The way that we view data as archaeologists is under constant review, especially in the field of human evolution and our processes of adaptation. An example of this is the concern to not take...Show moreThe way that we view data as archaeologists is under constant review, especially in the field of human evolution and our processes of adaptation. An example of this is the concern to not take absence of evidence as evidence of absence. Further to this we are aware in each archaeological situation there is a chance that we may only ever discover a handful of pieces to the puzzle. It is in this current setting that we are becoming increasingly careful of our interpretations of negative evidence and of how preservation levels affect a record and how it is researched. The merits of investigating sites and landscapes that are yet to produce hominin fossils are being acknowledged. In the spirit of taking advantage of this current state of affairs, it is interesting to ask the question what can ‘non-archaeological’ sites or archaeologically “sterile” landscapes (as in those that are yet to produce signals of hominin presence), or more in general, negative evidence - tell us, if anything, about hominin biogeographic range edges? To investigate this, I ask the question could the north-western edge of the Neandertal biogeographic range as we now think we know it, ever have been extended westwards, into Ireland? There is evidence of a Neandertal presence in Wales, at 230kya, while the first recorded human presence in Ireland is at 12,5kya only. The likelihood of a former Neandertal presence in Ireland is investigated here. The question is approached three fold and focuses on 1) the available pathways to Ireland, 2) the possibilities for a hominin presence in terms of the associated environments and 3) the preservation of Pleistocene deposits which might have encased traces of Pleistocene hominin activities. Britain’s human occupation history is discussed in terms of the location of a source population and possible routes to Ireland via the Irish Sea. Environmental reconstructions relay a climate and environment that is clement at times and one that was capable of supporting a range of mid- to large-sized mammals. Following glacial events some species of flora and fauna were able to recolonize the area. Repeated successful colonization by a variety of mammals has led to suggestions that hominins could have colonized the island too. Severe and repeated glacial action however has removed the majority of Pleistocene deposits from Ireland, leaving the record damaged and extremely limited, and such suggestions difficult to test. At first glance the interpretation of the absence of Neandertal traces in Ireland is not a clear cut issue. There is an available source population, a range of species have colonized and recolonized the area and there is an environment that at times is far from harsh. Leaving Neandertal preference or lack of necessity to one side, the evidence as it stands does not give a definitive reason that their range could not have, even briefly, extended westwards into Ireland. The lack of a Neandertal signal could be put down to an issue of tolerances and preferences or to the lack of preserved sediments and research. This study concludes however that the physical barrier of the Irish Sea appears to be the cause of the absence of a Neandertal presence in Ireland, further palaeogeographic reconstructions of the Irish Sea as well as fieldwork need to be undertaken to test this interpretation in the future. This thesis highlights the difficulties of investigating areas with extremely limited evidence and damaged archaeological records but also gives reasons why we should do it anyway.Show less
In this thesis I examine the ethnographic record of recent arid-zone Australian hunter-gatherers to consider how prehistoric populations may have responded to climate change in similar climatic and...Show moreIn this thesis I examine the ethnographic record of recent arid-zone Australian hunter-gatherers to consider how prehistoric populations may have responded to climate change in similar climatic and ecological settings. The archaeological record of population presence and absence indicates that pulses of territorial abandonment and reoccupation correspond with periods of significant climatic variability, with the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the on-set of modern El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycles during the mid-Holocene being identified as significant periods of increased environmental stress and associated habitat abandonment. However modelling such population processes at a fine-grained level is constrained by the differential preservation of archaeological material, dating limitations, issues with chronological control at some sites, and differences in research intensity. As a result the archaeological record is unclear as to whether such population processes involved habitat tracking to more favourable areas, or alternatively resulted in extinction of local groups in areas that became unviable for continued occupation. My thesis addresses this lack of clarity by relating recent hunter-gatherer drought responses to prehistoric population process evident from the archaeological record. I start with an examination of the Arandic and Western Desert societies to provide a background for establishing how desert hunter-gather groups responded to serious drought in the recent past. I look at the cultural and economic strategies developed by these tribal groups in response to distinct but connected environments, and discuss how differences in social organisation between groups occupying distinct ecological regions shaped drought responses. I investigate the socio-cultural and behavioural mechanisms of desert hunter-gatherers that facilitated habitat tracking and develop a framework based on behavioural ecology models to consider how subsistence and mobility strategies enabled range shifts to neighbouring areas during periods of resource depletion. Where drought forced local group extinction is evident, I identify the constraining factors acting on populations that limited their capacity to respond to changing environmental conditions. I argue that water availability is the major constraint to occupation of arid environments, with access to reliable water sources and foraging areas available from water points being a precondition of occupation for both recent and prehistoric arid-zone hunter-gatherers and the main factor limiting population distribution. I propose that extensive social and economic networks linking groups, who were dependent on one another for access to water and resources, were crucial for successful occupation of the Australian desert during the historical period and relied on critical population size, particularly during periods of climatic instability. While the precise social organisation and subsistence strategies employed by prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups is invisible in the archaeological record, I hypothesise that such social and economic networks were likely equally crucial to the survival of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. In the event that critical population size dropped below the threshold for maintaining such networks, continued occupation of marginal environments was unviable.Show less
The Trinil site became famous through the discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus, now called Homo erectus, in 1891 by Dubois. It is considered as an important starting point in the history of...Show moreThe Trinil site became famous through the discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus, now called Homo erectus, in 1891 by Dubois. It is considered as an important starting point in the history of paleoanthropology and therefore a key site for the study of the evolution of humankind. After Dubois finished his excavations in 1900, it was Selenka in 1907 who tried to confirm the important findings by additional excavations at the same site. Later research by Soeradi et al. (1985) and recently by Joordensand colleagues. (2009, 2015), showed that the site still is interesting and can evoke unresolved questions concerning dating of the first hominins on Java as well as their environmental contexts. The main goal of this thesis was to assess the potential the site still may have for future paleoanthropological research, in order to solve still remaining questions on dating and the biotic and abiotic environment of early hominins at Trinil. Therefore the existing (mainly published) excavation data produced by the teams of Dubois and Selenka were summarized, and the site locations were contextualized within a modern geographical map. Historical data, extant photographic material and a 2014 field trip to the location form the core material for this thesis. Based on these data it can be concluded that although most of the site is under water, still some edge structures of the excavations of Dubois and Selenka are visible today. It also can be concluded that it is possible to reconstruct the excavation areas and georeference them on a recent map. However the suggested georeferencing of the trenches has to be confirmed by additional studies at location. The evaluation of the archaeological potential of the Trinil are to access the fossil containing layer, the so called ‘Hauptknochenschicht’ (HK layer), is based on the fieldwork carried out by Dubois and Selenka, and on the geomorphological and geological maps produced by Soeradi et al. (1985). From this it can be concluded that the left bank south of the Dubois and Selenka excavations is the most promising area. Also the left bank directly east of the excavation pits has a reasonable potential. Studying the right bank east of the excavation pits might be interesting as no data are available yet. As there are still unresolved questions concerning the site’s lithostratigraphy, the age of the Trinil fauna, including the Homo erectus material, and the homogeneity of the HK layer, new archaeological/paleoanthropological studies in collaboration with the National Centre of Archaeology in Indonesia are promising and have to be encouragedShow less
Decades of research on the role and frequency of fire use in human evolution have only yielded a blurred understanding of the chronology of anthropogenic fire practise. This predicament has by and...Show moreDecades of research on the role and frequency of fire use in human evolution have only yielded a blurred understanding of the chronology of anthropogenic fire practise. This predicament has by and large resulted from an ambiguous archaeological record, issues of preservation of fire residues, as well as undefined frameworks for the scientific study of anthropogenic fire. In fact, besides stirring scholarly debates that in many ways has produced more heat than light, very little actual progress has been made in the last decade with regards to the general understanding of when and where various fire practices (i.e. controlled, opportunistic, and habitual) have emerged. Instead, variable length chronologies have been developed in which various researchers read and interpret the same evidence of fire in a variety of ways. This thesis sets out to add some clarity to the debate by 1) providing a comparative analysis of the various chronologies, with a focus on testing the strengths and weaknesses of the shorter chronologies against the wider background of fire evidence, i.e. the long chronologies; 2) by examining major challenges hindering any considerable progress in establishing a sound and agreed upon chronological framework for fire use and its subsequent production during the Pleistocene Period; and 3) by providing practical solutions and suggestions on directions for future research.Show less
The estimated body sizes of hominin individuals and the averages per species are used in palaeoanthropological research to gain more insight in the biology, ecology and life history of Homo erectus...Show moreThe estimated body sizes of hominin individuals and the averages per species are used in palaeoanthropological research to gain more insight in the biology, ecology and life history of Homo erectus (Aiello and Key 2002; Foley 1987; McHenry and Coffing 2000). For such inferences to be made, body size needs to be estimated reliably and accurately. The methods that are used in body stature estimation by the use of femur length are evaluated in this thesis. For this evaluation, 110 stature estimation equations for a range of modern human populations were collected. These equations were used for the calculation of stature estimates for 25 hominin fossils with a range of femur lengths. Such an body stature estimate seems like an exact number, but the real estimate must be a range in order to incorporate the probable error. The error is caused by individual factors such as environmental influences during ontogeny, also at play in modern humans (Hauser et al. 2005), the unknown adaptations of the population (e.g., climatic Ruff (1994), energetic Kurki et al. 2008)) and the unknown amount of error arising from the application of an equation based on one species to another. Due to the error that is unknown, a confidence interval is hard to calculate but must be wide at the same time. This makes it difficult to use such estimates in a biologically relevant manner, for example for further calculations on a species' energetics (Smith 1996). The researchers making such calculations will have to address these issues and the danger of compound error. They will be aided by new finds of Homo erectus postcranial material (e.g. Simpson et al. 2008), which broaden the knowledge on the variation in size and proportions within Homo erectus thus helping to minimize error by scraping of a little of the "unknown" and aiding the choice of a reliable estimation method.Show less
Hominin dispersal from Africa has been assumed to have occurred with the emergence of vast grasslands extending across Africa and Asia. However, the possibility of these people being adaptive to...Show moreHominin dispersal from Africa has been assumed to have occurred with the emergence of vast grasslands extending across Africa and Asia. However, the possibility of these people being adaptive to other environments and climates has not been investigated. Determining dietary and water resource niches for selected fossil bovids from Trinil HK, Java from the stable isotopes of the carbonate fraction of their teeth and the skeletal remains of fossil aquatic fauna (Trinil and Sangiran) allowed for the reconstruction of the Pleistocene environment of the site and region. This reconstruction displayed a more diverse environment that Homo erectus adapted to than just a mere grassland.Show less
Tracing the origins of ‘modernity’ in the archaeological record has been an ongoing, and often heavily debated topic of discussion in the field of human origins for quite some time. Cognitive...Show moreTracing the origins of ‘modernity’ in the archaeological record has been an ongoing, and often heavily debated topic of discussion in the field of human origins for quite some time. Cognitive modernity – generally defined as the manifestation of complex language and abstract thought – is often inferred from various perceived innovations in material culture that are believed to indicate behavioral modernity (e.g. parietal art, personal adornment, bone tool technology, hafting technology, etc.). One of the more contentious facets of this debate is the subject of fire production during the time when controlled use of fire appeared to become a requisite component of the hominin technological repertoire: the Middle Palaeolithic. The mere presence of traces of fire on a site is not necessarily indicative that it was kindled by artificial means, however. To determine this, one must seek out the ‘tools of the trade’, which for this period were likely flint ‘strike-a-lights’ forcibly applied to fragments of sulphuric iron (more commonly known as marcasite or pyrite). Unfortunately, definitive examples of these tools are conspicuously absent in the archaeological record during the Middle Palaeolithic. Surprisingly, this trend appears to extend even into the early Upper Palaeolithic when modern human colonizers were pouring into Europe. In fact – contrary to the commonly held belief that modern humans were proficient fire-makers by this time – physical evidence of this technology does not appear with any regularity in the modern human tool kit until the mid- to late Upper Palaeolithic despite very regular use of fire by these peoples. One possible reason for this is simply hominids were obligate fire users (as opposed to producers) through the Middle Palaeolithic into the early Upper Palaeolithic. An alternate scenario advocated in this thesis is that both modern humans and Neandertals from the Middle Palaeolithic onward were likely able to make fire at will, but the tools they used to perform this task have not been recognized as such in the archaeological record. Drawing inspiration from the apparent ‘ad hoc’ nature of Middle Palaeolithic lithic technology, this thesis advocates what is called the ‘expedient strike-a-light’ hypothesis. It contends that early strike-a-lights were not formalized tools used to kindle numerous fires such as those recovered from later time periods. Instead, this study postulates strike-a-lights were either A) fashioned from simple, readymade flakes, utilized for only a short while – perhaps for just a single fire-making episode – and then discarded; or B) tools or small flake cores already on hand were expediently used as strike-a-lights. In this latter scenario, it is likely subsequent retouching of the tool would eliminate and evidence of it having been used to kindle a fire. An experimental usewear-based approach to testing the viability of this hypothesis was employed by analyzing the traces left behind on flint flake tools forcibly applied to a nodular piece of sulphuric iron for short periods of time using a variety of techniques with the express purpose of generating sparks. The findings were then compared with archaeological specimens exhibiting seemingly similar wear patterns identified during a comprehensive, low-magnification examination of the lithic collection recovered from the Last Interglacial (~120 ka) site of Neumark-Nord 2/2 (Germany). More detailed analysis using higher magnification found that none of the segregated specimens exhibited the requisite usewear to be considered possible strike-a-lights. Nevertheless, it is the author’s contention that this initial return of negative evidence in no way diminishes the value of this study. The rich and diverse body of data provided by this study, including detailed descriptions of usewear traces observed on both experimental flint strike-a-lights and the sulphuric iron contact material; supporting archaeological evidence culled together from extant literature; preliminary experimental statistical data concerning strike-a-light efficacy; and the novel methods outlined by the ‘expedient strike-a-light’ hypothesis, all combine to provide a solid foundation for future research seeking to shed light on the origins of man-made fire.Show less
