Reassessing palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Cantabrian region (Southwestern Europe)

Climatic and environmental changes have been commonly proposed as driving factors behind the decline of Neanderthals in Europe. The Cantabrian region, in northern Iberia, is a key area for understanding the replacement of Neanderthals by Anatomically Modern Humans, where an early disappearance of Ne...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: Fernández García, Mónica, Vidal Cordasco, Marco Adolfo, Jones, Jennifer Rose, Marín-Arroyo, Ana B.|||0000-0003-3353-5581
Format: article
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Cantabria (UC)
Repository:UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unican.es:10902/27948
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10902/27948
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Iberia
Neanderthals
Anatomically modern humans
Late pleistocene
Palaeoclimate
Palaeoecology
id ES_544b1232d2b1484bc6cdca9b1029f911
oai_identifier_str oai:repositorio.unican.es:10902/27948
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling Reassessing palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Cantabrian region (Southwestern Europe)Fernández García, MónicaVidal Cordasco, Marco AdolfoJones, Jennifer RoseMarín-Arroyo, Ana B.|||0000-0003-3353-5581IberiaNeanderthalsAnatomically modern humansLate pleistocenePalaeoclimatePalaeoecologyClimatic and environmental changes have been commonly proposed as driving factors behind the decline of Neanderthals in Europe. The Cantabrian region, in northern Iberia, is a key area for understanding the replacement of Neanderthals by Anatomically Modern Humans, where an early disappearance of Neanderthals in relation to other areas of Iberia has been proposed. To evaluate how climate might have influenced human behaviour during Marine Isotope Stage 3, an accurate review of palaeoecological conditions is required. For the first time, an assessment of the regional available terrestrial proxies linked to archaeo-palaeontological sites, including small vertebrate assemblages, pollen sequences, charcoal data and stable isotope studies on macromammals is undertaken in this region. In addition, records from macrofaunal assemblages and glacial records have also been considered. To standardise the information and allow inter-site comparison, data from pollen and small vertebrate sequences were transformed into quantitative climatic estimations of temperature and precipitation. Results show highly variable climatic shifts between archaeological levels, being consistent with the climatic fluctuations observed in the marine and ice core records. Small mammal assemblages reveal a mosaic landscape of open meadows followed by scattered forested areas. A progressive trend towards aridity from the end of the Mousterian to the early Aurignacian is reflected by changes in arboreal pollen, macromammal species and stable isotopes evidence on ungulates consumed by late Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans in the region. This review suggests a decrease in temperatures and rainfall from 48,000 to 44,000 cal BP (after Heinrich Event 5) which coincides with the late Neanderthals in the region and followed by a populational hiatus until 43,000 cal BP. Despite the multiple intra-site environmental proxies available, this study challenges the fragmentary regional record during this key period for human evolution and reveals that further research is needed to obtain a complete regional highresolution palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction.This research is funded by the European Research Council, under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement No. 818299-SUBSILIENCE ERC CoG project https://www.subsilience.eu), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (NEWINDS; PID2021-125818NB-I00) and the Cantabrian Government (Proyecto Puente 2021).Elsevier LtdUniversidad de Cantabria20232023-01-01journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501NAhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_be7fb7dd8ff6fe43info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttps://hdl.handle.net/10902/27948Quaternary Science Reviews, 2023,301, 107928reponame:UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabriainstname:Universidad de Cantabria (UC)InglésengEuropean Commission http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 Horizon 2020 Framework Programme 818299open accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:repositorio.unican.es:10902/279482026-06-02T12:39:31Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Reassessing palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Cantabrian region (Southwestern Europe)
title Reassessing palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Cantabrian region (Southwestern Europe)
spellingShingle Reassessing palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Cantabrian region (Southwestern Europe)
Fernández García, Mónica
Iberia
Neanderthals
Anatomically modern humans
Late pleistocene
Palaeoclimate
Palaeoecology
title_short Reassessing palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Cantabrian region (Southwestern Europe)
title_full Reassessing palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Cantabrian region (Southwestern Europe)
title_fullStr Reassessing palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Cantabrian region (Southwestern Europe)
title_full_unstemmed Reassessing palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Cantabrian region (Southwestern Europe)
title_sort Reassessing palaeoenvironmental conditions during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Cantabrian region (Southwestern Europe)
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Fernández García, Mónica
Vidal Cordasco, Marco Adolfo
Jones, Jennifer Rose
Marín-Arroyo, Ana B.|||0000-0003-3353-5581
author Fernández García, Mónica
author_facet Fernández García, Mónica
Vidal Cordasco, Marco Adolfo
Jones, Jennifer Rose
Marín-Arroyo, Ana B.|||0000-0003-3353-5581
author_role author
author2 Vidal Cordasco, Marco Adolfo
Jones, Jennifer Rose
Marín-Arroyo, Ana B.|||0000-0003-3353-5581
author2_role author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Universidad de Cantabria
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Iberia
Neanderthals
Anatomically modern humans
Late pleistocene
Palaeoclimate
Palaeoecology
topic Iberia
Neanderthals
Anatomically modern humans
Late pleistocene
Palaeoclimate
Palaeoecology
description Climatic and environmental changes have been commonly proposed as driving factors behind the decline of Neanderthals in Europe. The Cantabrian region, in northern Iberia, is a key area for understanding the replacement of Neanderthals by Anatomically Modern Humans, where an early disappearance of Neanderthals in relation to other areas of Iberia has been proposed. To evaluate how climate might have influenced human behaviour during Marine Isotope Stage 3, an accurate review of palaeoecological conditions is required. For the first time, an assessment of the regional available terrestrial proxies linked to archaeo-palaeontological sites, including small vertebrate assemblages, pollen sequences, charcoal data and stable isotope studies on macromammals is undertaken in this region. In addition, records from macrofaunal assemblages and glacial records have also been considered. To standardise the information and allow inter-site comparison, data from pollen and small vertebrate sequences were transformed into quantitative climatic estimations of temperature and precipitation. Results show highly variable climatic shifts between archaeological levels, being consistent with the climatic fluctuations observed in the marine and ice core records. Small mammal assemblages reveal a mosaic landscape of open meadows followed by scattered forested areas. A progressive trend towards aridity from the end of the Mousterian to the early Aurignacian is reflected by changes in arboreal pollen, macromammal species and stable isotopes evidence on ungulates consumed by late Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans in the region. This review suggests a decrease in temperatures and rainfall from 48,000 to 44,000 cal BP (after Heinrich Event 5) which coincides with the late Neanderthals in the region and followed by a populational hiatus until 43,000 cal BP. Despite the multiple intra-site environmental proxies available, this study challenges the fragmentary regional record during this key period for human evolution and reveals that further research is needed to obtain a complete regional highresolution palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction.
publishDate 2023
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2023
2023-01-01
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
NA
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_be7fb7dd8ff6fe43
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/10902/27948
url https://hdl.handle.net/10902/27948
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv European Commission http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 Horizon 2020 Framework Programme 818299
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier Ltd
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier Ltd
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Quaternary Science Reviews, 2023,301, 107928
reponame:UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
instname:Universidad de Cantabria (UC)
instname_str Universidad de Cantabria (UC)
reponame_str UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
collection UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
_version_ 1869408174663008257
score 15,301629

Similar Items