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120
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Introduction
Research interests
→ Subsistence of Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in Europe,
→ Palaeoecology of Pleistocene bears,
→ Exploitation of organic raw material, organic artefacts,
→ Earliest music, bone flutes, music archaeology.
Additional affiliations
January 2004 - December 2009
Publications
Publications (120)
Oscar Fraas was one of the first natural scientists to establish the existence of Ice Age humans. From November 1854 until 1894, he held various positions in the Royal Natural History Cabinet in Stuttgart. As early as the 1860s, he conducted a series of experiments to explain and understand how traces and scratches on Ice Age bone fragments were ma...
In the Palearctic region interactions between hominins and ursids date as far back as the Lower Paleolithic.
Archeological evidence from open-air settings and cave environments shows that Paleolithic people and bears
shared the same habitats and living spaces. Additionally, anthropogenic marks on bear remains indicate that
hominins regarded bears a...
The Rhine, while separating West and Central Europe, also formed a major corridor not only for the movement of people but also of ideas during the Paleolithic. This volume by a group of researchers working along both sides of the Rhine explores both of these premises.
The present paper provides a multidisciplinary approach integrating musicological, acoustical, and manufacturing aspects to the archaeological study of the mammoth ivory instrument from Geißenklösterle Cave (GK3). We present information on the archaeological background and the find history, and new insights into the playing technique of the instrum...
Bears have consistently played an important role in human culture and behavioral evolution. Throughout the Paleolithic, ursids were not only an economic resource to exploit for fur, meat, and osseous material, but also became part of the vast array of cultural traditions of different human populations up to recent historical times (Brown, 2009; Hus...
The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was the first species to give rise to a domestic population, and they remained widespread throughout the last Ice Age when many other large mammal species went extinct. Little is known, however, about the history and possible extinction of past wolf populations or when and where the wolf progenitors of the present-day do...
The present paper attempts at understanding the background to and possible use of bear bacula in Stone Age contexts. Particular focus is given to the baculum from the Late Palaeolithic site of Bonn-Oberkassel. In order to allow for a more general interpretation of such finds, their meaning and symbolism, we compare the Palaeolithic evidence with
et...
Tübingen Publications in Prehistory reflect the work of a cooperative project between the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology of the University of Tübingen’s Institute for Pre- and Protohistory and Medieval Archaeology and Kerns Verlag to provide the results of current research in prehistoric archaeology and all its allied fields...
The branched reduction system at the Heidenschmiede described here is hitherto exceptional for the Middle Paleolithic of the Swabian Jura. By means of refits and supporting objects, we are able to describe a superordinate reduction system that combines several individual reduction concepts, such as Levallois and blade production, within one volume....
The question, whether a dog is a dog or rather a wolf, is highly debated in the field of zooarchaeology, paleogenetic, and stable isotopes. Recent evidence points towards an onset of wolf domestication in south-western Germany and northern Switzerland at around 16 to 15,000 years ago. Regarding diet of wolves and potential dogs, both groups fed on...
The question, whether a dog is a dog or rather a wolf, became recently highly debated. Recent evidence points towards an onset of domestication at around 16 to 15,000 years ago including an intriguing example of the Kesslerloch cave (CH), where beside wolf remains, one large canid has been morphologically and genetically confirmed as dog. Regarding...
Dogs are known to be the oldest animals domesticated by humans. Although many studies have examined wolf domestication, the geographic and temporal origin of this process is still being debated. To address this issue, our study sheds new light on the early stages of wolf domestication during the Magdalenian period (16–14 ka cal BP) in the Hegau Jur...
This article presents a pilot experiment conducted to better understand how Middle Pleistocene hominins might have processed and exploited elephants using simple stone and bone tools. The experiment was conducted in three phases: (1) production of small, flake-based stone tools, (2) butchery of the lower hind-leg of an Indian elephant, and (3) manu...
This article presents a pilot experiment conducted to better understand how Middle Pleistocene hominins might have processed and exploited elephants using simple stone and bone tools. The experiment was conducted in three phases: (1) production of small, flake-based stone tools, (2) butchery of the lower hind-leg of an Indian elephant, and (3) manu...
In this study, we examine the role of foxes in Palaeolithic economies, focusing on sites of the Middle Palaeolithic, Aurignacian, Gravettian and Magdalenian of the Swabian Jura. For this purpose, we used published faunal data from 26 assemblages from the region, including new information from the Magdalenian layers of Langmahdhalde. We explore how...
Fox (Vulpes vulpes and Vulpes lagopus), wolf (Canis lupus) and dog (Canis lupus familiaris) remains are commonly found in the faunal assemblages of Magdalenian sites in Central Europe. However, little is known about their ecology in terms of food preference and niche partitioning. We hypothesize that domestication leads to a new trophic niche for d...
The cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) is one of the Late Pleistocene megafauna species that faced extinction at the end of the last ice age. Although it is represented by one of the largest fossil records in Europe and has been subject to several interdisciplinary studies including palaeogenetic research, its fate remains highly controversial. Here, we us...
Helga-Abri is a rock shelter situated at the southern edge of the Hohle Fels massive in the
Ach Valley near Schelklingen (Baden-Württemberg, Germany). The site provides a strati46
graphic sequence including Late Magdalenian and Mesolithic layers. A small part was investigated
by Gustav Riek and Gisela Matschak between 1958 and 1960. Beside a profil...
The prevalence of contaminant microbial DNA in ancient bone samples represents the principal limiting factor for palaeogenomic studies, as it may comprise more than 99% of DNA molecules obtained. Efforts to exclude or reduce this contaminant fraction have been numerous but also variable in their success. Here, we present a simple but highly effecti...
The present paper examines Middle and Upper Palaeolithic retouchers recovered from various sites of the Swabian Jura located in the Ach, Lone and Lauchert river valleys of southwestern Germany. We provide an updated account of the available evidence including some of the finds retrieved over the last 50 years. Our study builds on the work of Wolfga...
The evidence of modern and complex behavior is a key debate in human evolution. Neanderthals have been excluded from this debate from many years, until new insight have provided a new conception of the Neanderthal behavior. Nevertheless, although archaeological data of complex and modern behavior has been inferred, this is not a generalized scenari...
Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is one of the main game species during the Upper Palaeolithic in the Swabian Jura. Procurement and exploitation of this mega mammal shows quantitative differences and qualitative changes between the Aurignacian and the Gravettian periods. The raw material ivory in the Aurignacian became replaced by mammoth ribs in th...
A recently identified ‘European’ clade (clade III) of woolly mammoth has been suggested to have become extinct around 34 ky cal BP, and replaced by a migrating North American clade from the east around 32 ky cal BP. However this was based on a small number of short HVR sequences. Here we present 15 complete mitochondrial genomes (>10x coverage, and...
Sub-fossilised remains may still contain highly degraded ancient DNA (aDNA) useful for palaeogenetic investigations. Whether X-ray computed [micro-] tomography ([μ]CT) imaging of these fossils may further damage aDNA remains debated. Although the effect of X-ray on DNA in living organisms is well documented, its impact on aDNA molecules is unexplor...
Sub-fossilised remains may still contain highly degraded ancient DNA (aDNA) useful for palaeogenetic investigations. Whether X-ray computed [micro-] tomography ([μ]CT) imaging of these fossils may further damage aDNA remains debated. Although the effect of X-ray on DNA in living organisms is well documented, its impact on aDNA molecules is unexplor...
In this 2nd workshop we tested smoothers for cleaning and processing skins, after reconstructing the chaîne opératoire of the smoothers made out of Proboscidian ribs during our 1st workshop (see other poster). Our research question was whether shape and polish of smoothers are produced during the processing of skin or whether this was prepared befo...
Here we describe the variability of projectile points made from bone, antler, and ivory recovered from cave sites in the Ach and Lone Valleys (Swabian Jura), focusing on Aurignacian and Gravettian assemblages. Based on the faunal provenience of the points, we recognize a distinctive change in raw material use from the Aurignacian to the Gravettian:...
Exploitation of cave bears in the Swabian and French Jura is continuing from Middle to Upper Palaeolithic
This analysis discusses mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) remains from the Aurignacian layers at the Geissenklösterle and from the Gravettian layers at the caves of Geissenklösterle, Hohle Fels and Brillenhöhle. All the caves are situated in the Ach Valley between Blaubeuren and Schelklingen in the Swabian Jura. The role of mammoth is often underesti...
This article discusses the seasonality of mammoth hunting in the Ach Valley of the Swabian Jura during the Early Upper Palaeolithic. The aging of the infantile mammoth remains of two cave sites, the Geissenklösterle and the Hohle Fels, are discussed. Some of the infant mammoth bones bear cut marks suggesting
an anthropogenic origin. In all three ma...
1973 und 1990 wurden bei archäologischen Ausgrabungen in der Geissenklösterle Höhle in Südwest-Deutschland Reste bearbeiteter Vogelknochen gefunden, die nach ihrer Zusammensetzung als Flöten erkannt wurden. Die Funde stammen
aus der Schicht des „Klassischen“ Aurignacien und wurden auf ein Alter von ca. 35 000 Jahren vor heute datiert. Weil die Flöt...
The Ach Valley has a long history of research conducted by the Institute of Prehistory and Archaeology of the Middle Ages at the University of Tübingen. During the last decades, this research focused on Geißenklösterle and Hohle
Fels sites. Other important cave sites in the Ach Valley with Gravettian occupation are Brillenhöhle and Sirgenstein (Sch...
The ancient DNA research from three geographically close caves in the Ach
valley, namely Geißenklösterle, Hohle Fels and Sirgenstein, revealed two different cave bear haplogroups, haplogroup 1 (Ursus spelaeus) and haplogroup 4 (Ursus ingressus). The latter replaced the former around 28,000 years BP (Hofreiter et al., 2002). The goal of this analysi...
First proof of cave bear hunting
Oldest und first Palaeolithic ivory flute from the cave site Geißenklösterle in the Swabian Jura.
Publication of the first bird bone flute from the Swabian Jura.
Rediscovery of the cave sediments of the Feldhofer Kirche and the Kleine Feldhofer Grotte in the Neander Valley in 1997.
This study offers an overview of carnivore remains from archaeological contexts and provides evidence of interaction between carnivores and hominins in the Swabian Jura during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic (~50,000-27,000 uncal B.P.). First, we present data on the carnivores in the faunal assemblages from the area, followed by a general comparis...
The giant deer Megaloceros giganteus is among the most fascinating Late Pleistocene Eurasian megafauna that became extinct at the end of the last ice age. Important questions persist regarding its phylogenetic relationship to contemporary taxa and the reasons for its extinction. We analyzed two large ancient cervid bone fragments recovered from cav...
Evidence of hunting and exploitation of cave bears (Ursus spelaeus, sensu lato) are recently documented
in western and eastern sites of its former European distribution in Middle and Upper Palaeolithic contexts.
Human hunting and exploitation has always been accepted for brown bears (Ursus arctos) but not
for cave bears. Recently in Hohle Fels (Swa...
The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was an emblematic and key species of the so-called mammoth steppe ecosystem between ca. 110,000 and 12,000 years ago. Its contribution to human subsistence during the Gravettian period as source of raw material was documented in southwestern France and southwestern Germany, with some evidence of active hun...
The giant deer Megaloceros giganteus is among the most fascinating Late Pleistocene Eurasian megafauna that became extinct at the end of the last ice age. Important questions persist regarding its phylogenetic relationship to contemporary taxa and the reasons for its extinction. We analyzed two large ancient cervid bone fragments recovered from cav...