Late Pleistocene Technology, Economic Behavior, and Land-Use Dynamics in Southern Italy

New Light on the Earliest Hominid Occupation in East Asia

Notarchirico is at a nodal point in time and space for understanding the settlement of Europe in terms of migration or in situ evolution. Former technological analyses have not shown significant differences between the different lithic assemblages at Notarchirico. Our approach here is to produce a phylogenetic analysis of the lithic assemblages taken as the terminal of the analysis and interpreted as cultural units. In the cladistic framework, characters are hypotheses of relationships between lithic assemblages, and homologies are hypotheses of relationships between lithic objects: cores, flakes, nodules. To effectively grasp informative lithic innovations in the assemblages, we formalise cladistic hypotheses as hierarchical characters in the framework of three-item analysis and propose a new algorithm to remove the high number of repeated terminals among trees inherent to a cladistic analysis of assemblages. Beyond the classic distinction of the presence or absence of bifaces, our analysis of the five Notarchirico layers, dated between 670 and 700 ka, highlights a well-supported cladogram grounded on complex hierarchical characters on lithic artefacts. This cladogram shows a paralogy event between the flake-free layer H, representing short-term occupancy, and the other layers representing long-term settlements. The resulting cladogram shows that relationships between lithic assemblages at Notarchirico do not follow the stratigraphy. Moreover, the Notarchirico lithic assemblages cannot be explained in an entirely local way, but seem to be part of a more complex European history.

The formation of lithic assemblages

In a recent article, a team of Chinese, French, Canadian, and Czech researchers led by d'Errico suggested the earliest bone needles were manufactured in Siberia and northern China, and were invented independently in both regions. Here, the Chinese archaeological record is reviewed to provide more details on this claim. The occurrence of this tool type is correlated with the associated lithic technologies and the environmental conditions in order to investigate the dispersal events that took place during the second half of the Late Pleistocene. The review suggests the manufacture of needles represents an indigenous innovation that appears in northern China circa 31 kaBP on the onset of the Chinese Late Palaeolithic alongside stone tools attributed to the core-and-flake technology. As of 25 kaBP, a new form of needle is introduced in the archaeological record. These needles are flat and they appear with stone tools attributed to the microblade technology. This evidence likely signals the migration of a populations bringing with them blade technologies from western Eurasia. At the end of the Pleistocene, bone needles are more diversified, which suggests they were used in a variety of tasks. During the late-Tardiglacial, bone needles are found in northern China both in contexts that yielded microblade technology as well as core-and-flake technology with ceramic. In southern China, the first bone needles appear alongside core-and-flake technology around 12 kaBP. The first appearance of this tool type in southern China could either be the result of a convergent innovation or the southward migration of prehistoric populations that lived in northern China prior to the Last Glacial Maximum. South of the Yangzi river, bone needles are manufactured at the end of the Pleistocene in contexts attributed to the core-and-flake technology with ceramic. The presence of the same toolkit in both northern and southern China at the end of the Pleistocene, i.e., core-and-flake technology with ceramic and bone needles, raises the question of potential long-distance population movements and cultural influences across North and South China at the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene.

The Apulian Peninsula represents a key-region for the study of climatic changes and paleoenvironmental dynamics during the Quaternary. Both large and small-sized horses are well documented in this region during the Pleistocene and are frequently found associated. The caballoid horses from Middle to Late Pleistocene of Europe show a large intraspecific ecomorphological variation, emphasizing a strong link between skeletal adaptations and specific aspects of the palaeoenvironment. This large variability led to an extended debate concerning the taxonomy of equids and their evolutionary history. In the Italian Peninsula, fossils from the Middle to the Late Pleistocene have been historically referred to several species (or even subspecies), emphasizing the uncertainty of the taxonomic attribution. Here, a large craniodental sample of Equidae fossils from late Middle Pleistocene to the Early Holocene localities of the Apulia Peninsula are described for the first time. The comparison of the protocone index allowed us to determine the first occurrences of Equus mosbachensis von Reichenau, 1903 in the Apulian Peninsula, from a few localities chronologically referred to late Middle Pleistocene. Most of the material from the late Middle to the end of the Late Pleistocene is instead attributed to Equus ferus Boddaert, 1785. The results of this work thus add novel information on the biochronology of Italian fossil equids and their evolutionary history through the Middle and Late Pleistocene.

As a key area in the Yellow River basin for sand control and management, the land change process in the Hobq Desert plays a crucial role in keeping the river and desert ecosystems and promoting the construction of ecological civilization in human systems. Based on multi-temporal remote sensing from 1991 to 2019 in the Hobq Desert along the Yellow River section, this study selected spatial statistical methods (land-use monitoring and landscape metrics) to examine land-use change dynamics. Then, we evaluated habitat quality using the InVEST model and quantitatively analyzed the factors causing spatial changes in habitat quality using geographic detectors. Finally, this paper predicted the pattern of land use and habitat quality in 2030 using the PLUS model. The results reveal that (1) from 1991 to 2019, the total area of forest grassland increased by 3572.5 km2, providing the most vegetation cover, and the sandy land and water area decreased continuously, while the cultivated land and construction land increased. There were 38.01% conversions of land types, with the land-use dynamic decreasing the greatest in sandy land (-12.66%) and increasing the greatest in construction land (9.26%); the comprehensive land-use dynamics were the highest in 2010-2019 (1.68%), which was the most active stage during our study period. (2) Both of the landscape indices NP and PD showed "N" type fluctuations during 1991-2019, and CONTAG and LSI rose from 69.19% to 70.29% and 36.01% to 38.89%, respectively, indicating that the land-use degree of landscape fragmentation increased, landscape connectivity turned better, and landscape dominance was enhanced, balanced, and developed evenly in overall landscape type. (3) From the overall region analysis, the average habitat quality in 1991, 2000, 2010, and 2019 was 0.3565, 0.5108, 0.5879, and 0.6482, respectively, with the overall habitat value showing a gradually increasing trend. Spatially, the habitat quality along the Yellow River section of the Hobq Desert has a certain regularity, and the overall pattern there is high in the south and low in the north, high in the east and west, and low in the middle. (4) The change in land use between 2019 and 2030 is similar to the previous period, but the change rate is generally lower. The habitat quality improved significantly, with the growth of high and medium habitat quality.

The focus of this paper are the stone tools of Çukuriçi Höyük, a prehistoric site situated at the central Aegean coast of Anatolia. The settlement was inhabited from the Neolithic, through the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age 1 periods, a period lasting from the early 7th to the early 3rd millennium BCE. A long-term interdisciplinary study of the excavated lithics with different scientific methods on various stone materials (thin section analysis, pXRF, NAA, LA-ICP-MS) offer new primary data about the procurement strategies of prehistoric societies from a diachronic perspective. The results will be presented for the first time with an overview of all source materials and their distinct use through time. The lithic assemblages from Çukuriçi Höyük consist of a considerable variety of small finds, grinding stones and chipped stone tools. The high variability of raw materials within the different categories of tools is remarkable. In addition to stone tools manufactured from sources in the immediate vicinity of the settlement (i.e., mica-schist, limestone, marble, amphibolite, serpentinite), others are of rock types such as chert, which indicate an origin within the broader region. Moreover, volcanic rocks, notably the exceptionally high amount of Melian obsidian found at Çukuriçi Höyük, attest to the supra-regional procurement of distinct rock types. Small stone axes made of jadeite presumably from the Greek island of Syros, also indicate these far-reaching procurement strategies. The systematic and diachronic analyses of the stone tools found at Çukuriçi Höyük has demonstrated that as early as the Neolithic period extensive efforts were made to supply the settlement with carefully selected raw materials or finished goods procured from distinct rock sources.

The initial colonization of the Americas remains a highly debated topic1, and the exact timing of the first arrivals is unknown. The earliest archaeological record of Mexico-which holds a key geographical position in the Americas-is poorly known and understudied. Historically, the region has remained on the periphery of research focused on the first Americanpopulations2. However, recent investigations provide reliable evidence of a human presence in the northwest region of Mexico3,4, the Chiapas Highlands5, Central Mexico6 and the Caribbean coast7-9 during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene epochs. Here we present results of recent excavations at Chiquihuite Cave-a high-altitude site in central-northern Mexico-that corroborate previous findings in the Americas10-17of cultural evidence that dates to the Last Glacial Maximum (26,500-19,000years ago)18, and which push back dates for human dispersal to the region possibly as early as 33,000-31,000years ago. The site yielded about 1,900stone artefacts within a 3-m-deep stratified sequence, revealing a previously unknown lithic industry that underwent only minor changes over millennia. More than 50radiocarbon and luminescence dates provide chronological control, and genetic, palaeoenvironmental and chemical data document the changing environments in which the occupants lived. Our results provide new evidence for the antiquity of humans in the Americas, illustrate the cultural diversity of the earliest dispersal groups (which predate those of the Clovis culture) and open new directions of research.

Land is one of the important input resources in a highly populous and land-scarce country such as Bangladesh. When different factors change (such as, geophysical, proximity, socioeconomic and climatic), there are dramatic changes in the spatial pattern of land uses. Thus, shedding light on the dynamics of land use and land cover changes has great importance for finding the changing pattern of land use in Bangladesh. In the present study, we predicted the land use and land cover changes from 2010 to 2030 under baseline, ecological protection priority and economic growth scenarios in Bangladesh. On this basis, we applied a previously developed Dynamics of Land Systems (DLS) model to simulate the changes in land uses according to the driving mechanisms. The findings indicate that cultivated land declines and built-up area expansion is common under all three scenarios. However, the future land use demand shows differences under different scenarios. The results under the ecological protection priority scenario shows that forest area and grassland will increase more, while under economic growth scenario, built-up area will expand dramatically in the future. The present research results furnish meaningful decision-making information for planners to conserve and/or exploit land resources in Bangladesh in a more sustainable manner.

Connections between the Levant and the Balkans in the late Middle Pleistocene: Archaeological findings from Velika and Mala Balanica Caves (Serbia)

Hunter–gatherer dispersals in the mammoth-steppe: technological provisioning and land-use in the Enisei River valley, south-central Siberia

The Late Pleistocene is a crucial period of dramatic changes in lithic technologies as well as interactions between modern humans and other archaic human groups. In this paper, we describe the technological analysis of lithic assemblages collected from 28 newly discovered Paleolithic sites along the Daoshui River, a tributary of the Lishui River (itself a tributary of Yangtze River) in northern Hunan Province, central South China. Luminescence dating of several sites in this region has provided a general Late Pleistocene age range for lithic assemblages. Technologically, high quality raw materials are predominantly exploited (e.g., chert and siliceous slate) and direct hard hammer percussion predominates which lacks the classic Levallois technology though conceptually, some specimens do exhibit a certain degree of volumetric control and share other common features with prepared cores, here we tentatively define them as “simply prepared cores.” Small flakes and flake tool production plays a primary role in the overall technological strategy, accompanying a small proportion of large flakes and Large Cutting Tools production. Our examination of lithic technologies in the region clearly contrasts with the traditional view of South China being characterized by a simple cobble tool industry over the course of the Pleistocene period. We further discuss the issue of the Middle Paleolithic in China, as well as the ecological adaptations of hominins in the Daoshui River valley within a Late Pleistocene climatic context.

In West Africa, where the majority of the population relies on natural resources and rain-fed agriculture, regionally adapted agricultural land-use planning is increasingly important to cope with growing demand for land-use products and intensifying climate variability. As an approach to identify effective future land-use strategies, this study applied spatially explicit modeling that addresses the spatial connectivity between the provision of ecosystem services and agricultural land-use systems. Considering that the status of ecosystem services varies with the perception of stakeholders, local knowledge, and characteristics of a case study area, two adjoining districts in northern Ghana were integrated into an assessment process of land-use strategies. Based on agricultural land-management options that were identified together with the local stakeholders, 75 future land-use strategies as combinations of multiple agricultural practices were elaborated. Potential impacts of the developed land-use strategies on ecosystem services and land-use patterns were assessed in a modeling platform that combines Geographic Information System (GIS) and Cellular Automaton (CA) modules. Modeled results were used to identify best land-use strategies that could deliver multiple ecosystem services most effectively. Then, local perception was applied to determine the feasibility of the best land-use strategies in practice. The results presented the different extent of trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services delivered by future land-use strategies and their different feasibility depending on the district. Apart from the fact that findings were context-specific and scale-dependent, this study revealed that the integration of different local characteristics and local perceptions to spatially explicit ecosystem service assessment is beneficial for determining locally tailored recommendations for future agricultural land-use planning.

A river otter hemimandible has been rediscovered during the revision of the historical collections of G.A. Blanc from Grotta Romanelli, complementing the ongoing multidisciplinary research fieldwork on the site. The specimen, recovered from the level G (“terre rosse”; early Late Pleistocene or late Middle Pleistocene), is here assigned to Lutra lutra. Indeed, morphological and morphometric comparisons with other Quaternary Lutrinae fossils from Europe allow to exclude an attribution to the relatively widespread and older Lutra simplicidens, characterized by distinctive carnassial proportions. Differences with Cyrnaonyx antiqua, which possessed a more robust, shellfish-feeding dentition, support the view of a successful niche repartition between the two species during the late Middle to Late Pleistocene of Europe. The occurrence of Lutra lutra from the “terre rosse” of Grotta Romanelli suggests deep modifications of the landscapes due to the ecological adaptation of the taxon, and indicates that the Eurasian otter spread into Europe at the Middle–Late Pleistocene transition.

The technology of the end products i.e. blades and points in Late Pleistocene stone artefact assemblages from Klasies River, South Africa, and the Nile Valley, Egypt, are compared. The comparison includes univariate and multivariate analysis of metrical attributes enhanced by graphical biplot displays. The end products in these assemblages are either dominantly points or blades and this is related to the core reduction strategy adopted. The MSA 11 from Klasies River and the Nubian Complex industry from the Nile Valley are point industries made in the Levallois tradition, while the MSA 1 from Klasies River and the Taramsan from the Nile Valley may be non-Levallois or adapted Levallois blade industries. Dating of the assemblages shows the changes between dominant core reduction strategies are sequential and time restricted in both South and North Africa. It is concluded that variability of the same kind occurs in Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic assemblages south and north of the Sahara in the early Late Pleistocene.