Martin Kehl

• Prof. Dr. rer.nat
• Professor at University of Koblenz

With the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), hunter-gatherers of the so-called Iberomaurusian techno-complex appeared in what is now the Mediterranean Maghreb. During a period of about seven thousand years, these groups left sandy occupation layers in a limited number of archaeological sites, while at the beginning of Greenland Interstadial (G...

Abstract Loess-paleosol sequences are terrestrial archives of past climate change. They may host traces of ancient microbial life, but little information is available on the recovery of microbial biomarkers from such deposits. We hypothesized that microbial communities in soil horizons up to an age of 127 kyr carry information related to past envir...

The southern Caspian Lowland sensitively reacted to Pleistocene climate change and is a key area for reconstructing climate dynamics and landscape evolution in Southern Eurasia. Loess-paleosol sequences (LPS) of the northern foothills of Alborz Mountains provide detailed records of climate-induced changes of dust accumulation and soil formation cor...

This geoarchaeological survey was dedicated to (i) the Umm an-Nar (2700-2000 BCE) settlement site of Dahwa and surrounding areas in the foothills of the Hajar Mountains as well as (ii) the coastal area near Saham on the Batinah coastal plain in northern Oman, the latter without focus on a specific cultural epoch. Stratigraphic sections from the pro...

The extended period of coexistence between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in Europe coincided with the emergence of regionally distinctive lithic industries, signalling the onset of the Upper Palaeolithic. The Iberian Peninsula was on the periphery of pioneering Upper Palaeolithic developments, with archaeological remains primarily found in northern...

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Little information is available about the origin of loess on the Iranian Loess Plateau and along the northern foothills of the Alborz mountain range. Our well-dated multiproxy record from the Chenarli loess-paleosol sequence (LPS) fills this gap and provides a valuable paleoclimate record. Eight loess units are identified , covering the late penult...

The loess–palaeosol sequence and intercalated Palaeolithic find layers at the former brickyard of Rheindahlen are matters of ongoing scientific dispute. The age of different palaeosols and loess layers, hence their correlation with the global climate cycles, and the timing of repeated Neanderthal occupations have been hotly debated. These disagreem...

Micromorphological analysis using a petrographic microscope is one of the conventional methods to characterise microfacies in rocks (sediments) and soils. This analysis of the composition and structure observed in thin sections (TSs) yields seminal, but primarily qualitative, insights into their formation. In this context, the following question ar...

The DEN12-A02 site is situated at an altitude of 3000 meters above sea level (asl) on Mount Dendi in the western central highland of Ethiopia (Fig. 1). It lies at 8.50° N, 38.03° E. Dendi is a large silicic volcanic complex composed of trachytic and rhyolitic lava flows and domes (Zinaye, 2014). It forms part of the Yerer-Tullu-Wellel volcano-tecto...

Molluscs used as personal adornment in Gravettian context are scarce in the Iberian Peninsula.Less than 200 pieces have been barely found along the Mediterranean, and most of them incoastal sites. This article presents thirteen new items–in the majority of marine origin–found by a Spanish-German team during a joint research project in Cueva de Arda...

The long record of human occupation in the Iranian Highlands reflects the adaptive capacities of hunter-gatherers, farmers and herdsmen to adverse environmental conditions of ecologically sensitive drylands. Incidences of drought affect such ecosystems and pose risks for (pre-)modern societies. We here review sedimentary evidence of Holocene climat...

Until now, it was considered certain that the last reindeer hunters of the Ahrensburgian (tanged point groups) existed exclusively in northwestern Central Europe during the Younger Dryas Cold Period (~ Greenland Stadial 1). The excavations carried out since 2006 on the forecourt (Vorplatz) of the small Blätterhöhle in Hagen on the northern edge of...

We present stratigraphic, magnetic, diffuse reflectance spectrophotometric analyses, and chronologic data for the Chenarli loess–paleosol sequence in northeastern Iran. Eight loess units (LU) are identified, described, and constrained in time based on relative stratigraphy and luminescence dating from >130 ± 9.1 ka to ~9.8 ± 0.7 ka. Our data indica...

The long-term presence of Neanderthals in western Eurasia suggests that they were a resilient hominin subspecies. Archaeological records and fossil evidence shows that towards their extinction, their territory was dramatically limited for various reasons including restricted food resources. Recent excavations at the Bawa Yawan rockshelter have obta...

The study of the cultural materials associated with the Neanderthal physical remains from the sites in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Siberian Altai and adjacent areas documents two distinct techno-complexes of Micoquian and Mousterian. These findings potentially outline two dispersal routes for the Neanderthals out of Europe. Using data on topogra...

The Cueva de Ardales is a hugely important Palaeolithic site in the south of the Iberian Peninsula owing to its rich inventory of rock art. From 2011–2018, excavations were carried out in the cave for the first time ever by a Spanish-German research team. The excavation focused on the entrance area of the cave, where the largest assemblage of non-f...

The Sodicho Rockshelter in the southwestern Ethiopian Highlands presents a unique site that contains sediments of Upper Pleistocene and Holocene occupation phases of hunter-gatherer communities. Excavations and previous geoarchaeological research provided a first 14 C chronostratigraphic framework for the last 27 ka cal BP, which supports the hypot...

published in: Bonner Jahrbücher 2021, 221, 2022 ,3-64 will be free to open access in the course of 2024 here: https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/bjb/issue/archive

As the south-westernmost region of Europe, the Iberian Peninsula stands as a key area for understanding the process of modern human dispersal into Eurasia. However, the precise timing, ecological setting and cultural context of this process remains controversial concerning its spatiotemporal distribution within the different regions of the peninsul...

The Laacher See Volcano (LSV) is located at the western margin of the Neuwied Basin, the central part of the Middle Rhine Basin of Germany. Its paroxysmal Plinian eruption c. 13 ka ago (Laacher See event; LSE) deposited a complex tephra sequence in the Neuwied Basin, whilst the distal ashes became one of the most important chronostratigraphic marke...

Atapuerca, Orce, Cueva Negra y sima de las Palomas del Cabezo Gordo, cuenca de Baza, Maltravieso, sierra Mágina, Zafarraya, Ardales y sima de las Palomas de Teba, La Araña, valle de Lozoya, Doñana... La península ibérica tiene un gran protagonismo en la historia de la evolución humana. Su posición geográfica de puente entre dos continentes (África...

The site of Ifri El Baroud has one of the longest sequences excavated in recent times in NE Morocco, covering a chronology of ca. 23-13 ka cal BP. The sequence includes Early and Late Iberomaurusian levels and offers the possibility of investigating the economic, social and environmental processes that took place during this period. In this paper w...

Two loess-paleosol sequences from the Heilbronn Basin in southwestern Germany, Frankenbach and Talheim, have been investigated to gain information about environmental conditions during the last interglacial-glacial cycle. Since paleoenvironmental research on terrestrial archives is crucial for understanding past climatic and environmental condition...

The database contains 361 sites with a chronology from 57,000-12,000 yrs cal BP. They represent at least 588 occupation events.

Un equipo interdisciplinar internacional viene realizando nuevas investigaciones en Cueva de Ardales (Ardales, Málaga) y en Sima de las Palomas (Teba, Málaga), enmarcadas en un Proyecto General de Investigación autorizado por la Junta de Andalucía. Presentamos un avance de los datos obtenidos en ambas cavidades en relación a la ocupación vinculada...

In the Golestan province in northern Iran extensive loess deposits, and widespread loess-derived soils crop out. While a strong precipitation gradient (200–700 mm per year) from North to South is characteristic, temperature differences are negligible (17–18 °C per year). Recently, many studies on loess-derived palaeosols and modern soils from this...

Located at the center of the Cantabrian coast in a sedimentary terrace currently at the sea shore, the site of Bañugues (Gozón, Asturias) is one of the key places for studying the first settlements of the Iberian North. In the present work, we show the results of the geoarchaeological study undertaken on the bay of Bañugues and on the stratigraphic...

Loess palaeosol sequences (LPSs), widely spread over the northern hemisphere and especially Eurasia, are valuable records for various palaeoenvironmental parameters. Here, a LPS from northern Iran (Agh Band) was analysed in terms of rock-and palaeomagnetic proxies. The study site is located in the so-called Iranian loess plateau with an average ann...

The work undertaken at the Jarama VI site (Valdesotos, Guadalajara, Spain) in the 1990s resulted in the recovery of thousands of archeological remains from the three Pleistocene sedimentary units of this cavity. Prior to the systematic analysis of the lithic material and the reception of new geochronological data, it had been suggested that the upp...

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions in soil carbonates and in soil organic matter provide insights into (paleo) climatic conditions, especially in arid and semiarid regions where carbonate is abundant in soils. We here investigate δ13C and δ18O isotope composition of bulk carbonate, pedogenic carbonate nodules and organic carbon from mode...

This paper investigates the correlation between climate, environment and human land use in the Westernmost Mediterranean on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar during the Late Glacial. Using a multi-proxy approach on a sample of 300 sites from the Solutrean and Magdalenian of the Iberian Peninsula and from the Iberomaurusian in Morocco, we find e...

Classic models on population dynamics in inland Iberia during Marine Isotope Stage 2 have depicted this area, dominated by the Spanish plateau, as nearly unpopulated until Magdalenian times. In recent years, some researchers have questioned these models, mainly based on new field data. Preliminary evidence coming from the Peña Capón rock shelter ha...

An international team began initial excavations in Ardales Cave (Ardales, Málaga) and in Sima de las Palomas (Teba, Málaga) within the framework of a General Research Project authorized by the Junta of Andalusia. Ardales Cave is a site well known for the importance of its Palaeolithic rock art. In this new project, excavations were carried out in z...

Little attention has been given to the nature and sources of airborne dust affecting northeastern Iran. The objectives of this study were to examine the concentrations of selected potentially toxic elements (i.e., Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn), distinguish geogenic from anthropogenic sources, and assess the pollution intensity. A total of 600 sam...

The clay mineralogy and geochemistry of loess is sensitive to variations in sediment source area, transport processes and weathering regime over time, and thus careful study of them can provide some insight into past climate variability. The well-known loess–paleosol sequences (Upper Pleistocene Loess (UPL)) on the Iranian Loess plateau (ILP) are g...

In order to investigate the development of forest soils formed on loess, six representative modern soil pedons were selected along a precipitation gradient extending from eastern Golestan (mean annual precipitation, MAP = 500 mm) to eastern Mazandaran Provinces (MAP = 800 mm). Physiochemical, micromorphological and magnetic properties, as well as c...

Loess-Paleosol PSD

Die Funde der Speläologen des Arbeitskreises Kluterthöhle e.V. von 2004 und die Grabungen der Jahre 2006–2017 haben in der Blätterhöhle frühmesolithische und jung- bis spätneolithische Menschenrestezutage gefördert. Durch die archäologischen Ausgrabungen seit 2006 konnte auch auf dem Vorplatz der Höhle eine überregional bedeutende Abfolge mesolithi...

The so-called Iranian loess plateau is a unique landscape with a complex topography and steppe vegetation developed under semi-arid climate. We studied the relationships between geomorphic features, soils, biomass of above-ground vegetation (biomass) and soil organic carbon storage (SOCS) to further enhance our understanding of geomorphological pro...

The recent discovery of Late Acheulean sites from Mount Dendi/Ethiopia (3270 m a.s.l.) questions the general assumption that high altitude mountain habitats (> 2500 m a.s.l.) are unfavorable for human occupation and that a late colonization of such areas has to be assumed. A total of 52 archaeological sites from all Stone Age periods were found on...

Introduction: The loess-paleosol sequences in Northern Iran are important archives that represent several cycles of Quaternary climate change and can be used to complete the information gap on loess between Europe and central Asia. Last interglacial soils derived from loess in northern Iran is represented by strongly developed Bt horizons of forest...

The spatial distribution and dating of archaeological sites suggest a poor occupation of southern Iberia by hunter-gatherers after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and during Heinrich event 1 (H1) compared to Northern Iberia. The H1 was a period of cold and arid climate conditions and is suspected to have played an important role in the population dy...

The existence of an early Upper Palaeolithic culture at the transition from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Upper Palaeolithic in North African cave sites is currently under debate. We studied Ifri n‘Ammar in North-East Morocco, which is one of the oldest settlement sites of anatomically modern humans (AMH) in the Maghreb and contains several sedime...

Abstract In order to investigate the degree of development of modern forest soils formed on loess, six representative soil pedons were selected along a precipitation gradient in Golestan and Mazandaran provinces. Physiochemical and micromorphological properties of soils were studied. Soils are mainly classified as Alfisols and Mollisols. The resu...

The timing of the late Middle Paleolithic and late disappearance of Neanderthals in the Iberian Peninsula are hotly debated subjects in Paleolithic archeology. Several studies suggested a late survival in South and Central Iberia until about 32 ka, but were probably subject to significant age underestimation due to contamination of dating samples,...

Dust deposition rates depend mainly on the rate of dust supply, climatic conditions, and topography in the source and sink areas. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of these variables in the spatial and temporal variation of airborne dust fallout in Khorasan Razavi Province, Northeast Iran. Airborne dust samples were collected...

The dating and spatial distribution of archaeological sites on the Iberian Peninsula (IP) suggest a poor occupation of the Southern IP by hunter-gatherers after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and during Heinrich event 1 (H1) compared to Northern Iberia. The H1 was a period of cold and arid climate conditions and is assumed to have played an importa...

Paleosols in Iran have received less attention than modern soils, although Quaternary deposits and exposures therein are widespread. The chapter gives a short introduction into the general nature of buried and relict paleosols and on methodological aspects how to recognize, characterize and date paleosols. Examples are given for Pre-quaternary and...

The archaeological sequence of the Palaeolithic site of La Güelga apparently shows an interstratification of Aurignacian between the Mousterian and Châtelperronian layers, a sequence which disagrees with the stratigraphic model for the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in SW-Europe. We analyzed the witness section of the interior sector in ar...

The area in the Central Eastern Desert at the limestone hogback of Gebel Duwi near Wadi Sodmein is currently under investigation in the Collaborative Research Centre 806 “Our Way to Europe”, (University of Cologne) in collaboration with the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority (EMRA). In a joint fieldtrip in 2017 from CRC 806 and EMRA at Wadi Sodme...

In southern Eurasia recurrent phases of aridization, dust source extension and enhanced Aeolian sedimentation alternated with moister intervals, promoting reduced deflation areas and dust accumulation in the context of late Pleistocene climate changes. Weathering and soil forming intensity in this greater region are, hence, mainly governed by fluct...

An accurate geomorphometric description of the Iranian loess plateau landscape will further enhance our understanding of recent and past geomorphological processes in this strongly dissected landscape. Therefore, four different input datasets for four landform classification methods were used in order to derive the most accurate results in comparis...

Two loess-paleosol sequences from the Heilbronn Basin in southwestern Germany, Frankenbach and Talheim, have been investigated to gain information about environmental conditions during the last interglacial-glacial cycle. Since paleoenvironmental research on terrestrial archives is crucial for a better understanding of past climatic and environment...

Introduction: Topography exerts a first-order control over insolation, water and nutrient fluxes, and vegetation patterns, causing differences between south and north facing slopes (Yetemen et al. 2015). Understanding of the relationships between aspect of slope, soil, biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC) storage is important for the evaluation of...

Investigations of loess-paleosol sequences from Northern Iran are important because this region is a key area between the European and Asian loess zones. Diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry (DRS) provides a (semi) quantitative method to determine mass concentrations of hematite (Hm) as low as ~0.01wt% in loess-paleosol sequences and also has...

Paleoclimatic investigations on loess-paleosol sequences from northern Iran are important due to the specific location of this region, which may help to trace key features of loess stratigraphy along the Southern Eurasian loess belt. The oxygen and carbon isotopic composition of soil and other near surface carbonates is widely used in the geolo...

Biological soil crusts are widely distributed in loess and sand dune surfaces of the arid and semi-arid regions. These crusts play an important role in soil development and stability and improving nutritional conditions in areas possessing sparse vascular plant cover. In recent years, researchers examined a specific type of biological soil crusts c...

The mineralogical composition of airborne dust changes depending on the mineralogy of the source area. The presence of specific minerals could be used as a tool to trace the sources of dust particles and this mineral may then be suggested as an origin-tracer. In other words, dust reflects the mineralogical composition of the source locations (M...

Ifri El Baroud (34°45´N, 3°18´W), located at 535 m. a. s. l. on the northern slope of the Ich Chaboun massif in Northeast Morocco, constitutes one of the few sites in the whole Maghreb –together with Ifri n’Ammar – that yield a complete Later Stone Age sequence (late Upper Palaeolithic), including the transition from Late Pleistocene to Holocene, r...

Introduction and objectives Although the Iberian Peninsula is a key area for understanding the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition and the demise of the Neandertals, valuable evidence for these debates remains scarce and problematic in its interior regions. Sparse data supporting a late Neandertal persistence in the Iberian interior have been re...

Supporting tables on micromorphology and archeozoology and taphonomy. (PDF)

Our study focuses on the ephemeral stream deposits of Wadi Selloum to identify phases of morphodynamic stability (pedogenesis) and activity (flooding) in the direct vicinity of the rock shelter of Ifri n'Ammar (NE Morocco). As one of the oldest settlement sites of anatomically modern humans (AMH) in North Africa, Ifri n'Ammar documents periodical o...

The timing of Neanderthal disappearance in the Iberian Peninsula is a hotly debated subject in Palaeolithic archaeology. Several studies suggested a late survival in South and Central Iberia until about 32,000 year ago (ka), but were probably subject to significant age underestimation due to contamination of dating samples and/or lack of stratigrap...

Archaeological sequences require accurate and precise numerical chronologies. Mostly, these sediments are strati-graphically complex and challenging to date. Post-depositional mixing, contamination from a collapsing cave roof, microdosimetry or insufficient bleaching prior to burial may influence the luminescence dating results. Careful sample sele...

The late persistence in Southern Iberia of a Neandertal-associated Middle Paleolithic is supported by the archeological stratigraphy and the radiocarbon and luminescence dating of three newly excavated localities in the Mula basin of Murcia (Spain). At Cueva Antón, Mousterian layer I-k can be no more than 37,100 years-old. At La Boja, the basal Aur...

We present partial results obtained in an interdisciplinary research project focused on the human settlement of the Guadalajara province (Spain) during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. The excavation of the Peña Capón, Peña Cabra and Los Casares sites have shown outstanding evidence for investigating population dynamics and human-environment inte...

We present partial results obtained in an interdisciplinary research project focused on the human settlement of the Guadalajara province (Spain) during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. The excavation of the Peña Capón, Peña Cabra and Los Casares sites have shown outstanding evidence for investigating population dynamics and human-environment inte...

In southern Africa, Middle Stone Age sites with long sequences have been the focus of intense international and interdisciplinary research over the past decade (cf. Wadley 2015). Two techno-complexes of the Middle Stone Age—the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort—have been associated with many technological and behavioural innovations of Homo sapiens . T...

Zilhão et al 2016. Cueva Antón: A multi-proxy MIS 3 to MIS 5a paleoenvironmental record for SE Iberia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 146. Supplementary Information – Tables.

Zilhão et al. 2016. Cueva Antón: A multi-proxy MIS 3 to MIS 5a paleoenvironmental record for SE Iberia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 146. Supplementary Information – Figures.

Overlying a palustrine deposit of unknown age (complex FP), and protected from weathering and erosion inside a large cave/rock-shelter cavity, the sedimentary fill of Cueva Antón, a Middle Paleolithic site in SE Spain, corresponds in most part (sub-complexes AS2-to-AS5) to a ca.3 m-thick Upper Pleistocene terrace of the River Mula. Coupled with the...

Introduction: Knowledge about palaeoenviroment and palaeovegetation provides information about how vegetation reacts on climate fluctuations in the past, what will help understanding current and future developments caused by e.g. climate change. Northern Iranian Loess-Plateau forms a strongly dissected landscape with steeply sloping loess hills. Th...

The Iranian loess plateau is covered by loess deposits, up to 70 m thick. Tectonic uplift triggered deep erosion and valley incision into the loess and underlying marine deposits. Soil development strongly relates to the aspect of these incised slopes, because on northern slopes vegetation protects the soil surface against erosion and facilitates f...

The loess deposits in Iran are a valuable archive of regional paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental information. Extensive sedimentological and chronological studies have been carried out on the middle to upper Pleistocene loess successions during the past decades, but there is an absence of comparable research in the older loess deposits. Recently,...

The Northern Iranian loess profiles host important information on Quaternary climate and palaeoenvironmental changes in the region. They build an important link between the Eurasian loess belt and European and Central Asian archives. Due to a climatic gradient with decreasing precipitation from the west to the east and from the south to the north,...