Amélie Vialet

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle · Department of Prehistory

The results of the surface prospection in Denizli province in 2019 and 2020.

Par sa position centrale au cœur de l’Eurasie et à la sortie de l’Afrique, via le corridor levantin, il était attendu que la Turquie joue un rôle majeur dans l’histoire des premiers peuplements humains. Paradoxalement, les vestiges mis au jour jusqu’à présent pour retracer cette préhistoire ancienne sont rares. La raison principale en est la primau...

It has long been believed that Neanderthals originated and flourished on the European continent. However, recent morphological and genetic studies have suggested that they may have received a genetic contribution from a yet unknown non-European group. Here we report on the recent discovery of archaic Homo fossils from the site of Nesher Ramla, Isra...

Résumé En 1863, lorsqu’une mandibule humaine est découverte dans la carrière de Moulin-Quignon (Abbeville, Somme), elle contribue à la démonstration de Jacques Boucher de Perthes (1788–1868) prouvant l’existence d’un homme antédiluvien, artisan des bifaces récoltés à plusieurs mètres de profondeur, juste au-dessus du substrat de craie. Cette découv...

Cereals are a central resource for the human diet and are traditionally assumed to have evolved from wild grasses at the onset of the Neolithic under the pressure of agriculture. Here we demonstrate that cereals may have a significantly longer and more diverse lineage, based on the study of a 0–2.3 Ma, 601 m long sedimentary core from Lake Acıgöl (...

Les îles de la partie ouest de l'archipel indonésien est un point chaud pour l’etude de paléoanthropologique. Pendant Quaternaire il a affectées par les changements du climat et du niveau marin, les hominines ont migré et se sont parfois trouvés isolés, au cours du Pléistocène. Le but de cette étude est de caractériser la variabilité des anciennes...

Islands of the western part of the Indonesian archipelago were impacted by climatic and sea level changes during Pleistocene, which affected the dispersals and/or isolation of hominins in this region. This study aims to characterize the diversity of ancient human populations in the Sundaland based on dental collections from several localities in Su...

Human remains dating back to the Early and Middle Holocene in the western Indonesian archipelago are mostly found in habitat and burial sites such as caves and rock shelters at the Southern and Northern mountains of Java, Southern and Western mountains of Sumatra [1], or in sites reflecting human activities like shell midden on the Eastern coast of...

Here, we present a metric and morphological study of the molar remains from the Montmaurin-La Niche mandible by means of microcomputed tomography. According to the last analysis, based on the combination of geomorphological and paleontological data, the level bearing this human mandible probably corresponds to the marine isotope stages (MIS) 7. The...

Homo erectus paleoenvironments in the early Pleistocene Denizli Basin: an integrated paleontological, sedimentological and geochemical approach

A 601 m long sedimentary sequence was drilled in Lake Acigöl, located in the lakes region of SW Anatolia, near the Denizli travertine from which the oldest hominin of Turkey was unearthed. Among all dating methods applied to the sedimentary sequence, paleomagnetism, through the recognition of geomagnetic chrons, was the most successful and led to a...

Hominin variability in Java Island should be impacted by the dynamics of Pleistocene climatic and related biogeographical patterns changes. The aim of this study is to characterize the diversity of Javan hominins by exploring the external dental morphological features. We applied metric measurements and observations of the external characters using...

In 1945, the activity of the quarries settled near the village of Montmaurin, 75km southwest from Toulouse in France, led to the discovery of several caves filled by archeological deposits. After the visit done by H. Begouën and the Abbey H. Breuil, L. Méroc did excavations from 1946 to 1961 mainly in the Coupe-Gorge cavity which has yielded a lot...

La construction du savoir en préhistoire prend sa source sur le terrain, et sa validité dépend des conditions dans lesquelles s’effectuent les recherches. Dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, l’application de la nouvelle réglementation des fouilles en France et l’utilisation de méthodes d’enregistrement spatial des vestiges témoignent de cet enjeu...

In 1945, the activity of the quarries settled near the village of Montmaurin, 75km south-west from Toulouse in France, led to the discovery of several caves filled by archeological deposits. After the visit done by H. Begouën and the Abbey H. Breuil, L. Méroc started excavations from 1946 to 1961 mainly in the Coupe-Gorge cavity which has yielded a...

L'homme fossile d'Asselar, découvert en 1927 dans l'actuel Mali, n'a été que peu exploité depuis l'étude de Boule et Vallois (1932). Daté de l'Holocène ancien, il est, avec la série d'Hassi-el-Abiod, un témoin des populations vivant dans un Sahara alors « vert », bien différent de celui que nous connaissons aujourd'hui. L'hypothèse d'un dépôt funér...

The fossilized human skeleton of Asselar was discovered in 1927 in present-day Mali. This specimen has been very little studied since it was first described by Boule and Vallois (1932). Dated to the early Holocene, it provides, together with the Hassi-el-Abiod series, evidence of the human groups who lived in then the fertile Sahara, which was very...

Objectives: This study aims to explore the affinities of the Sima de los Huesos (SH) population in relation to Homo neanderthalensis, Arago, and early and contemporary Homo sapiens. By characterizing SH intra-population variation, we test current models to explain the Neanderthal origins. Materials and methods: Three-dimensional reconstructions...

The Kocabaş skullcap (Denizli Basin), dated between 1.2 and 1.6 Ma, is the only ancient hominin fossil from Turkey and is part of discussions focusing on the first settlement outside the African continent. Our morphometric study tends to link this specimen with the African fossils, Homo ergaster and early Homo erectus, and to distinguish it from th...

We here present a comparative study of the Montmaurin-LN Middle Pleistocene mandible (Haute-Garonne, France). This mandible, of which its right and left molar series are preserved in situ, was found in La Niche cave (Montmaurin’s karst system) in 1949, and was first attributed to the ‘Mindel-Riss’ interglacial (= MIS 9 to 11) based on its geologica...

Dendrogram showing the results of the clustering analysis, when we include a reduced number of variables in order to include more specimens. Ward method and binary distance are used. Only bootstrap probabilities (in blue) over or equal to 70% are shown. (TIFF)

Correspondence analysis biplots between dimension 1 and dimension 2. A biplot including all of the variables is represented on the left-hand side, while the one with a reduced number of variables is on the right. Light blue dots represent modern H. sapiens. (TIF)

List of features used in the phenetic analysis. See S2 Table for the individual scoring. (DOCX)

Scoring of the features defined in S1 Table for different Pleistocene Homo mandibles. See Table 1 in the main text. (DOCX)

Percentage of inertia explained by the dimensions of the correspondence analysis using all variables in this study (left) and a reduced dataset (right). The horizontal red lines represent the threshold of an optimal dimensionality of the solution according to the average rule. (TIF)

Dans le bassin de Denizli - localité de Kocabaş - au sud-ouest de la Turquie, un crâne fragmentaire a été découvert, il y a 15 ans [Kappelman et al. 2008, Alçiçek 2014, Alçiçek et Alçiçek 2014]. Les datations indiquent un âge entre 1,6 et 1,2 Ma obtenu par la magnétostratigraphie pour toute la séquence des dépôts [Khatib et al. 2014] et les nucléid...

On the Anatolian plateau, which is one of the major migratory axis of hominin populations from Africa, the oldest Homo erectus of Turkey was found in the Kocabaş locality of the Denizli Basin [1,2] and dated to ca 1.6–1.2 Ma. Numerous fossils from fauna were discovered in the same geological formation of this fragmentary skull attesting to the pres...

A la faveur de l’exploitation d’une carrière, plusieurs cavités ont été identifiées dans le massif karstique de Montmaurin, près de Saint-Gaudens en Haute-Garonne : la grotte de Montmaurin et de La Terrasse (niveau supérieur), celles de Coupe-Gorge et La Niche (niveau moyen) et les 4 grottes contigües du Putois (niveau inférieur). A partir de 1945,...

En 1863 et 1864, sous l’impulsion de Jacques Boucher de Perthes (1788-1868), une série de restes humains fut mise au jour dans la carrière de Moulin Quignon, près d’Abbeville dans la Somme, site connu quelques temps auparavant pour avoir livré des industries lithiques de type acheuléen permettant la reconnaissance « officielle » de la grande antiqu...

En mars 1863, Jacques Boucher de Perthes découvre dans les alluvions de Moulin Quignon (Abbeville, France) une mandibule humaine associée à des artéfacts lithiques et à des ossements de grands mammifères fossiles. Rapidement contestée, cette découverte va apparaître comme une supercherie dont le préhistorien aurait été la victime. Depuis cette époq...

La collection de Moulin Quignon est une collection cohérente, malgré la diversité de ses pièces, dans la certitude de sa provenance et dans son rattachement aux recherches menées sur le site en 1863–1864. Considérée comme historique et patrimoniale, son étude a permis néanmoins de livrer des informations scientifiques importantes et valables pour l...

Due to an increasing Middle Pleistocene human fossil record in Europe, Homo heidelbergensis species has become one of the most debated species in the last two decades. While the Middle Pleistocene populations of Europe have been generally related to Neanderthal clade, the precise taxonomic and phylogenetic relationship with H. neanderthalensis rema...

The Kocabaş travertines that host the earliest Homo erectus from Anatolia (Turkey) are laterally interfngering with a succession of lake and playa type of deposits which shed light on the palaeoenvironmental conditions in which Denizli man lived. We studied the sedimentary succession encompassed from 1.2 to 1.6 Ma based on cosmogenic nucleids (2...

La Caune de l’Arago renferme plusieurs dizaines d’unités archéostratigraphiques riches en matériel d’origine anthropique. La subdivision des niveaux, bien que perfectible par nature, montre une variété importante qui révèle la diversité des comportements techniques et de subsistance au cours du temps.

During years 1863 and 1864, Jacques Boucher de Perthes (1788-1868) drove the discovery of a series of human remains from the Moulin Quignon stone pit, near Abbeville (Somme, France), site known for a while for its Acheulean lithic industry regarded as an official evidence for the great antiquity of Man. These anthropological remains, instead of sup...

Honaz ilçesi Kocabaş beldesinde 2002 yılında M.C. Alçiçek tarafından Anadolu’nun ilk insan fosili Homo erectus kafatası parçalarının bulunmasının ardından yöredeki insan yerleşimi bilinenden çok eskilere dayandığı ortaya çıkmıştır (1, 2). İnsan fosilinin yanı sıra birlikte yaşadığı ve avladığı mamut, gergedan, zürafa, at ve geyik (Mammuthus meridio...

Anatolia is a key region to follow the modalities of hominin dispersals within Eurasia from Africa. However, few hominin fossils are known in the region except for the fragmentary skull discovered during travertine block cutting at Kocabaş in southwest Anatolia (Denizli Basin). Firstly, this fossil was reconstructed using CT and 3D imaging techn...

Methods of paleoradiology by micro-CT are only applicable to clarify the lesions aspect: Some morphological changes are difficult to interpret using classical methods, but 3D imagining allows to virtually reconstruct the initial location and aspect of the infectious process, as well as its possible diffusion to the surrounding soft tissues  Method...

Dans le bassin de Denizli (localité de Kocabaş) au sud-ouest de la Turquie, un crâne fragmentaire a été découvert, il y a plus de 10 ans. Découpé en « tranche » par les lames des machines utilisées dans la carrière, il est composé de 3 fragments : la partie droite de l’os frontal, la partie antérieure de l’os pariétal droit et un fragment de fronto...

Dans le bassin de Denizli (localité de Kocabaş) au sud-ouest de la Turquie, un crâne fragmentaire a été découvert, il y a plus de 10 ans. Découpé en « tranche » par les lames des machines utilisées dans la carrière, il est composé de 3 fragments : la partie droite de l’os frontal, la partie antérieure de l’os pariétal droit et un fragment de fronto...

Dans le bassin de Denizli (localité de Kocabaş) au sud-ouest de la Turquie, un crâne fragmentaire a été découvert, il y a plus de 10 ans. Découpé en « tranche » par les lames des machines utilisées dans la carrière, il est composé de 3 fragments : la partie droite de l’os frontal, la partie antérieure de l’os pariétal droit et un fragment de fronto...

In 2002, a fragmentary fossil hominid was discovered by Mehmet Cihat Alcicek in the Denizli Basin (locality of Kocaba?) in the south-west of Turkey. Recently, a multidisciplinary study combining cosmogenic nuclide concentration (26Al/10Be) and paleomagnetic measurements with sedimentological observations provided an absolute chronological framework...

Due to new discoveries and interpretations, the evolution of the genus Homo during the Early and the Middle Pleistocene in Europe has become a topic of great interest. The archaeological, paleontological and molecular evidences suggest that the settlement of the European continent depended upon the non-linear recruitment of populations and complex...

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In 2002, a fragmentary skullcap was discovered in Denizli basin, in the locality of Kocabaş, in the southwest of Turkey (Kappelman et al., 2008). The skullcap was ascribed to Homo erectus on the basis of morphological and metric similarities with the Chinese fossils from Zhoukoudian L-C ( Vialet et al., 2012). An in-depth morphological and metric a...

Since its discovery within a travertine quarry, the fragmentary cranium of the only known Turkish Homo erectus, the Kocabaş hominid, has led to conflicting biochronological estimations. First estimated to be ∼500 ka old, the partial skull presents a combination of archaic and evolved features that puts it as an intermediate specimen between the Dma...

During the well known Augiéras-Draper mission which took place in 1927 and 1928 between Dakar and Alger through the Sahara desert, T. Monod and V. Besnard discovered a human skeleton near the military post of Asselar in French Sudan (current Mali). Back in France, the fossil was given to the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine where M. Boule and H. V...

In 2010, the foundation Institut de paléontologie humaine (Paris) acquired an assembled skeleton of woolly rhinoceros, Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach, 1799). Its exceptional state of preservation allowed a multidisciplinary study: anatomical, biometrical, geochronological (AMS radiocarbon dating on horn and some bones) and biogeochemical analy...

Few human fossils are known in Turkey and no Homo erectus has been discovered until now. In this respect, the newly discovered partial skull from Kocabaş is very important: (1) to assess the pattern of the first settlements throughout the Old World; and (2) to document the extension of the species H. erectus to the west of continental Asia. Using C...

S / ABSTRACTS ABSTRACTS / ABSTRACTS ABSTRACTS / © Société d'anthropologie de Paris et Springer-Verlag France 2011 1836 es journées de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris, 26-28 janvier 2011, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris Résumés des communications orales et aff chées Communication inaugurale du thème « Histoire évolutive de la relatio...

LUMLEY DE H., CAUCHE D., CELIBERTI V., KHATIB S., LARTIGOT-CAMPIN A.-S., LEBATARD A.-E., LEBEGUE F., MENRAS C., MESTOUR B., MOIGNE A.-M., MOLES V., MOULLE P.-E., NOTTER O., PERRENOUD C., ROCHETTE P., ROSSONI E., SAOS T., VIALET A., WENGLER L., BOURLES D., BRAUCHER R., LEE Y.-J., PARK Y.-C., HAN C.-G., BAE K., YI S., HONG M.-Y., CHO T.-S., KONG S.,...