Browsing by Author "Dibble, Harold L."
Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- How did hominins adapt to Ice Age Europe without fire?Publication . Dibble, Harold L.; Abodolahzadeh, Aylar; Aldeias, Vera; Goldberg, Paul; McPherron, Shannon P.; Sandgathe, Dennis M.Analyses of archaeological material recovered from several Middle Paleolithic sites in southwest France have provided strong corroborating data on Neanderthal use of fire. Both direct and indirect data show that Neanderthals in this region were frequently and/or intensively using fire during warmer periods, but such evidence declines significantly in occupations that took place during colder periods. One possible explanation for this pattern is that it reflects the inability of Western European Neanderthals to make fire, simply because natural sources of fire occur much more frequently during warmer climatic periods. Regardless of the explanation, the long periods of diminished evidence of fire shows that, unlike modern humans, these hominins were not obligate fire users, and this fact in itself raises important questions of how they adapted, physiologically and/or technologically, to the generally harsh glacial conditions of the middle latitude of Europe and to reduced energy returns typical of raw food. As a corollary, it also raises questions regarding their need for and use of fire during the warmer periods.
- How heat alters underlying deposits and implications for archaeological fire features: A controlled experimentPublication . Aldeias, Vera; Dibble, Harold L.; Sandgathe, Dennis; Goldberg, Paul; McPherron, Shannon J. P.While it is true that the use of fire is undoubtedly an important behavioral trait, fire can also leave important traces in archaeological deposits, including altering previously deposited sediments and artifacts. The set of controlled experiments reported here do not focus on fire per se, but rather on the effects of some of the most important variables underlying the transfer of heat to subsurface sediments. These variables, including temperature, duration, sediment type, moisture, and mineralogy, are altered here in ways that essentially bracket the range of conditions under which past fires may have existed. The results show that sediments as much as 10 cm directly below a heat source routinely reach temperatures of 200 degrees C, with higher temperatures and greater depth of heat transfer possible with longer durations or higher surface temperatures. One of the implications of these results is that a surface can produce substantial thermal-alterations of archaeological artifacts and sediments deposited much earlier in the sequence. Likewise, there are significant implications for the analyses and chronometric dating of thermally altered sediments and burned artifacts. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Measuring spatial structure in time-averaged deposits insights from Roc de Marsal, FrancePublication . Reeves, Jonathan S.; McPherron, Shannon P.; Aldeias, Vera; Dibble, Harold L.; Goldberg, Paul; Sandgathe, Dennis; Turq, AlainThe use of space, both at the landscape and the site level, is considered an important aspect of hominin adaptations that changed through time. At the site level, spatial analyses are typically conducted on deposits thought to have a high degree of temporal resolution. Sites with highly time-averaged deposits are viewed as inferior for these analyses because repeated site visits obscure individual behavioral events. To the contrary, here, we take the view that behaviors that repeat themselves in a spatially structured way through time are exactly the kinds of behaviors that are potentially significant at an evolutionary timescale. In this framework, time averaging is seen not as a hindrance but rather as a necessary condition for viewing meaningful behavior. To test whether such patterning is visible in time-averaged deposits, we use spatial statistics to analyze a number of indices designed to measure lithic production, use and discard behaviors in a multi-layer, late Neandertal cave site in southwest France. We find that indeed some such patterning does exist, and thus sites with highly time-averaged deposits have the potential to contribute to our understanding of how hominin use of space varied through time. This is useful because a great many archaeological sites have highly time-average deposits. Interpreting the spatial patterning will likely require modeling to create expectations in time-averaged and likely emergent contexts such as these.
- Neanderthal plant use and pyrotechnology: phytolith analysis from Roc de Marsal, FrancePublication . Wroth, Kristen; Cabanes, Dan; Marston, John M.; Aldeias, Vera; Sandgathe, Dennis; Turq, Alain; Goldberg, Paul; Dibble, Harold L.The plant component of Neanderthal subsistence and technology is not well documented, partially due to the preservation constraints of macrobotanical components. Phytoliths, however, are preserved even when other plant remains have decayed and so provide evidence for Neanderthal plant use and the environmental context of archaeological sites. Phytolith assemblages from Roc de Marsal, a Middle Paleolithic cave site in SW France, provide new insight into the relationship between Neanderthals and plant resources. Ninety-seven samples from all archaeological units and 18 control samples are analyzed. Phytoliths from the wood and bark of dicotyledonous plants are the most prevalent, but there is also a significant proportion of grass phytoliths in many samples. Phytolith densities are much greater in earlier layers, which is likely related to the presence of combustion features in those layers. These phytoliths indicate a warmer, wetter climate, whereas phytoliths from upper layers indicate a cooler, drier environment. Phytoliths recovered from combustion features indicate that wood was the primary plant fuel source, while grasses may have been used as surface preparations.
- 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.
- A worked bone assemblage from 120,000–90,000 year old deposits at Contrebandiers Cave, Atlantic Coast, MoroccoPublication . Hallett, Emily Y.; Marean, Curtis W.; Steele, Teresa E.; Álvarez-Fernández, Esteban; Jacobs, Zenobia; Cerasoni, Jacopo Niccolò; Aldeias, Vera; Scerri, Eleanor M.L.; Olszewski, Deborah I.; El Hajraoui, Mohamed Abdeljalil; Dibble, Harold L.The emergence of Homo sapiens in Pleistocene Africa is associated with a pro found reconfiguration of technology. Symbolic expression and personal orna mentation, new tool forms, and regional technological traditions are widely recognized as the earliest indicators of complex culture and cognition in humans. Here we describe a bone tool tradition from Contrebandiers Cave on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, dated between 120,000–90,000 years ago. The bone tools were produced for different activities, including likely leather and fur working, and were found in association with carnivore remains that were possibly skinned for fur. A cetacean tooth tip bears what is likely a combination of anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic modification and shows the use of a marine mammal tooth by early humans. The evidence from Contrebandiers Cave demonstrates that the pan-African emergence of complex culture included the use of multiple and diverse materials for specialized tool manufacture.