Percorrer por autor "Britton, Kate"
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- Reconstructing Late Pleistocene paleoclimate at the scale of human behavior: an example from the Neandertal occupation of La Ferrassie (France)Publication . Pederzani, Sarah; Aldeias, Vera; Dibble, Harold L.; Goldberg, Paul; Hublin, Jean-Jacques; Madelaine, Stéphane; McPherron, Shannon P.; Sandgathe, Dennis; Steele, Teresa E.; Turq, Alain; Britton, KateExploring the role of changing climates in human evolution is currently impeded by a scarcity of climatic information at the same temporal scale as the human behaviors documented in archaeological sites. This is mainly caused by high uncertainties in the chronometric dates used to correlate long-term climatic records with archaeological deposits. One solution is to generate climatic data directly from archaeological materials representing human behavior. Here we use oxygen isotope measurements of Bos/Bison tooth enamel to reconstruct summer and winter temperatures in the Late Pleistocene when Neandertals were using the site of La Ferrassie. Our results indicate that, despite the generally cold conditions of the broader period and despite direct evidence for cold features in certain sediments at the site, Neandertals used the site predominantly when climatic conditions were mild, similar to conditions in modern day France. We suggest that due to millennial scale climate variability, the periods of human activity and their climatic characteristics may not be representative of average conditions inferred from chronological correlations with long-term climatic records. These results highlight the importance of using direct routes, such as the high-resolution archives in tooth enamel from anthropogenically accumulated faunal assemblages, to establish climatic conditions at a human scale.
- Strontium isoscapes for provenance, mobility and migration: the way forward.Publication . Spies, Maximilian J.; Alblas, Amanda; Ambrose, Stanley H.; Barakat, Sarah; Barberena, Ramiro; Bataille, Clément; Bowen, Gabriel J.; Britton, Kate; Cawthra, Hayley; Diamond, Roger; Dosseto, Anthony; Evans, Jane A.; Fisher, Erich Christopher; Gray, Kerryn; Heddell-Stevens, Phoebe; Holt, Emily; James, Hannah F.; Janzen, Anneke; Le Corré, Mael; le Roux, Petrus; Lee-Thorp, Julia; Mackay, Alexander; McNeill, Patricia J.; Montgomery, Janet; Mugabe, Bedone; Oelze, Vicky M.; Pfab, Michèle; Richards, Michael P.; Samec, Celeste T.; Santana-Sagredo, Francisca; Serna, Alejandro; Stantis, Chris; Snoeck, Christophe; Stewart, Brian; Stuurman, Cameron; Tarrant, Damon; West, Adam G.; Winter-Schuh, Christine; Sealy, JudithStrontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) are increasingly used as a provenance tool in multiple disciplines. Application to biological materials requires knowledge of the variation in bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr across the landscape, potentially in the form of an isoscape (a quantitative model of spatial isotopic variability). This paper summarizes and provides advice on our current understanding of the main concerns in creating and interpreting isoscapes of bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr. Isoscape creation approaches include domain mapping, geostatistical contour mapping and machine learning, the last becoming more readily achievable with the availability of software packages. It is critically important to develop isoscapes at a resolution appropriate for addressing the research questions. Choice of sample materials depends on the research questions and availability: plants or fauna with small ranges are favoured, with some analytes (snails, soil leachates) posing challenges. Interpreting 87Sr/ 86Sr in biological tissues requires considering Sr metabolism and the timing of tissue formation, thus far underappreciated. The numerous sources of error involved in developing and applying isoscapes must be recognized to avoid over-interpreting data and spurious provenance precision. We hope this paper will help researchers investigating provenance, mobility, landscape use and migration to develop the most appropriate isoscapes for their purposes, and possible future use by others.
- Subarctic climate for the earliest Homo sapiens in EuropePublication . Pederzani, Sarah; Britton, Kate; Aldeias, Vera; Bourgon, Nicolas; Fewlass, Helen; Lauer, Tobias; McPherron, Shannon P.; Rezek, Zeljko; Sirakov, Nikolay; Smith, Geoff M.; Spasov, Rosen; Tran, N.-Han; Tsanova, Tsenka; Hublin, Jean-JacquesThe expansion of Homo sapiens across Eurasia marked a major milestone in human evolution that would eventually lead to our species being found across every continent. Current models propose that these expansions occurred only during episodes of warm climate, based on age correlations between archaeological and climatic records. Here, we obtain direct evidence for the temperatures faced by some of these humans through the oxygen isotope analysis of faunal remains from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria, the earliest clear record of H. sapiens in Europe. The results indicate that humans ∼45,000 years ago experienced subarctic climates with far colder climatic conditions than previously suggested. This demonstrates that the early presence of H. sapiens in Europe was not contingent on warm climates. Our results necessitate the revision of key models of human expansion and highlight the need for a less deterministic role of climate in the study of our evolutionary history.