River Mouth could be placed within the taxa of Inclined, Parallel and Platform cores. These categories form the basis of the proposed taxonomy with the additional taxa of Initial, Multidirectional, Indeterminate Broken, Bipolar and Other being necessary for a small proportion of the cores that fall outside the range of the three main taxa. Blind tests using assemblages of cores from Blombos, Geelbek and Anyskop yielded a satisfactory degree of reproducibility and lend credibility to the proposed taxonomy. This paper also considers other key variables of cores including: the morphology of end products, degree of reduction, numbers of striking and removal surfaces, and degree of platform preparation.

Focuses on the evolution of human behavior and dispersal in Egypt. Examination on the genetic relationship of groups of people living in the area; Importance of the study of stone artifacts the explain the origins of human behavior; Assumption on the routes taken by humans to disperse in the area.

The dynamics of the transition between late Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans (AMHs) are the subject of intense debate: the location and duration of the coexistence of these two hominins, as well as their relation and cultural exchanges that could have occurred during this transitional period also known as the Middle Palaeolithic to Upper Palaeolithic Transition⁠.Timing these hominins is crucial in archaeology and paleoanthropology⁠. The precise chronological position of the different cultural facies, as well as the human remains associated with them, are therefore key elements that delineate the chronological framework within which Neanderthals and AMHs could have interacted⁠. While there is increasing evidence of admixture and co-existence of the two hominin species in central and eastern Europe, Belgium might show a different scenario: radiocarbon analyses, using the compound specific radiocarbon dating approach (CSRA) made on bone implements related to the Late Mousterian and the Early Aurignacian as well as late Neanderthal remains, highlight a hiatus in the occupation of the territory⁠. Our new data tend to confirm that Neanderthals and AMHs did not coexist in this region⁠. It seems that in northwest Europe, Neanderthals evolved and went extinct without any influence from modern humans⁠.

Palaeolithic faunal assemblages provide a wealth of information, notably on paleoenvironment, site formation and past human subsistence strategies. However, obtaining a secure interpretation requires the comprehensive taxonomic identification of faunal remains, traditionally done through visual morphological comparison. Due to high fragmentation, bone morphology is often insufficient to taxonomically identify a large proportion of faunal assemblages. Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) gives the opportunity to identify biological markers preserved in previously undiagnostic fragmentary or worked remains. This dissertation combines the analyses of bone surface modifications with biomolecular analyses in order to investigate the relationship between faunal composition and bone fragmentation, and to assess hominin subsistence behaviour through large-scale applications of untargeted ZooMS screenings. This study explores the synthesis and analysis of comparable data, for both the morphologically identifiable and unidentifiable portion of the same faunal assemblages, by investigating bone assemblages from European sites spanning the arrival of Homo sapiens within territories occupied by the last Neanderthals such as Fumane Cave (Italy), Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria), La Ferrassie and Les Cottés (France). In addition, the recent development of non-destructive proteomic extraction techniques, notably on fragmented Palaeolithic worked bones, required a controlled sampling experiment to determine how sampling techniques such as the eraser extraction method affect ancient bone surfaces at a microscopic level. Through the combination of methods and the integration of complementary datasets, this dissertation demonstrates the potential of the inclusion of ancient protein analysis within the framework of zooarchaeological analysis at Palaeolithic sites.

This dissertation takes a technological approach to ceramic production and provides a fine-grained view of the circum-Caribbean region. It discusses the usefulness of the chaîne opératoire methodology, together with the community of practice theory, as models to potentially explore questions related to the boundedness and cultural relations of peoples during the precolonial, colonial and postcolonial periods. Each chapter tackles diverse aspects of the manufacturing process, from the procurement of the raw materials to the forming stage and provide different cases of how methodologies need to be tailored to answer specific research questions. Geochemical and petrographic analysis combined with macro and micro-observations of the ceramic materials from different sites in Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico clarify the human-environment interactions and socio-cultural aspects of communities in precolonial times, and during the colonial and postcolonial periods.

This dissertation takes a technological approach to ceramic production and provides a fine-grained view of the circum-Caribbean region. It discusses the usefulness of the chaîne opératoire methodology, together with the community of practice theory, as models to potentially explore questions related to the boundedness and cultural relations of peoples during the precolonial, colonial and postcolonial periods. Each chapter tackles diverse aspects of the manufacturing process, from the procurement of the raw materials to the forming stage and provide different cases of how methodologies need to be tailored to answer specific research questions. Geochemical and petrographic analysis combined with macro and micro-observations of the ceramic materials from different sites in Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico clarify the human-environment interactions and socio-cultural aspects of communities in precolonial times, and during the colonial and postcolonial periods.

The Iberian Peninsula has been central to the discussion as it was considered to be a 'last refuge' for the species at a time when H. sapiens occupation spread throughout Europe. Much speculation has centred around the idea that extreme climate fluctuations during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 like Heinrich Stadial 4 (HS-4) were possible drivers for their disappearance. In other words, the extreme warm / cold fluctuations created an uninhabitable setting for Neanderthals, helping the dispersal of H. Sapiens intoIberia. These arguments were originally based on marine and ice core records of far-reaching origin that could provide little information at the local level. At the time this evidence was sufficient, as no other records were available. In recent years, studies have presented terrestrial palaeoclimate records from Iberia during the last glacial, but more are required to adequately understand the local response to Atlantic marine influences. Moreover, few terrestrial records are connected to known archaeological sites. The research presented in this thesis provides a more comprehensive understanding of palaeoclimate change during the Last Glacial Period and the potential implications for Neanderthal / H. sapiens movements in Iberian Peninsula. To achieve this, we examine the importance of a robust and direct U-Th chronology in conjunction with establishing local, terrestrial palaeoclimate records for the coastal Iberian Peninsula during the Holocene and Last Glacial Period.

Woolly mammoth fossils on an island where the species eventually dies out, human and animal fossils on the bottom of the North Sea, remains of Siberian unicorns and exceptionally well-preserved bones from 300,000 years ago from the famous Schöningen archaeological site in Germany: these are the main topics discussed in this thesis.In this dissertation, a vast amount of isotope (d13C and d15N) data from bulk collagen of Quaternary mammalian fossils are presented and discussed. Most of these data are measured at the Centre for Isotope Research (CIO), Groningen (n > 400). The dataset consists of samples from various localities within Eurasia and are taken from human fossils, but mainly from fossils of various animal taxa including extinct species. Many of these faunal species belong to the typical ‘Mammoth steppe fauna’.The results shed light on dietary and habitat characteristics of these animals and hominins through time and space, often during episodes of dramatic climate change. Overall, this thesis, a study of stable isotope data from mammalian fossils, contributes to our understanding of ecological conditions during the Pleistocene / Early Holocene in Eurasia.

Throughout northern Europe, thousands of burial mounds were erected in the third millennium BCE. Starting in the Corded Ware culture, individual people were being buried underneath these mounds, often equipped with an almost rigid set of grave goods. This practice continued in the second half of the third millennium BCE with the start of the Bell Beaker phenomenon. In large parts of Europe, a ‘typical’ set of objects was placed in graves, known as the ‘Bell Beaker package’. This book focusses on the significance and meaning of these Late Neolithic graves. Why were people buried in a seemingly standardized manner, what did this signify and what does this reveal about these individuals, their role in society, their cultural identity and the people that buried them? By performing in-depth analyses of all the individual grave goods from Dutch graves, which includes use-wear analysis and experiments, the biography of grave goods is explored. How were they made, used and discarded? Subsequently the nature of these graves themselves are explored as contexts of deposition, and how these are part of a much wider ‘sacrificial landscape’. A novel and comprehensive interpretation is presented that shows how the objects from graves were connected with travel, drinking ceremonies and maintaining long-distance relationships.

Morphometric and morphological differences have been used extensively in the past to study domestication of the wolf and the origin of dogs. Certainly before genetic testing was performed, these methods were the only means to diverge both groups. But still now, when aDNA cannot be extracted, morphometry and morphology are still important study methods to discern between wolves and dogs.Many of the historically claimed differences were based on studying rather low numbers of Specimens, and on comparisons with genetically isolated groups of dogs or breeds that had anatomical variants which diverge from the mean. This led to several claimed differences that needed rigorous re-evaluated, by investigating larger groups of specimens, both dogs and wolves, and more importantly, and if possible, Pleistocene wolves and the oldest archaeological dogs.We re-evaluated all important morphological and morphometric criteria published in the literature. Most are related to oral, mandibular and skull differences, but also difference in stature was reported. From all criteria we re-tested very few proved to be valuable. And those that show a difference, can often only be used to a limited extend, as only the extremes of these criteria are non-overlapping between groups.

This study presents an agent-based simulation model exploring the patterns of presence and absence of Late Pleistocene Neanderthals in western Europe. HomininSpace implements a parameterized generic demographic and social model of hominin dispersal while avoiding parameter value biases and explicitly modelled handicaps. Models are simulated through time within a high-resolution environment where reconstructed temperatures and precipitation levels influence the carrying capacity of the landscape. Model parameter values are assigned and varied automatically while optimizing the match with Neanderthal archaeology using a Genetic Algorithm (GA) inspired by the processes of natural selection. The system is able to traverse the huge parameter space that is created by the complete set of all possible parameter value combinations to find those values that will result in a simulation that matches well with archaeological data in the form of radiometrically obtained presence data.

Humans have long had an ambiguous relationship with physical activity. From the Greek idolization of the young athlete, over the condescending attitudes towards manual labor, to Olympic performers who push their bodies beyond all limits for prestige. This fascination with how we use our bodies extends into the questions we ask about past societies.This dissertation examines how we can reconstruct physical activity by looking at variations in the shape of muscle attachment sites ( ‘entheses’) on the human skeleton. It evaluates two post-medieval contexts; rural Middenbeemster and urban Aalst. Findings show societal differences in the sexual division of labor, but also remind us not to over-simplify the lives of people in the past, nor underestimate the complexity of the human body and its varied response to strain.The dissertation also broaches an entirely new field of study; variation in appearance of entheses in growing, individuals. By developing a standardized method, it lies the foundation for research into activity reconstruction in children from both archaeological and forensic settings.Ultimately, it provides the reader with a comprehensive study of the potential and limitations of entheses for activity reconstruction. In doing so, it presents a glimpse into life in the past.

In this provocative study, Shumon T. Hussain engages with the long-standing issue of French-Anglophone research conflicts in Palaeolithic archaeology. By examining a range of well-selected case studies and discursive contexts, the author shows that French and Anglophone approaches in lithic analysis are anchored in opposing cognitive frameworks. He argues that the mainstays of this division can be elucidated by calling upon the marginalised work of American philosopher Stephen C. Pepper, who captured the totality of credible Western thought in terms of four equitable world hypotheses. Based upon his insights, the dissertation demonstrates that French lithic research gravitates towards ‘contextualistic’ and ‘organicistic’ modes of inquiry, while Anglophone approaches tend to rely on ‘formistic’ and ‘mechanistic’ styles of reasoning. Hussain carefully lays out the implications of this condition for mutual understanding and critical practice. He contends that the French-Anglophone divide can only be overcome if scholars endorse scientific pluralism and begin to seriously take into consideration both the strengths and shortcomings of different cognitive frameworks, including their own.

The central question of this thesis is: What drives late Middle Paleolithic stone artifact variability? In its attempt to answer this question, this thesis is a contribution to understanding variability within and between late Middle Paleolithic assemblages of the European Plain. The selected research area is rich in late Middle Paleolithic open-air sites but up to now lacking detailed quantitative comparisons between them. This thesis uses standardized, more quantitative methods to analyze stone tool variability across techno-complexes. Stone artifact assemblages where analyzed based on a detailed attribute analysis and compared using multivariate methods, like Principal Component Analysis and Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling. Additionally, methods from 3D geometric morphometrics where applied for the analysis of some individual tool types. The central finding of the studies presented in this thesis is that most of the variability observed in the record is not related to typo-technological classification, and it is not necessarily site-specific nor geographical. The variability can be related to raw materials, but it can also be related to the varying application of similar methods in blank and tool production. The analyses of individual tools suggest further that certain tool concepts, like the bifacial Keilmesser are not restricted to bifacial tools only.

The research contained in this dissertation explores the origins of fire making in prehistory, focusing primarily on the fire use practices and fire production capacities of Neandertals. The dissertation is comprised of four peer-reviewed articles published in the journals Quaternary International, PLoS ONE, Journal of Archaeological Science and Scientific Reports, respectively, which are flanked by an introductory and synthesis chapter. The early chapters confront the debate surrounding the prevalence of fire use by Neandertals and discuss avenues by which we, as archaeologists, can better understand how fire use manifests in the Palaeolithic archaeological record. The latter chapters seek to provide a means for identifying artefactual evidence for fire making by Neandertals, ultimately presenting a series of French Middle Palaeolithic tools that exhibit use traces suggesting they were employed as fire starters, making these the earliest evidence for the regular production of fire by humans currently known.

Although it has previously been shown that Neanderthals contributed DNA to modern humans(1,2), not much is known about the genetic diversity of Neanderthals or the relationship between late Neanderthal populations at the time at which their last interactions with early modern humans occurred and before they eventually disappeared. Our ability to retrieve DNA from a larger number of Neanderthal individuals has been limited by poor preservation of endogenous DNA(3) and contamination of Neanderthal skeletal remains by large amounts of microbial and present-day human DNA(3–5). Here we use hypochlorite treatment(6) of as little as 9 mg of bone or tooth powder to generate between 1- and 2.7-fold genomic coverage of five Neanderthals who lived around 39,000 to 47,000 years ago (that is, late Neanderthals), thereby doubling the number of Neanderthals for which genome sequences are available. Genetic similarity among late Neanderthals is well predicted by their geographical location, and comparison to the genome of an older Neanderthal from the Caucasus(2,7) indicates that a population turnover is likely to have occurred, either in the Caucasus or throughout Europe, towards the end of Neanderthal history. We find that the bulk of Neanderthal gene flow into early modern humans originated from one or more source populations that diverged from the Neanderthals that were studied here at least 70,000 years ago, but after they split from a previously sequenced Neanderthal from Siberia(2) around 150,000 years ago. Although four of the Neanderthals studied here post-date the putative arrival of early modern humans into Europe, we do not detect any recent gene flow from early modern humans in their ancestry.

The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Europe witnesses the local replacement of Neanderthals by Anatomically Modern Humans. During this period several “transitional” technocomplexes are present that seem to combine behavioural characteristics from both the preceding Middle and following Upper Palaeolithic. These technocomplexes therefore play a critical role in our understanding of Neanderthal behavior, cognition and extinction, the dispersal of AMHs into Europe, and the interactions between Neanderthals and AMHs. Unfortunately, biological remains of the hominins responsible for the transitional technocomplexes are notoriously scarce. This dissertation proposes to utilize recent advances in mass spectrometry to identify additional hominin specimens through ZooMS screening and shotgun proteomics. Novel approaches towards de novo/error-tolerant proteomic analysis in Pleistocene contexts were developed and tested, allowing phylogenetic analysis of ancient protein sequences from now-extinct Mammalian species and hominin populations. ZooMS screening is shown to be highly successful for all included Châtelperronian sites. The discovery of additional hominin specimens at one archaeological site allowed demonstrating that ancient protein sequences can be used to differentiate between hominin populations, in this case indicating a Neanderthal affiliation. As a result, palaeoproteomics now allows studying the evolutionary relationships between hominin individuals based on ancient protein sequences.

International audience; The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition is the key period for our understanding of Neanderthal and modern human interactions in Europe. The site of Les Cottés in south-west France is one of the rare sites with a complete and well defined sequence covering this transition period. We undertook an extensive radiocarbon dating program on mammal bone which allows us to propose a chronological framework of five distinct phases dating from the Mousterian to the Early Aurignacian at this site. We found that the Mousterian and Châtelperronian industries are separated from the overlying Protoaurignacian by a gap of approximately 1000 calendar years. Based on a comparison with Upper Paleolithic sites in Europe we see an overlap in the ages of Châtelperronian industries and Aurignacian lithic assemblages, which are usually associated with Anatomical Modern Humans, which is consistent with an acculturation at distance model for these late Neanderthals. The Proto and Early Aurignacian appear contemporaneous indicating that this transition was rapid in this region. Anatomically Modern Humans are present at the site of Les Cottés at least at 39,500 cal BP roughly coincident with the onset of the cold phase Heinrich 4.

Modern humans replaced Neandertals ∼40,000 y ago. Close to the time of replacement, Neandertals show behaviors similar to those of the modern humans arriving into Europe, including the use of specialized bone tools, body ornaments, and small blades. It is highly debated whether these modern behaviors developed before or as a result of contact with modern humans. Here we report the identification of a type of specialized bone tool, lissoir , previously only associated with modern humans. The microwear preserved on one of these lissoir is consistent with the use of lissoir in modern times to obtain supple, lustrous, and more impermeable hides. These tools are from a Neandertal context proceeding the replacement period and are the oldest specialized bone tools in Europe. As such, they are either a demonstration of independent invention by Neandertals or an indication that modern humans started influencing European Neandertals much earlier than previously believed. Because these finds clearly predate the oldest known age for the use of similar objects in Europe by anatomically modern humans, they could also be evidence for cultural diffusion from Neandertals to modern humans.