Digital Cementum Luminance Analysis and the Haua Fteah Hominins: How Seasonality and Season of Use Changed Through Time*

Abstract

The importance of environmental seasonality and the seasonal cycling of resources to human populations make studies of human responses to seasonality useful to test hypotheses about short-and long-term changes in human behaviour. This paper utilizes digital dental cementum luminance analysis in order to better understand patterns of the seasons of death of Ammotragus lervia at Haua Fteah, Cyrenaica, and to test whether long-term climatic changes can be detected in dental cement. The overall pattern of the season of death of A. lervia at Haua Fteah is that of year-round utilization, with a slight increase over time in A. lervia use during the growth period/summer time. The use of digital cementum luminance analysis (DCLA) to detect changes in the seasonal differences between temperatures indicates a trend for increased seasonality in temperature over the past 40 000 years at Haua Fteah. Furthermore, DCLA patterns in the more recent assemblages indicate a shift to a warmer climate from Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 to MIS 1.

Changing patterns of eastern Mediterranean shellfish exploitation in the Late Glacial and Early Holocene: Oxygen isotope evidence from gastropod in Epipaleolithic to Neolithic human occupation layers at the Haua Fteah cave, Libya

“…Preliminary bone fusion data from large mammals in Capsian layers indicated that sub-adult individuals were hunted in preference to adults (Barker et al, 2010), possibly an indicator that hunting activities were focused towards the summer/autumn months when juveniles were present in the landscape. Luminance analysis of Ammotragus teeth from Capsian contexts indicates the predominantly summer exploitation of these large caprids (Wall-Scheffler, 2007). Cone-scales of Pinus halepensis suggest that pine cones were gathered in the summer and then later opened by heating adjacent to fires (J.Morales, pers.comm.).…”

Increased climate seasonality during the late glacial in the Gebel Akhdar, Libya

“…This species, while adapted to xeric environments, has a wide environmental tolerance and thus its presence throughout the faunal assemblage at the Haua Fteah does not necessarily indicate a persistently arid environment. Hunting of A. lervia appears to have occurred year-round during all cultural phases, with a slight emphasis on the summer and autumn months particularly in the Capsian (Wall-Scheffler, 2007). This coincides with the winter exploitation of marine shellfish (Prendergast et al, 2016a) and could indicate seasonal variations in resource availability.…”

“…Early Holocene (before c. 7.8 ka) terrestrial records from the central Mediterranean indicate that precipitation seasonality was stronger than it is today, while records from Turkey for the same time period show reduced seasonality, which increased in the mid-Holocene (after c. 6.5 ka) (Dean et al, 2018;Lewis et al, 2017;Peyron et al, 2011). Local to the Gebel Akhdar, dental cementum luminance analysis has suggested that the seasonal range in air temperatures was higher in the Neolithic (during the Holocene) than in the Palaeolithic (during the Pleistocene), but the qualitative method and lack of chronological resolution restrict comparison to other climatic records (Wall-Scheffler, 2007).…”

“…Throughout these cultural phases, the Haua Fteah cave and surrounding environs appear to have been utilised by human populations year-round, although the specific focus of these activities varied seasonally (Prendergast et al, 2016a;Wall-Scheffler, 2007). Subsistence predominately focused on large mammal exploitation, and particularly on the hunting of Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia), mainly during summer and autumn (Klein and Scott, 1986;McBurney, 1967;Wall-Scheffler, 2007). Marine shellfish were utilised year-round in the late glacial Oranian and primarily during the cooler seasons in the later Capsian and Neolithic cultural phases (Hunt et al, 2011;Prendergast et al, 2016a).…”

Patterns of Hominin Occupation and Cultural Diversity Across the Gebel Akhdar of Northern Libya Over the Last ~200 kyr

“…Although McBurney argued for relatively continuous occupation of the cave from the "pre-Aurignacian" to the present day, gaps are present in the sequence and the density of material is highly variable throughout the profile (Klein and Scott 1986), particularly in the "pre-Aurignacian" and later MSA layers. Since McBurney's excavations, several other researchers have analyzed different aspects of both the faunal (Klein and Scott 1986;MacDonald 1997;Wall-Scheffler 2007) and lithic (Close 1986;Chazan 1995;Hiscock 1996;Moyer 2003) collections. In 2007, the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project (later becoming the TRANS-NAP project) embarked on renewed investigations of the cave (Barker et al 2007(Barker et al , 2008(Barker et al , 2009(Barker et al , 2010Hunt et al 2010Hunt et al , 2011, with the aim to re-excavate new trenches alongside McBurney's old section faces and conduct high resolution sampling for dating, paleoenvironmental and lithic analyses.…”