Revisited and revalorized: Technological and refitting studies at the Middle Stone Age open-air knapping site Jojosi 1 (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa).

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa is mainly known from rock shelters and caves. How early modern humans interacted with their landscapes remains comparatively understudied. The site of Jojosi 1, situated north of Nquthu in north central KwaZulu-Natal, is set within erosional badlands known locally as ‘dongas’. This locality offers a rare opportunity to study MSA technology and settlement dynamics in an open-air context. G. Botha initially discovered Jojosi 1 in 1991. He brought it to A. Mazel’s attention who excavated the site in the same year, but did not publish the lithic assemblage. Here, we report on the site’s rediscovery coupled with the first lithic analysis and luminescence dating. This work provides insights into the site formation processes of Jojosi 1 and lithic reduction strategies, raw material provisioning, and landscape use. Our techno-typological analysis draws upon Mazel’s collection of 7529 artefacts, combining attribute analysis and refitting studies. The results show the exclusive use of hornfels and its reduction via platform cores and Levallois methods to pro- duce flakes and blades. Retouched tools are scarce and comprise mostly notched or denticulate pieces but lack backed tools, unifacial, and bifacial points. The museum collection features abundant small debitage and a strong component of cortical, initial stage, and core preparation flakes. The 48 refitted artefacts and ample small debitage in a spatially constricted band suggest high assemblage integrity with minimal post-depositional disturbance. Infrared stimulated luminescence dating of coarse grain feldspars brackets the archaeological occurrence to ~139–106 ka. Comparisons with contemporary lithic assem- blages link the assemblage to the early MSA in southern Africa. We interpret Jojosi 1 as a knapping event aimed at blank production and exploitation of local high-quality hornfels. With little evidence for other behaviours, the site likely reflects a short-term knapping workshop on a source of abundant hornfels slabs. Our ongoing excavations in the Jojosi Dongas will be able to test this hypothesis and will work to characterise the technological adaptations and settlement dynamics of the MSA hunter-gatherers in this area

Neandertal-Modern Human Contact in Western Eurasia: Issues of Dating, Taxonomy, and Cultural Associations

Supporting Assimilation views of Neandertal/modern human interaction, chronostratigraphic reasoning indicates that the “transitional” industries of Europe predate modern human immigration, in agreement with their association with Neandertals in the Châtelperronian at the Grotte du Renne and St.-Césaire. Supporting the Neandertals' species separateness and less developed cognition, those industries are alternatively claimed to relate to pioneer groups of modern humans; the latter would have been the true makers of the precocious instances of symbolic material culture that, under Assimilation, are assigned to the Neandertals. However, the taxonomy of the Kent's Cavern and Grotta del Cavallo dental remains is uncertain, and their poor stratigraphic context precludes dating by association. The opposite happens at the Grotte du Renne, whose stratigraphic integrity is corroborated by both taphonomy and dating. Not questioning that the Early Ahmarian is a cultural proxy for modern humans and a source for the Protoaurignacian of Europe, its claimed emergence ~46–49 ka ago at Kebara refl ects the dating of Middle Paleolithic charcoal—to be expected, because the Early Ahmarian units at the back of the cave are made up of reworked Middle Paleolithic sediments derived from the entrance. The dating of inherited material also explains the old results for the Aurignacian of Willendorf II and Geissenklösterle. At the latter, the dates on anthropically modified samples of the hunted taxa (reindeer and horse) place its Aurignacian occupations in the same time range as elsewhere in Europe, after ~40 ka ago. The hypothesis that Neandertal/modern human contact in Europe resulted in a process of assimilation in connection with the spread of the Protoaurignacian ~41.5 ka ago remains unfalsified.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Under the Skin of a Lion: Unique Evidence of Upper Paleolithic Exploitation and Use of Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea) from the Lower Gallery of La Garma (Spain)

ABSTRACT: Pleistocene skinning and exploitation of carnivore furs have been previously inferred from archaeological evidence. Nevertheless, the evidence of skinning and fur processing tends to be weak and the interpretations are not strongly sustained by the archaeological record. In the present paper, we analyze unique evidence of patterned anthropic modification and skeletal representation of fossil remains of cave lion (Panthera spelaea) from the Lower Gallery of La Garma (Cantabria, Spain). This site is one of the few that provides Pleistocene examples of lion exploitation by humans. Our archaeozoological study suggests that lion-specialized pelt exploitation and use might have been related to ritual activities during the Middle Magdalenian period (ca. 14800 cal BC). Moreover, the specimens also represent the southernmost European and the latest evidence of cave lion exploitation in Iberia. Therefore, the study seeks to provide alternative explanations for lion extinction in Eurasia and argues for a role of hunting as a factor to take into account

External ballistics of Pleistocene hand-thrown spears: experimental performance data and implications for human evolution

The appearance of weaponry - technology designed to kill - is a critical but poorly established threshold in human evolution. It is an important behavioural marker representing evolutionary changes in ecology, cognition, language and social behaviours. While the earliest weapons are often considered to be hand-held and consequently short-ranged, the subsequent appearance of distance weapons is a crucial development. Projectiles are seen as an improvement over contact weapons, and are considered by some to have originated only with our own species in the Middle Stone Age and Upper Palaeolithic. Despite the importance of distance weapons in the emergence of full behavioral modernity, systematic experimentation using trained throwers to evaluate the ballistics of thrown spears during fight and at impact is lacking. This paper addresses this by presenting results from a trial of trained javelin athletes, providing new estimates for key performance parameters. Overlaps in distances and impact energies between hand-thrown spears and spearthrowers are evidenced, and skill emerges as a signifcant factor in successful use. The results show that distance hunting was likely within the repertoire of hunting strategies of Neanderthals, and the resulting behavioural flexibility closely mirrors that of our own specie

Occupying Cave-Sites: A Case Study from Azokh 1 Cave (Southern Caucasus)

peer reviewedThe Caucasus is an important intercontinental passageway for fauna and hominin dispersal from Africa to Eurasia. Numerous Pleistocene sites emphasise the importance of this region for the study of human evolution and hominin ‘Out of Africa’ dispersals. The Azokh 1 site in the Southern Caucasus provides a stratigraphic sequence, the renewed excavations of which have shown the presence of well-contextualised lithic and faunal assemblages dated between 300 and 100 ka associated with hominin remains (Homo heidelbergensis and Homo neanderthalensis) also found in the site. Faunal assemblages are dominated by cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) remains resulting from their hibernation at the rear of the cave. Recent taphonomic studies indicate the in-situ exploitation of some of these remains. Other faunal remains, mainly herbivore, some showing signs of human activity, were most likely introduced into the cave by hominins. The study of lithic artefacts suggests an incomplete operative chain for all raw materials with a general absence of knapping debris, unknapped cobbles/pebbles, rare cores and refits. Techno-typologically, these assemblages display characteristics that link them to Late Acheulean or Early Mousterian and Levallois Mousterian traditions. The faunal and lithic assemblages originate from the rear of the cave. Research results, including some preliminary data on lithic use-wear, along with analyses of spatial distribution and post-depositional modification, indicate that occupation of the cave was short and seasonal in character. Cave bears were an important factor affecting the duration of hominin occupation of the cave. The characteristics of the lithic assemblages suggest mobile toolkits, with some isolated evidence of in situ knapping and retouching activities

Grey wolf genomic history reveals a dual ancestry of dogs

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was the first species to give rise to a domestic population, and they remained widespread throughout the last Ice Age when many other large mammal species went extinct. Little is known, however, about the history and possible extinction of past wolf populations or when and where the wolf progenitors of the present-day dog lineage (Canis familiaris) lived1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Here we analysed 72 ancient wolf genomes spanning the last 100,000 years from Europe, Siberia and North America. We found that wolf populations were highly connected throughout the Late Pleistocene, with levels of differentiation an order of magnitude lower than they are today. This population connectivity allowed us to detect natural selection across the time series, including rapid fixation of mutations in the gene IFT88 40,000–30,000 years ago. We show that dogs are overall more closely related to ancient wolves from eastern Eurasia than to those from western Eurasia, suggesting a domestication process in the east. However, we also found that dogs in the Near East and Africa derive up to half of their ancestry from a distinct population related to modern southwest Eurasian wolves, reflecting either an independent domestication process or admixture from local wolves. None of the analysed ancient wolf genomes is a direct match for either of these dog ancestries, meaning that the exact progenitor populations remain to be located