The Project Schöningen from an ecological and cultural perspective

Serangeli, Jordi; Rodríguez-Álvarez, Bárbara; Tucci, Mario; Verheijen, Ivo; Bigga, Gerlinde; Böhner, Utz; Urban, Brigitte; Kolfschoten, Thijs van; Conard, Nicholas J.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.08.020

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The deposits in the open-cast lignite mine of Schöningen, eastern Lower Saxony, Germany, contain one of the most important Lower Palaeolithic sites that is internationally renowned for the worldwide oldest wooden hunting spears associated with diverse floral and faunal remains and flint artifacts (e.g. Thieme 2007;van Kolfschoten 2014;Serangeli et al 2015Serangeli et al , 2018. These finds prove hitherto unknown organized hunting, complex abstract thinking, and cognitive abilities of Homo heidelbergensis (Conard et al 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Since 1981/1982, samples of Pleistocene deposits have been recovered and analysed for geo-, bio-and archaeological studies. Especially the palaeolake-shore excavation site 13 II, where in level 4 eight wooden hunting spears along with remains of more than 20 butchered horses and around 1500 stone artefacts were discovered, is of great interest for understanding human behaviour and evolution (Thieme 1997(Thieme , 1999(Thieme , 2007Serangeli et al 2012Serangeli et al , 2018.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Aquatic and terrestrial proxy evidence for Middle Pleistocene palaeolake and lake‐shore development at two Lower Palaeolithic sites of Schöningen, Germany

Krahn

Tucci

Urban

et al. 2021

Boreas

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The archaeological sites in the open-cast mine of Schöningen, Germany, represent outstanding archives for understanding Middle Pleistocene interglacial-glacial transitions and human adaption. Aquatic microfossil and pollen assemblages from the 'Reinsdorf sequence', likely correlated to Marine Isotope Stage 9, document environmental changes from a thermal maximum to succeeding glacial conditions recorded in two sequences of excavation sites 12 II and 13 II. Multi-proxy analyses enable detailed reconstruction of lake-shore and landscape developments despite variable microfossil preservation in changing carbonate-and organic-rich deposits. Rich aquatic vegetation with abundant charophytes suggests repeated phases with water depths of 0.5-2 m at site 13 II, while even greater temporary depths are deduced for 12 II DB. Mesorheophilic and mesotitanophilic ostracod species indicate stream inflows with medium-low calcium contents of >18 mg Ca L -1 originating from nearby springs. Diatoms point to meso-eutrophic conditions and an alkaline pH of the lake water. Interglacial conditions with thermophile forests but no aquatic microfossils preserved, suggesting a dry or only temporarily flooded site, mark the beginning of the sequence. Continuous presence of aquatic organisms and overall dominance of small tychoplanktonic diatoms during a subsequent cool steppe phase provide evidence for increasedwater depths and unstable habitats characterized by erosion and probably prolonged periods of lake ice cover. During the succeeding boreal forest-steppe phase, surface runoff into the productive, shallow lake decreased due to a more extensive vegetation cover. Concurrently, intensified groundwater input in contact with the nearby salt wall caused elevated salinities. Following a lake level drop, stream inflows and lake levels increased again towards the end of the Reinsdorf sequence and promoted development of a diverse fauna and flora at the lake shore; thereby maintaining an attractive living and hunting environment for early humans during a phase of generally cooler temperatures and landscape instability at the transition into a glacial period.

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Aquatic and terrestrial proxy evidence for Middle Pleistocene palaeolake and lake‐shore development at two Lower Palaeolithic sites of Schöningen, Germany

Krahn

Tucci

Urban

et al. 2021

Boreas

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“…The faunal assemblage of Sch€ o 13II-4 consists of natural background fauna together with the remains of butchered animals (Serangeli et al, 2018). The effect of (post-)depositional processes such as fluvial transport (rolling) as well as bone weathering is limited just as the occurrence of traces of carnivore gnawing on mammal bones (Van Kolfschoten et al, 2015a).…”

Section: Archaeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The site formation history of Schöningen 13II-4 (Germany): Testing different models of site formation by means of spatial analysis, spatial statistics and orientation analysis

Peters

Kolfschoten

2020

Journal of Archaeological Science

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The Lower Palaeolithic, Middle Pleistocene locality Sch€ oningen has been a focus of archaeological research for over two decades. The locality is best-known for the discovery of wooden spears in close association with numerous butchered remains of horses and other large mammals in the Spear Horizon (Sch€ o 13II-4), with an age of ca. 300 kyr. Several site formation models have been proposed to explain the faunal accumulation at the site: 1) single hunting event on a dried lake shore; 2) multiple hunting events in the soft mud of a lake shore; 3) deposition on an exposed delta plain; 4) geogenic displacement by hydrological processes; 5) hominin waste disposal and storage behaviour; and 6) hominin butchering activities on a frozen lake surface. Visual spatial analyses allow for the (subjective) incorporation of archaeological knowledge in the interpretation of spatial data, while spatial statistics allow for more objective and reproducible inferences about spatial patterns. The combination of the two could thus provide a vital tool in disentangling complex site formation processes. This study uses a combination of visual spatial analyses, spatial statistics and orientation analyses in order to further disentangle the site formation history of Sch€ o 13II-4 and to assess the impact of post-depositional processes on the faunal assemblage. This study revealed the existence of intra-site and inter-species differences in spatial distribution and orientation. The results of this study are compared to the suggested site formation models for Sch€ o 13II-4 to test which of these models is most parsimonious with the spatial distribution and orientation of the faunal assemblage. It is concluded that the previously proposed site formation models are overly simplified and cannot be used to explain the site formation history of Sch€ o 13II-4.

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“…While the record of fossil Plio-Pleistocene hominin footprints is constantly increasing (e.g., Masao et al, 2016;Hatala et al, 2017Hatala et al, , 2020Bustos et al, 2018;Helm et al, 2018;McLaren et al, 2018;Duveau et al, 2019;Muñiz et al, 2019;Avanzini et al 2020), the integrated analysis of footprints, lithostratigraphy, palaeontology and archaeology is less common although there are exceptions and the picture is slowly changing (but cfr. Fabiano and Zucchelli, 2003;Mastrolorenzo et al, 2006;Silva et al, 2013;Pastoors et al, 2015;Mussi et al, 2016;Ledoux et al, 2017;Panarello et al, 2017Panarello et al, , 2020Altamura et al, 2018;Moreno et al, 2019;Romano et al, 2019;Serangeli et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ichnological and archaeological evidence from Gombore II OAM, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia: An integrated approach to reconstruct local environments and biological presences between 1.2 and 0.85 Ma

Altamura

Bennett

Marchetti³

et al. 2020

Quaternary Science Reviews

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New ichnological data are available at the prehistoric site of Melka Kunture, Upper Awash Valley in Ethiopia. Excavation of new test pits enabled us to explore the volcanic and fluvio-lacustrine sequence at the Gombore II Open Air Museum archaeological site (ca. 0.85 Ma). This has allowed a detailed reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment and of the fauna present in the time interval between 1.2 and 0.85 Ma. Various-sized mammals, birds, molluscs as well as hominins left tracks throughout the sequence, and document a varied fauna and associated behaviours. Most of the hominin tracks were made by young individuals on the basis of size and are some of the earlier child tracks to be reported. The mollusc traces document the presence and orientation of water streams which, according to the associated vertebrate traces, were visited by hominins, mammals and birds. Most of these traces were found within levels traditionally considered barren for archaeology, yet they all document life activity and are always in situ. This confirms the potential of the ichnological research as an important complementary tool for archaeological investigations.

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The Project Schöningen from an ecological and cultural perspective

Cited by 12 publications

References 39 publications

Aquatic and terrestrial proxy evidence for Middle Pleistocene palaeolake and lake‐shore development at two Lower Palaeolithic sites of Schöningen, Germany

Aquatic and terrestrial proxy evidence for Middle Pleistocene palaeolake and lake‐shore development at two Lower Palaeolithic sites of Schöningen, Germany

The site formation history of Schöningen 13II-4 (Germany): Testing different models of site formation by means of spatial analysis, spatial statistics and orientation analysis

Ichnological and archaeological evidence from Gombore II OAM, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia: An integrated approach to reconstruct local environments and biological presences between 1.2 and 0.85 Ma

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