Bone staining in waterlogged deposits: a preliminary contribution to the interpretation of near-shore find accumulation at the Schöningen 13II-4 ‘Spear-Horizon’ site, Lower Saxony, Germany

A detailed analysis of the spatial distribution of Schöningen 13II-4 ‘Spear Horizon’ faunal remains

“…Sedimentary analysis (Lang et al, 2015;Stahlschmidt et al, 2015a), paleobotany (Urban and Bigga, 2015;Bigga, 2018), and actualistic experiments (Turner et al, 2018) indicate that the site formed in a delta environment, under wet and organic-rich conditions, similar to those found in shallow water and grass covered lake margins. Finally, carnivores played a limited role at Schöningen 13II-4, either as infrequent predators (van Kolfschoten, 2014) or as scavengers (Voormolen, 2008;Hutson et al, 2020).…”

“…However, changing water table levels might have resulted in the lakeshore moving back and forth, together with hominin activity. A second activity area has been proposed in the eastern part of the site, where a significant number of finds were recovered (Turner et al, 2018). Only a few archaeological remains were found to the west of the main strip.…”

“…Only a few archaeological remains were found to the west of the main strip. This area was likely dry land during site formation, primarily based on the poor preservation, weathered condition of the faunal remains (Turner et al, 2018), and the extent of the organic sediment layer (Böhner et al, 2015).…”

The Possible Time and Region of Host Switches of Ancient Malaria Parasites with Reference to the Pliocene–Quaternary Archaeological Sites in Africa

“…These environments are the most preferred natural breeding habitats of competent anopheline malaria vectors (Ondiba et al, 2019). For example, wetland-associated Middle Palaeolithic sites were found at the Shishan Marsh in Jordan (Pokines et al, 2019), in the Schöningen open pit mine in Germany (Turner et al, 2018), in the ancient lakeshore sites of the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia (Petraglia et al, 2011), and the Eastern Desert of Egypt (Kindermann et al, 2018). It is plausible that the network of these Middle Palaeolithic sites was influenced by ancient malaria prevalence patterns (Trájer et al, 2020).…”

Causal Cognition and Theory of Mind in Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology

“…These artefacts are generally associated with Neanderthals, whom many researchers see as skilled ambush hunters. At Schöningen, the deposition of the Middle Pleistocene sediments within an Elsterian tunnel valley explains the unique preservation of the sedimentary succession of the site (Lang et al 2012), and the interglacial lake supported a wide array of flora and fauna serving as prime ambush location for the hominin hunters (Turner et al 2018). The spears were found with horse remains, and Voormolen (2008) argues that even though wooden spears could have been cast from a distance to wound, a stalk-and-ambush approach would have been necessary to kill them.…”