The Epigravettian chronology and the human population of eastern Central Europe during MIS2

Lengyel, György; Bárány, Annamária; Béres, Sándor; Cserpák, Ferenc; Gasparik, Mihály; Major, István; Molnár, Mihály; Nadachowski, Adam; Nemergut, Adrián; Svoboda, Jiřı́; Verpoorte, Alexander; Wojtal, Piotr; Wilczyński, Jarosław

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107187

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…In the CB, Early Epigravettian groups were present during the LGM (GS-3–2.1c) and Late Epigravettian in the GS-2.1a-b and early GI-1 periods 7 . According to Lengyel et al 71 Early Epigravettian (26–20 ka cal BP) hunter-gatherers subsisted on reindeer and the wild horse, with reindeer predominating. A marked change was detected in the dominant quarry at the Late Epigravettian sites (20–15.2 ka cal BP), when reindeer decreased, while the wild horse became dominant, and mammoth was present again.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mammal extinction facilitated biome shift and human population change during the last glacial termination in East-Central Europe

Magyari

Gasparik

Major

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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The study of local extinction times, together with the associated environmental and human population changes in the last glacial termination, provides insights into the causes of mega- and microfauna extinctions. In East-Central (EC) Europe, groups of Palaeolithic humans were present throughout the last glacial maximum, but disappeared suddenly around 15,200 cal BP. In this study cave sediment profiles dated using radiocarbon techniques and a large set of mammal bones dated directly by AMS 14C were used to determine local extinction times. These were, in turn, compared to changes in the total megafauna population of EC Europe derived from coprophilous fungi, the Epigravettian population decline, quantitative climate models, pollen and plant macrofossil inferred climate, as well as to biome reconstructions. The results suggest that the population size of large herbivores decreased in the area after 17,700 cal BP, when temperate tree abundance and warm continental steppe cover both increased in the lowlands. Boreal forest expansion started around 16,200 cal BP. Cave sediments show the decline of narrow-headed vole and arctic lemming populations specifically associated with a tundra environment at the same time and the expansion of the common vole, an inhabitant of steppes. The last dated appearance of arctic lemming was at ~ 16,640 cal BP, while that of the narrow-headed vole at ~ 13,340, and the estimated extinction time of woolly mammoth was either at 13,830 (GRIWM) or 15,210 (PHASE), and reindeer at 11,860 (GRIWM) or 12,550 cal BP (PHASE). The population decline of the large herbivore fauna slightly preceded changes in terrestrial vegetation, and likely facilitated it via a reduction in the intensity of grazing and the concomitant accumulation of plant biomass. Furthermore, it is possible to conclude that the Late Epigravettian population had high degree of quarry-fidelity; they left the basin when these mammals vanished.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mammal extinction facilitated biome shift and human population change during the last glacial termination in East-Central Europe

Magyari

Gasparik

Major

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…However, the techno-typological analysis of the knapped stone assemblages can help us establish their relative chronology with some confidence. To give an example, a recent review of the MIS2-Late Upper Palaeolithic assemblages of eastern Central Europe (see Lengyel et al, 2021) has shown that the initial Late Glacial Maximum (LGM) assemblages are characterised by domestic tool dominance and the frequent use of flake tools, while the post-LGM assemblages are correlated with armature dominance and blade and bladelet tools.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agia Marina and Peristereònas: Two New Epipalaeolithic Sites on the Island of Lemnos (Greece)

et al. 2022

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The surveys carried out along the coasts of the island of Lemnos (Greece) have led to the discovery of new Late Epipalaeolithic sites at Agia Marina and Peristereònas. Peristereònas yielded a knapped stone assemblage that is strictly comparable with that from Ouriakos, a site located along the south-eastern coast of the same island, while the artefacts from Agia Marina are more problematic to interpret because they are probably to be attributed to a slightly different period. However, the most characteristic artefacts recovered from the sites are represented by microlithic geometrics obtained by abrupt, bipolar, or direct retouch, end scrapers, and different types of exhausted cores and technical pieces, which help us reconstruct the operational sequence employed for the manufacture of the armatures. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the interpretation of the characteristics of the Late Epipalaeolithic assemblages discovered on the island and to frame them into the general picture of the end of the Pleistocene in this part of the Aegean. The artefacts from the sites show unique characteristics, without parallels to the knapped stone assemblages of the same period so far recovered along the coasts of the Aegean Sea, the eastern Mediterranean, the Levant, and the Black Sea.

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“…As the osseous industry recovered at Maszycka is the material echo of various activities carried out by its occupants, it will also be possible to evaluate previous statements on LUP palethnography and site function (Kozłowski et al, 1993). Finally, it will be discussed in what way the results of this study can provide new impulses for the current debate about the recolonisation of central Europe after the LGM, in which the site plays a central role (Kozłowski et al, 2012(Kozłowski et al, , 2017Lengyel et al, 2021;Maier, 2015, 2017a andMaier et al, 2020;Nerudová & Neruda, 2015;Nerudová et al, 2021;Otte, 2012;Pfeifer, 2020;Połtowicz-Bobak, 2013;Połtowicz-Bobak & Bobak, 2020;Terberger, 2013;Wiśniewski et al, 2017).…”

Section: Aim Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 92%

“…When implemented at Maszycka, that model says that apart from a common set of symbols, such as cupules and pointed ovates, which all navette-using groups certainly recognised and understood, and which set them apart from other contemporary traditions of the early Middle Magdalenian (Angevin, 2017;Gauvrit Roux, 2022;Sécher, 2020), the more unique motives served as signals of individuals within their own distinct group. Not only did the Magdalenian hunter-gatherers at Maszycka belong to the first humans who reappeared in the northern mid-latitudes of eastern central Europe after more than three millennia of likely hiatus (Lengyel et al, 2021;Maier et al, 2021;Nerudová & Neruda, 2015;Połtowicz-Bobak & Bobak, 2020), these people were also roaming on the eastern border of the territory occupied by bearers of that techno-complex, which may at the same time have been the western margin of the Epigravettian sphere (Kozłowski et al, 2017;Nerudová & Neruda, 2014;Połtowicz-Bobak, 2020;Wiśniewski et al, 2017), contacts to which are shown by the presence of Volhynian flint originating from outcrops some 300 km to the east (Kozłowski et al, 1993, 179;2017, 197). Under such particular circumstances, both success in hunting as well as group cohesion were certainly particularly important and endorsed through intensified symbolic communication using a common set of signs (comp.…”

Section: Palethnography Of Maszycka Cavementioning

confidence: 99%

The Antler, Ivory, and Bone Artefacts from Maszycka Cave (Southern Poland). New Signals from a Late Upper Palaeolithic Key Site

Pfeifer

2022

J Paleo Arch

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The well-known Late Upper Palaeolithic cave site of Maszycka (southern Poland), excavated in the end of the nineteenth century as well as in the 1960s, furnished a collection of 89 osseous artefacts manufactured from cervid antler, mammoth ivory, and mammal long bone. The great majority are finished tools, mostly projectile points, while raw material blocks, pre-forms, and production waste are represented by only a few pieces. Based on the presence of the characteristic double-split antler tools, distinct projectile morphologies, and recurring ornaments, the assemblage from Maszycka can be assigned to the early Middle Magdalenian facies à navettes which dates to around 19 - 17.5 ka cal. BP. Compared to the western European sites, which also belong to this facies, Maszycka is characterised by a high proportion of ivory tools, reflecting the abundance of this favourable raw material in eastern central Europe, as well as an unusually high proportion of decorated tools, which may relate to an increased need for symbolic communication within the small and geographically isolated Magdalenian group. Both the remarkable typo-technological similarities of the bone industry from Maszycka to contemporary assemblages in France and the gap in the central European archaeological record between 22 and 19 ka cal. BP speak in favour of a direct immigration of Magdalenian hunter-gatherers from western Europe immediately after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. Their relations to the bearers of the Epigravettian adjacent to the east and south remain to date poorly understood.

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The Epigravettian chronology and the human population of eastern Central Europe during MIS2

Cited by 17 publications

References 96 publications

Mammal extinction facilitated biome shift and human population change during the last glacial termination in East-Central Europe

Mammal extinction facilitated biome shift and human population change during the last glacial termination in East-Central Europe

Agia Marina and Peristereònas: Two New Epipalaeolithic Sites on the Island of Lemnos (Greece)

The Antler, Ivory, and Bone Artefacts from Maszycka Cave (Southern Poland). New Signals from a Late Upper Palaeolithic Key Site

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