Percorrer por autor "Mercader, Julio"
A mostrar 1 - 4 de 4
Resultados por página
Opções de ordenação
- Earliest evidence for intentional cremation of human remains in AfricaPublication . Cerezo-Román, Jessica I.; Sawchuk, Elizabeth; Schilt, Flora Cecilia; Bertacchi, Alex; Buckley, Gina; Chibisa, Edwin; Fahey, B. Patrick; Falchenberg, Sofia Gunilla Hedman; Kaliba, Potiphar; Kennett, Douglas J.; Mercader, Julio; Pargeter, Justin; Stock, Jay; Szymanski, Ryan; Thompson, Jessica C.Human cremation on an open pyre demands intensive labor, communal resources, and sensory exposures. We report the earliest evidence for intentional cremation in Africa, the oldest in situ adult pyre in the world, and one of only a few associated with hunter-gatherers. A large cremation feature at Hora 1 in Malawi dates to similar to 9500 years ago and contains the remains of a small, gracile adult with evidence for perimortem defleshing and postcremation manipulation. Subsequent revisiting of the site to build fires in the same place provided additional pyrotechnological spectacles. High-resolution, multiproxy reconstruction of the ritual associated with cremation and its subsequent deposition demonstrates complex mortuary practices among ancient African foraging groups with substantial social investment and use of natural landscape features as persistent mortuary monuments.
- Early human impacts and ecosystem reorganization in southern-central AfricaPublication . Thompson, Jessica C.; Wright, David K.; Ivory, Sarah J.; Choi, Jeong-Heon; Nightingale, Sheila; Mackay, Alex; Schilt, Flora; Otárola-Castillo, Erik; Mercader, Julio; Forman, Steven L.; Pietsch, Timothy; Cohen, Andrew S.; Arrowsmith, J. Ramón; Welling, Menno; Davis, Jacob; Schiery, Benjamin; Kaliba, Potiphar; Malijani, Oris; Blome, Margaret W.; O’Driscoll, Corey A.; Mentzer, Susan M.; Miller, Christopher; Heo, Seoyoung; Choi, Jungyu; Tembo, Joseph; Mapemba, Fredrick; Simengwa, Davie; Gomani-Chindebvu, ElizabethModern Homo sapiens engage in substantial ecosystem modification, but it is difficult to detect the origins or early consequences of these behaviors. Archaeological, geochronological, geomorphological, and paleoenvironmental data from northern Malawi document a changing relationship between forager presence, ecosystem organization, and alluvial fan formation in the Late Pleistocene. Dense concentrations of Middle Stone Age artifacts and alluvial fan systems formed after ca. 92 thousand years ago, within a paleoecological context with no analog in the preceding half-million-year record. Archaeological data and principal coordinates analysis indicate that early anthropogenic fire relaxed seasonal constraints on ignitions, influencing vegetation composition and erosion. This operated in tandem with climate-driven changes in precipitation to culminate in an ecological transition to an early, pre-agricultural anthropogenic landscape.
- Homo erectus adapted to steppe-desert climate extremes one million years agoPublication . Mercader, Julio; Akuku, Pamela; Boivin, Nicole; Camacho, Alfredo; Carter, Tristan; Clarke, Siobhán; Temprana, Arturo Cueva; Favreau, Julien; Galloway, Jennifer; Hernando, Raquel; Huang, Haiping; Hubbard, Stephen; Kaplan, Jed O.; Larter, Steve; Magohe, Stephen; Mohamed, Abdallah; Mwambwiga, Aloyce; Oladele, Ayoola; Petraglia, Michael; Roberts, Patrick; Saladié, Palmira; Shikoni, Abel; Silva, Renzo; Soto, María; Stricklin, Dominica; Mekonnen, Degsew; Zhao, Wenran; Durkin, PaulQuestions about when early members of the genus Homo adapted to extreme environments like deserts and rainforests have traditionally focused on Homo sapiens. Here, we present multidisciplinary evidence from Engaji Nanyori in Tanzania’s Oldupai Gorge, revealing that Homo erectus thrived in hyperarid landscapes one million years ago. Using biogeochemical analyses, precise chronometric dating, palaeoclimate simulations, biome modeling, fire history reconstructions, palaeobotanical studies, faunal assemblages, and archeological evidence, we reconstruct an environment dominated by semidesert shrubland. Despite these challenges, Homo erectus repeatedly occupied fluvial landscapes, leveraging water sources and ecological focal points to mitigate risk. These findings suggest archaic humans possessed an ecological flexibility previously attributed only to later hominins. This adaptability likely facilitated the expansion of Homo erectus into the arid regions of Africa and Eurasia, redefining their role as ecological generalists thriving in some of the most challenging landscapes of the Middle Pleistocene.
- Hunter-gatherer environments at the Late Pleistocene sites of Mwanganda's Village and Bruce, northern MalawiPublication . Schilt, Flora; Miller, Christopher E.; Wright, David K.; Mentzer, Susan M.; Mercader, Julio; Moss, Patrick; Choi, Jeong-Heon; Siljedal, Gunnar; Clarke, Siobhán; Mwambwiga, Aloyce; Thomas, Kelly; Barbieri, Alvise; Kaliba, Potiphar; Gomani-Chindebvu, Elizabeth; Thompson, Jessica C.Mwanganda's Village (MGD) and Bruce (BRU) are two open-air site complexes in northern Malawi with deposits dating to between 15 and 58 thousand years ago (ka) and containing Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic assemblages. The sites have been known since 1966 and 1965, respectively, but lacked chronometric and site formation data necessary for their interpretation. The area hosts a rich stone artifact record, eroding from and found within alluvial fan deposits exhibiting poor preservation of organic materials. Although this generally limits opportunities for site-based environmental reconstructions, MGD and BRU are located at the distal margins of the alluvial fan, where lacustrine lagoonal deposits were overprinted by a calcrete paleosol. This has created locally improved organic preservation and allowed us to obtain ecological data from pollen, phytoliths, and pedogenic carbonates, producing a regional-to site-scale environmental context for periods of site use and abandonment. Here, we integrate the ecological data into a detailed site formation history, based on field observations and micromorphology, supplemented by cathodoluminescence microscopy and mu-XRF. By comparing local, on-site environmental proxies with more regional indicators, we can better evaluate how MSA hunter-gatherers made decisions about the use of resources across the landscape. Our data indicate that while tree cover similar to modern miombo woodland and evergreen gallery forest prevailed at most times, MSA hunter-gatherers chose more locally open environments for activities that resulted in a lithic artifact record at multiple locations between 51 and 15 ka.(C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.