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Late Glacial hunter-gatherer reactions to the Younger Dryas cooling event in the southern and eastern Baltic regions of Europe
Abstract
a b s t r a c t The sudden climatic change of Younger Dryas in the southern and eastern Baltic regions caused a change of birch-pine forests into park tundra and the return of reindeer herds from the north. This environ-mental impact seems to have led to notable changes in local hunter-gatherer tool-kits and subsistence and mobility behaviors depending mainly on reindeer herds in northern Central Europe. After initial glacial retreat, the Baltic was first an inland lake and at the end of Younger Dryas, the Yoldia Sea. Throughout these regions, various tanged point groups (Brommean, Ahrensburgian, Swiderian and Desnenian) dominated, broadly overlapping one other in time. They were well adapted to local envi-ronment niches in spite of difficult climatic conditions. Swiderian and other groups living in Poland, Belarus and Lithuania developed a complex system of lithic raw material procurement and exchange over distances up to 600 km. They used core reduction methods to make straight blades for points. With the improvement of climate in Preboreal, tanged point groups either moved northward or changed their technology into that of Mesolithic microliths.
... The first phase of occupation is related to the Federmesser Culture (Lubrza sites 10 and 42), a toolmaking tradition which was part of the Arch-Backed Piece Technocomplex (ABP). ABP sites are known from vast areas of Western (including the British Isles) and Central Europe (Barton, 1991;Bodu and Valentin, 1997;Burdukiewicz, 2011;Grimm, 2019;Grimm et al., 2020;Kabaciński and Sobkowiak-Tabaka, 2010;Kaminská, 2007;Pettitt and White, 2012;Schild et al., 2011;Sobkowiak-Tabaka, 2016a;Taute, 1963), developing from the second part of the Bølling until the beginning of the Younger Dryas (ca. 12,200 -10,600 BCE, Sobkowiak-Tabaka, 2017). ...
... The second, most intensive, phase of occupation at Lubrza is associated with the so-called Swiderian Culture (site 10, 11, 37 and 42), related to the Tanged Points Technocomplex (TPT). Communities representing this tradition spanned the territory from the North European Plain up to northern Scandinavia and Estonia and from the British Isles to the central Volga River (Burdukiewicz, 2011;Kozłowski, 1993;Taute, 1968) between 10,800 and 9400 BCE (Sobkowiak-Tabaka, 2016b). ...
Post-depositional fire events significantly affecting flint concentrations obstruct the location of hearths in LatePalaeolithic open air camps. Lacking the location of fireplaces in the settlement structure, an analysis meetsdifficulties in approaching activities and daily life at open-air camps. The proposed research procedure concerns the quantitative characteristics of the domestic units and integral parts of workshops, which included hearths,enabling the interpretation of flint concentrations, even if they have been affected by natural fire. The procedure was tested through its application to several Swiderian sites on the North European Plain.
... Notable regional variations in flint assemblages along with a wide chronological span of their occurrence provoked the distinction of several taxonomic units ranked as cultures, groups or types: Azilian, Federmesser-Gruppen, Tarnovian Culture, Witovian Culture, Kamienna variant, Penknife Point Phase, Hengistbury Head type, Curved-Backed Point Groups, Arch-backed Point Technocomplex, Ostroměř group, Tišnov Type and Kamienna variant. Inventories associated with aforementioned entities are known from a wide area in Western (including the British Isles) and Central Europe (Barton 1991;Bodu, Valentin 1997;Svoboda et al. 2002:244;Kaminská 2007;Vencl 2007;Burdukiewicz 2011;Schild et al. 2011:125 -130; Pettitt, White 2012:477 -489; Gonzáles-Morales 2014; Sobkowiak-Tabaka 2016a). Occurrence of such inventories has been reported even from Western Russia (Zhilin 1996). ...
... Our analysis focuses the Federmesser groups, which inhabited the North European Plain during Late Glacial, from the second half of the Bølling until the beginning of the Younger Dryas, 12 240 -10 630 BC (Sobkowiak-Tabaka 2017:323 -324). About 500 sites, which are different in size and function and mainly represented by short-or long-lasting camps, have been recognized in this area (Burdukiewicz 2011). Cemeteries are completely unknown. ...
... The first phase of occupation is related to the Federmesser Culture (sites 10 and 42), a toolmaking tradition which was part of the Arch Backed Piece Technocomplex (ABP). ABP sites are known from vast areas of Western (including the British Isles) and Central Europe (Street et al. 2002;Barton 1991;Bodu and Valentin 1997;Burdukiewicz 2011;Kabaciński and Sobkowiak-Tabaka 2010;Kaminská 2007;Taute 1963;Pettitt and White 2012;Schild et al. 2011). In general, ABP settlement in present-day Poland occurred in the Allerød (Greenland Interstadial-GI-1c1-1a; circa 12,000-10,350 cal. ...
... The second phase is attributable to the so-called Swiderian Culture (sites 10, 11, 37 and 42), related to the Tanged Points Technocomplex (TPT), which spanned the territory of the North European Plain up to northern Scandinavia and Estonia, and from the British Isles to the central Volga River (Burdukiewicz 2011;Kozłowski 1999;Taute 1968). Generally, the Swiderian settlement developed in Poland between the mid-Younger Dryas and the beginning of the Preboreal (Sobkowiak-Tabaka 2016). ...
The Late Glacial site Lubrza 10 yielded new archaeological and use-wear data for discussing the development of plant-based technologies long before the occupation of the European Lowlands by Neolithic societies. More than 4000 Federmesser and Swiderian lithic artefacts were collected from the site, which is located on sandy kames adjacent to former water bodies. Use-wear analysis showed that abandoned tools were engaged in the activities well recognised as Palaeolithic ones, such as hunting, working hide, bone and other soft and hard materials. Microscopic observations have also produced some of the earliest evidence of processing non-woody plants in the North European Plain. There is a considerable number of artefacts with plant-like polish. Tools were used for whittling, splitting, scraping or stripping plant materials—motions that could have also been made while extracting of fibres and other raw materials necessary for making crafts. Morphological parameters of tools suggest a selection of flint implements, and their distribution shows the locations of processing plants. Results of previously conducted pollen and macro-remains analysis demonstrate the presence of a great variety of plants, including high silica content herbaceous species that covered the nearest vicinity of the site both during the Allerød and the Younger Dryas.
... Swiderian culture, which is also called the Masovian, is a part of the Final palaeolithic Tanged Point Technocomplex (TPT)-an entity which occurred mainly in the North European Plain from around 12,000 to 9500 BP (Taute, 1968;Kozłowski, 1999;Burdukiewicz, 2011). It is the youngest cultural unit involved in the process of resettling of North European Plains after the ice sheet retreat in Late Glacial (Schild, 1976;Eriksen, 1999;Riede, 2014). ...
... Geographical range of the Swiderian culture includes mainly the territory of present Poland but also Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania and its timing covers mostly the Younger Dryas climatic event (Kozłowski andKozłowski, 1975, 1977;Björck et al., 1998;Burdukiewicz, 2011;see also Fig. 4). ...
This paper seeks to provide an interpretation of Final Palaeolithic Swiderian points variability based on the concept of flexible projectile weapon systems. The paper focuses on aspects of performance characteristics of Swiderian points and their function as elements of projectile weapons. The sample of 294 Swiderian points from 12 Polish and one Ukrainian site was incorporated in the study.
The applied research methodology combines a use wear analysis, observation of diagnostic impact fractures (DIF's), analysis of quantitative ballistic features, such as the tip cross-sectional area (TCSA), and geometric-morphometric analysis of points outline shape along with ethnographic analogies. The combination of these methods allows a more comprehensive understanding of lithic points function within particular projectile weapon systems.
The study has revealed that the duality in the morphology and the design of Swiderian points most likely corresponds to a phenomenon, which is frequently observed in the construction of projectiles in traditional hunting societies and which derives from the so called “mass/velocity relationship”. This phenomenon is here referred to as “flexible projectile weapon systems”.
... Arch-backed Point Technocomplex (APT) APT developed in northern zone of Europe during the Allerød and beginning of the Younger Dryas period. It is considered to be a result of impulses from Azylian (Burdukiewicz 2011) although influences coming from epigravetian of Black Sea region were also indicated (Chmielewska 1961b;Kozłowski 1987). On the ground of Polish discussion two facies of APT are mentioned: Witowian (Chmielewska 1961a;1961b;Schild 1975) and Tarnowian (Krukowski 1939Krukowski –1948Schild 1975). ...
... Tanged Point Technocomplex represents a north European tradition which developed in the end of the Allerod period in the south part of circum Baltic area (Brommean, Volkushian) and spread southward during the cooling of the Younger Dryas period and the early Preboreal period (Swiderian, Ahrensburgian) (Kozłowski 1999;Szymczak 1999;Burdukiewicz 2011). Beside those well recognized units an issue of " transitional assemblages " – Pre-Mazovian acc. ...
The goal of this work is to review the present discussion and the perspectives of
the Late Palaeolithic in the northern part of the Western Carpathians and in the Northern
Subcarpathia region during the Allerød and the Younger Dryas oscillations. The area of Subcarpathia,
especially dunes of the upper Vistula valley, has been explored many times since
the second half of XX century (e.g. Kraków-Borek Fałęcki, Kraków-Kobierzyn). It brought
numerous collections proving dense Late Palaeolithic settlement around Kraków. Although
the Tanged Point Technocomplex (TPT) prevailed, traces of Arched Point Technocomplex
... Tanged Point Groups defined by Taute (1968) – TP Culture acc. Kozłowski (1999) or TP Technocomplex acc. Burdukiewicz (2011) – is the youngest cultural unit involved in process of resettling of North European Plains after ice sheet retreated in the Late Glacial. TPC was simultaneously to Arched-Backed Point (ABP) in western and central part of Europe (Weber et al. 2011) and other backed industries (i.e., Molodovian, Epigravettian) in Eastern Europe (Zaliznyak ...
... TPC was simultaneously to Arched-Backed Point (ABP) in western and central part of Europe (Weber et al. 2011) and other backed industries (i.e., Molodovian, Epigravettian) in Eastern Europe (Zaliznyak 1999), but it occupied more northern position reaching a northern periphery of Plains. In the early phase, dated to the end of Allerød and beginning of Younger Dryas, TPC is represented by BrommianBurdukiewicz 2011, Kozłowski 1999, Weber et al. 2011). Significant cooling of the Younger Dryas brought harshness of climate and caused retreating of the Allerød forest. ...
The Swiderian is part of Tanged Point Technocomplex, the Late Glacial cultural unit of North European Plains. It is dated between middle part of the Younger Dryas and early Preboreal (12.7–11.4 kyr BP). Raw material economy of the Swiderian communities is one of the most discussed issues. Researchers present a dynamic system based on local or semi local resources (provinces), on one hand, on the other – supplemented with extralocal materials. Chocolate flint, spread up to 700 km from its outcrops, was the most desired raw material. Long-distance circulation of raw materials supports the idea of great mobility in that period, as well as an existence of interregional exchange systems. This paper deals with new data brought to light by extensive rescue excavations carried out in the Kraków region in southern Poland. The most popular resource in the western part of Little Poland was a local Jurassic flint of high quality. A small number of extralocal raw materials were also recognized. The research objective was to analyze their role in lithic production and utilization amongst the local Swiderian communities. Special attention was paid to chocolate flint and radiolarite, for which comprehensive studies were undertaken. Analyzed artefacts were classified into groups following guidelines of "dynamic classification", which allowed us to investigate process of their use in lithic production. Our analysis showed that either finished products were manufactured elsewhere and subsequently were brought to the site or cores were exploited on site, while their initial preparation was carried out outside the site. This research was also carried out in respect to functional differentiation of the researched area which revealed some interrelation between spatial organization and use of extralocal raw materials. Relevant models were presented as an explanation of the results. Presented data displayed additional vectors of Swiderian migrations in the region. KEY WORDS: Swiderian culture – Late Palaeolithic – Raw material economy – Chocolate flint – Radiolarite – Jurassic flint
... The exception to this is the TPC, which departs from the general trend in that it occupies areas that are generally colder compared to the other CTUs; this may be a product of the transition from the Bølling-Allerød to the Younger Dryas, which brought a dramatic decrease in temperature (Fig. 8). This shift in climate between the Bølling-Allerød to the Younger Dryas is visible in the paleoclimate record and had a significant impact on human population ( Fig. 2b; Burdukiewicz, 2011;Crombé et al., 2010;Hoebe et al., 2023;Ordonez and Riede, 2022;Schmidt et al., 2021;Weber et al., 2011) or reflects some difficult-to-detect technological or behavioral invention (e.g. organic technologies such as snowshoes or improved clothing, or the use of poison in hunting, the exploitation of seals (Cziesla, 2007;Riede and Tallavaara, 2014)) that allowed these Fig. 8. ...
Between 22ka and 9ka ago, after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and during the transition to the Holocene, mobile hunter-gatherer populations, differentiated by their stone tool assemblages, periodically dispersed and contracted across Europe. It is well understood that climate played an important role in human distributions and population sizes during the post-LGM Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene, but the question remains as to whether increasing population sizes drove early human dispersal. Here, using a spatiotemporal species distribution model to infer the fundamental and potential human climatic niche space of Late Upper Paleolithic, Final Paleolithic and Early Mesolithic Europe, and hypotheses derived from the Ideal Distribution Model, we test i) how changes in climate affected the size and extent of the projected potential human niche space, ii) for effects of changes in size of projected potential niche on regional human population sizes, iii) whether increasing human population sizes drove human dispersal into less climatically suitable habitats, and iv) whether populations associated with different high-order material culture groupings (macro-level technocomplexes) occupied different climatic spaces. We find that changes in climate correlate strongly with the size and extent of the projected potential human niche space, that increases in the projected human niche space correlate with increases in human population, that human population size is just beginning to become large enough to influence land use and dispersal patterns at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, and that archaeological technocultural entities overlap in their fundamental climatic niche space. This overlap implies that changing tools forms cannot readily been seen as reflecting adaptations to changing climates.
... Between approximately 12'800 and 11'400 calBC in the vast area of the North European Plain bounded by northern Scandinavia and Estonia in the North, the British Islands, the Netherlands and Belgium in the West and the middle Wolga river in the East -societies used variable tanged points (Kozłowski 1999). This cultural complex, which is called Stielspitzen-Gruppen (Taute 1968), Pedunculated Point Technocomplex (Schild 1984), Tanged Points Complex (Kozłowski 1999) or Tanged Points Technocomplex (Burdukiewicz 2011), consists of several taxonomic units, namely the Brommian and the Ahrensburgian (North European Plain), the Swiderian (mainly Poland) and the Desna (Krasnosiele) Culture (in the area of the Vistula, the Pripyat, the Desna and the Dnieper basins). The present study focuses on flint assemblages of two aforementioned entities which mainly belonged to the Ahrensburgian and the Swiderian who occupied the area of the Oder Basin ( Fig. 1) during the Younger Dryas (GS-1) and the very beginning of the Preboreal (PBO -Preboreal oscillation) (Sobkowiak-Tabaka 2011). ...
During the Younger Dryas (GS-1) and the beginning of the Early Preboreal (PB) the region of the middle Oder River was settled by hunter-gatherer societies defined as the Ahrensburgian and the Swiderian, which belong to the Tanged Point Technocomplex. As early as the 1930s, several archaeologists recognised similarities between the lithic inventories of these groups in terms of both technology and typology. Since that time numerous scientists have attempted to explain this phenomenon. The major visible difference between the inventories consists of type de fossile – tanged points without a ventrally retouched tang in the west of the Oder River (the Ahrensburgian) and points with a ventrally retouched tang (and sometimes a willow-leaf shape) in the east of the Oder River (Swiderian/Masovian). At many sites, the different types occur together. This paper presents the results of technological and typological studies on lithic assemblages, mainly from Brandenburg (Germany) and Greater Poland Province (Poland) , as well as two ‘culturally’ unmixed sites as examples for typical Ahrensburg (Burow) and Swiderian (Rzuchów) inventories. The aim of examining of the two culturally labelled collections (the Ahrensburgian and the Swiderian) is to define attributes which distinguish these inventories from each other or to determine the similarities
... Such demographic fragility would have been made worse by a seemingly conformist and inflexible technological tradition (Berg-Hansen, 2018) and a pronounced ecological homogeneity caused by the extent of the Fennoscandian ice-sheet (Mangerud et al., 2016). Thus, a largely unchanged coastal tradition (Berg-Hansen, 2018;Burdukiewicz, 2011;Cullberg, 1996;Fredsjö, 1953;Kindgren, 1996;Schmitt et al., 2009) slowly became a cultural and dysfunctional by-product (Laland and Brown, 2011) that repeatedly positioned foraging communities within reach of repeated and stochastic cultural and demographic collapse (Lundström and Riede, 2019;Riede and Pedersen, 2018), rather than successful coastal adaptations as has been suggested by Bjerck (2008Bjerck ( , 2016 and Breivik (2014). ...
The use of archaeological proxy records representative of population dynamics is paramount for a richer understanding of prehistoric cultural change, but its use require a dialectic assessment between proximate climatic drivers and ultimate cultural responses. Focusing on the Stone Age archaeological record of Western Norway (11,500–4300 cal. BP), this paper presents an exhaustive empirical curation and statistical testing between changing climates and demographic responses among coastal hunter-fisher-gatherers. The results connect long-term demographic fluctuations with changes in annual mean temperatures and seasonality and the results are discussed in relation changes in technology, subsistence and mobility. The paper also highlights the process of population decline and cultural loss towards the end of the Late Mesolithic (ca. 7000–6000 cal. BP) and emerging cultural novelties and population re-growth during the Early and Middle Neolithic (ca. 6000–4300 cal. BP). However, despite its strong correlation, the archaeological record of Western Norway lacks sufficient detail to ascribe an exclusive explanatory role to climate change, especially in episodes of significant population decline. This helps to emphasise that changing climates, while evidently central, form but a part of a larger system of interactions leading to demographic fluctuations and cultural change, the substantiation of which requires significant empirical improvements to the archaeological record.
... The closest analogy to this is the point from Lachmirowice (Galiński 2013). The point was AMS dated to 10,140 ± 60 B.P. or 11,945-11,402 cal B.P. (Poz-124935), thus falling within the turn of the Younger Dryas/Preboreal transition, which means it can be associated with the Tanged Point Technocomplex communities (Burdukiewicz 2011). Its chronology is thus not far from the dates obtained for other artifacts of this type from Western Europe. ...
Late Glacial and Early Holocene bone and antler artifacts are recovered from all over the Polish Lowland. Elements of projectile weaponry, in the form of various points made of osseous raw materials, were an important part of hunter-gatherer equipment of that time. We present the results of AMS dating of a unique collection of thirteen artifacts that had previously been chrono-culturally attributed by means of relative dating using typological approaches only. The results obtained are considered alongside current knowledge and typological arrangements for these types of tools in Europe. We also attempt to determine the interpretative potential of the technological studies to which the discussed osseous points were subjected in terms of possibly identifying processing techniques that can be specific to the given periods of the Stone Age. Suggestions made in this respect are verified through the radiocarbon dating results.
... The latest Upper Paleolithic assemblages in Europe have been attributed to a multiplicity of taxonomic units including Azilian, Hamburgian, and Swiderian (e.g. Grimm and Weber 2008;Burdukiewicz 2011;Fat Cheung et al. 2014;Sauer and Riede 2018). However, the validity of the distinctions between many of the Late and Final Upper Paleolithic taxonomic units is in fact rather questionable (Svoboda and Novák 2004;Maier 2015: 236-237, Naudinot et al. 2017Sobkowiak-Tabaka and Winkler 2017;Sauer and Riede 2018). ...
Manuscript version of: Reynolds, N. (in press). Threading the weft, testing the warp: population concepts and the European Upper Paleolithic chronocultural framework. In: H.S. Groucutt (Ed.), Culture History and Convergent Evolution: Can we Detect Populations in Prehistory? Springer, Cham, Switzerland.
... This is currently the earliest known 14C date from a decorated osseous artefact in Lithuania and possibly in the eastern Baltic area. The date falls within the Younger Dryas stage, when the landscape was sparsely vegetated and Final Palaeolithic tanged points were still in use by prehistoric communities for hunting large terrestrial mammals (Stančikaitė 2006;Ukkonen et al. 2006;Girininkas 2009;Burdukiewicz 2011). The small number of Final Palaeolithic osseous tools discovered in the East Baltic (see below) does not allow us to draw wider conclusions about the exploitation of animal carcasses, but even very infrequent dated cases, such as the one from Šarnelė, confirm their use, including their use as a raw material for artwork. ...
... 1). This cultural complex called Stielspitzen- Gruppen -Tanged Point Groups (Taute, 1968), Pedunculated Point Technocomplex (Schild, 1984), Tanged Points Complex (Kozłowski, 1999), Tanged Points Technocomplex (Burdukiewicz, 2011) consisted of several entities, e.g. Ahrensburgian culture (Weber et al., 2011), Belloisian (Barton et al., 1991;Fagnart, 1997;Valentin et al., 2014), Swiderian culture/Masovian (Schild, 1975;Kozłowski, 1999) and as some authors suggest Desna culture (cf. ...
This paper seeks to provide an overview of lithic inventories in the Swiderian culture, sometimes also
called the Mazovian, developing in areas of Poland in the Late Palaeolithic. It discusses selected aspects of
typology, technology and utilization of lithic artefacts on the basis of several inventories recovered from different
areas, characterized by the occurrence of both high and poor quality raw materials (i.e. Cichmiana 2, Lubrza
10, Kraków-Bieżanów 15, Suchodółka 3 and Żuławka 13).
The applied research methodology combined a morphological analysis, debitage refitting, the experimental
method, use-wear analysis and quantitative approach. Typological, technological, raw material and functional
characteristics of the analyzed lithic artefacts have enabled us to indicate some interesting correlations between
manufacturing techniques, the morphology of lithic tools and their usage.
In general, Swiderian inventories are typified by the presence of willow leaf and tanged points, burins or
end-scrapers made on thin blades. Tanged points are characterized by flat retouching on the ventral side, which
was made using some stone tools.
Our studies have revealed that the distribution and usage of Swiderian lithic artefacts was well planned and
focused on the production of good quality blanks, from which retouched forms (such as tanged points,
end-scrapers or burins) were fashioned. Ad hoc production is fairly nonexistent in the Swiderian material
culture. The technological analysis, based on the morphological features of the core reduction products, has
shown that the Swiderian debitage was generally concentrated on the detachment of intended blades. The
technology was associated mostly with opposed platform cores, very intensive and precise preparation of cores,
reduction, renovation of cores and blade production, and the application of the soft hammer stone technique.
Such types of cores are generally considered typical of assemblages attributable to the Swiderian occupation,
yet sites with restricted access to good quality raw material also yielded cores almost unprepared for working.
Use-wear studies performed on formal tools and a sample of unretouched products of core reduction (flakes and
blades) have suggested that the implements were usually used for hunting and butchering activities, and in individual
cases also for plant and wood processing. We were particularly interested in Swiderian points, which were
employed as components of projectile weapons. A quantitative approach was applied in order to precisely determine
the function of willow leaf points – whether they were used as arrowheads, dart-tips or spear-points.
... In cases where other types of industrial remains have been considered for the same chronological frame, while well preserved as notably the bone and antler material, the function of tools has eventually been used to suggest a gendered division of labour within a territory (Bonsall 1996). But under the influence of New Archaeology (see Burdukiewicz 2011), this has been emphasized as resulting primarily from necessities of an economic nature, settlement patterns being considered in this frame in order to understand the organization of functionally complementary sites. Even though technical performance is mainly discussed on the basis of material culture -the latter mostly relating to subsistence in the case of prehistoric societies -it does not necessarily follow that technical practices are solely the result of economic causes. ...
... The Tanged Point Complex should probably be divided into two phases: the older connected with the Bromme Culture, the Lyngby Culture and the Ahrensburgian Culture dated to the Aller€ od and the younger with the Sviderian Culture in Polish territories dated to the Younger Dryas (Kozłowski, 1999;Burdukiewicz, 2011;Schild et al., 2011). The end or disappearance of the Sviderian Culture is also disputable. ...
... In Poland, Magdalenian radiocarbon dates are mostly no later than 14.0 kcal BP except for a few instances which are contemporaneous with Lovas [56,57]. From the period after the Magdalenian in South Poland, Arched-backed Point Technocomplex (ABPT) lithic assemblages were recovered, though poorly dated by radiocarbon [58]. Despite the similar ages of these sites, the uncharacteristic lithic tools of Lovas cannot be related with the contemporaneous ABPT and the Epi-Magdalenian of those other sites. ...
Ochre is the common archaeological term for prehistoric pigments. It is applied to a range of uses, from ritual burials to cave art to medications. While a substantial number of Palaeo-lithic paint mining pits have been identified across Europe, the link between ochre use and provenance, and their antiquity, has never yet been identified. Here we characterise the mineralogical signature of core-shell processed ochre from the Palaeolithic paint mining pits near Lovas in Hungary, using a novel integration of petrographic and mineralogical techniques. We present the first evidence for core-shell processed, natural pigment that was prepared by prehistoric people from hematitic red ochre. This involved combining the darker red outer shell with the less intensely coloured core to efficiently produce an economical , yet still strongly coloured, paint. We demonstrate the antiquity of the site as having operated between 14–13 kcal BP, during the Epigravettian period. This is based on new radiocarbon dating of bone artefacts associated with the quarry site. The dating results indicate the site to be the oldest known evidence for core-shell pigment processing. We show that the ochre mined at Lovas was exported from the site based on its characteristic signature at other archaeological sites in the region. Our discovery not only provides a methodo-logical framework for future characterisation of ochre pigments, but also provides the earliest known evidence for " value-adding " of products for trade.
... Typologically it is representative of the archaeological techno-complex labelled Bromme Culture, which is by far the most numerous of the four Late Palaeolithic complexes known in Denmark (Fischer, 2013). Its territory comprises present-day Denmark, southernmost Sweden, northern Germany, perhaps parts of Poland and England (Sørensen, 2010) and, no doubt, areas that are now hidden under the Baltic and North Seas (Burdukiewicz, 2011;Clausen, 2003;Eriksen, 2002;Fischer, 1985;Fischer et al., 2013a;Pedersen, 2009;Petersen, 2009;Riede and Edinborough, 2012). ...
Microwear analysis is applied to reconstruct the function and social organisation at the Late Glacial site of Trollesgave, Denmark. As with Bromme Culture sites in general, the lithic assemblage consists of primarily three types of tools. There is a strong association between these types and their use: end scrapers for dry hide scraping; burins for working hard material, primarily bone; and tanged points primarily for projectile tips. Nearly all divergence from this pattern can be referred to as the activities of children, the products and workshops of which have previously been identified. Based on the combined information from microwear analysis, flint knapping and spatial distribution of artefacts, the assemblage is inferred as the traces of a single family hunting (and fishing) occupation.
... The Tanged Point Complex should probably be divided into two phases: the older connected with the Bromme Culture, the Lyngby Culture and the Ahrensburgian Culture dated to the Aller€ od and the younger with the Sviderian Culture in Polish territories dated to the Younger Dryas (Kozłowski, 1999;Burdukiewicz, 2011;Schild et al., 2011). The end or disappearance of the Sviderian Culture is also disputable. ...
The palaeogeography of the mid-Warta River valley in the Koło Basin in the Alleröd and Younger Dryas periods is well recognised. Record of subfossil trees is evidence of the existence of the riparian pine-birch forest in the valley floor in the Alleröd/Younger Dryas transition and in the early Younger Dryas. In the late Younger Dryas, the flood activity increased, which resulted in covering the valley floor with a thick layer of sandy and silty sandy overbank alluvia. Traces of settlement of people of only one archaeological culture dated to the Late Palaeolithic are recorded in the Koło Basin – i.e. the Tanged Point Complex, called in Polish territories the Sviderian Culture. The sites are camp sites remnants of hunter–gathering groups of the Alleröd and the Younger Dryas. Most sites are situated on dunes, cover sands or edges and slopes of river terraces. This paper focuses on the settlement pattern and the raw material distribution which indicate a highly mobile life-style and significance of human contacts in the Younger Dryas. In the relatively stable environmental conditions of the late Alleröd and in the very beginning of Younger Dryas, when the area was covered by forest, the first Tanged Point Complex communities arrived. The forest landscape was rich in natural resources and suitable for hunting. Later in the Younger Dryas, a climatic change caused the increase of floods, permafrost reactivation and riparian forest extinction. Human groups moved away from the area. The occurrence of exotic raw material confirms migration of hunter groups in the late Younger Dryas in the latitudinal direction. Camp sites were situated on more elevated inland surfaces of terraces and dunes. Most probably at the end of the Younger Dryas, Sviderian hunters migrated from the Koło Basin and followed the herds of animals far north. After the stabilization of environmental conditions, hunters came back to the Koło Basin.
... In contrast the North European Plain has yielded very substantial evidence of continued albeit adapted human occupation during the cold YD. Sites belonging to the Tanged Point Technocomplex (TPT) (Burdukiewicz, 2011;Terberger, 2004;Weber et al.,, 2011), including the Ahrensburgian and Swiderian Cultures, occur in dense clusters throughout the eastern Netherlands, northern Germany, northern Poland and southern Scandinavia (Fig. 1). This marked difference in site density between northern and western Europe still remains unexplained. ...
Based on the evidence of a recently excavated, sealed site, situated at Ruien “Rosalinde” in the Belgian Scheldt valley, the response of hunter-gatherers to changing climate at the transition from the temperate Allerød to the cold Younger Dryas is discussed. Radiocarbon dated to the end of the Allerød or the very beginning of the Younger Dryas, the site of Ruien provides the earliest evidence of a refined lithic technology characterized by the use of a soft stone hammer and the production of straight and regular blade(let)s from intensively prepared cores with two opposite platforms and sharp striking angles. In the course of the Younger Dryas and Early Pre-boreal this knapping method will become standard all over Europe, from the Tanged Point Technocomplex in the North to the (Epi)Laborian in the South. It contrasts sharply with the knapping style of previous lithic traditions, such as the late Federmesser/Azilian and Bromme Technocomplexes, which was much less elaborated and mainly oriented towards the knapping of short irregular blades with a hard stone hammer. This apparently abrupt technological change was also accompanied by increased raw material procurement networks, extending over up to 250 km, and a marked microlithisation of the hunting equipment. Finally, the site of Ruien is also important as it demonstrates the limited archaeological visibility of Younger Dryas sites, explaining the scarcity of such sites within western Europe.
... The territory covered by the Bromme culture comprises present-day Denmark, the southernmost part of Sweden, the northern parts of the countries located south of the Baltic and the adjacent, now sea-covered, parts of the Baltic and the North Sea (Eriksen, 2002;Clausen, 2003;Pedersen, 2009;Petersen, 2009;Burdukiewicz, 2011;Riede and Edinborough, 2012). Whether it also extended over northern Poland and parts of England (Sørensen, 2010) remains unresolved (cf. ...
The Bromme culture belongs to the Lateglacial, the period when people settled in the recently deglaciated Southern Scandinavia. Until now there have been only a few imprecise fix-points relating to the chronological position of this archaeological culture. This situation can now be improved with the aid of research results from a Bromme culture settlement at Trollesgave in SE Denmark. Using pollen and plant macrofossil data, Lateglacial lacustrine deposits containing waste material from the settlement can be assigned to the end of the climatically mild Allerød period. A series of 14 C dates establishes the age of the settlement as c. 10 826 +- 49 14 C years BP (12 871 - 12 590 cal yr BP). By correlation with climate data from the Greenland ice cores, the occupation can be assigned to the early part of the cold climatic zone GS-1, thus demonstrating that the global ice-core climate zones are not absolutely synchronous with the regional division into biozones.
... Thus, it does not discuss records from lowland areas which were domains of the Hamburgian, Federmesser, Ahrensburgian or Swiderian cultures. This scope of data recently has been discussed in separate paper (Burdukiewicz, 2011). The sites with the series of dates come from the last cold period, the Weichselian. ...
Full-text version is available on my website: http://www.lithics.eu/publications
The goal of this paper is to present the new records on chronology and settlement dynamics in the area situated north of the Carpathians and Sudeten between MIS-3 and GI-1. The focus is on records representing Middle Palaeolithic and so-called transitional industries (Early Upper Palaeolithic), as well late Upper Palaeolithic. Studies are based on longer series of numerical data obtained during recent field work and an examination of old museum collections. These attempts differ from the previous approaches in which the main attention was put on the comparison of stratigraphical and archaeological data, rarely relating to the chronometric records. In the beginning of MIS-3, no settlement hiatus took place in this area. It appears that the classic late Middle Palaeolithic industries had no direct influence on the appearance of the transitional industries and that in the same period different industries could co-exist. There are no convincing arguments indicating a connection between the youngest transitional units and the Upper Palaeolithic industries. Studies on settlement dynamics during the last glaciation maximum (ca. 19,000– 17,000 BP) have led to the acceptance of the previous concept emphasizing its unstable character. The sites with more numerous artefacts connected with the Magdalenian tradition and the Epigravettian come from the end of that period. The beginning of Magdalenian settlement on Polish territory took place at the turn of GS-2c and GS-2b, ca. 18,500–17,500 BP. More numerous Magdalenian camps started to appear in GS-2a, ca. 16,500-14,500 BP. The late dates of Magdalenian camps (GI-1c-1a) may be caused by the contamination of the samples, but it cannot be also excluded that the Magdalenian style of life survived in some southern regions of Poland until the Allerød.
Changing climates in the past affected both human and faunal population distributions, thereby structuring human diets, demography, and cultural evolution. Yet, separating the effects of climate-driven and human-induced changes in prey species abundances remains challenging, particularly during the Late Upper Paleolithic, a period marked by rapid climate change and marked ecosystem transformation. To disentangle the effects of climate and hunter-gatherer populations on animal prey species during the period, we synthesize disparate paleoclimate records, zooarchaeological data, and archaeological data using ecological methods and theory to test to what extent climate and anthropogenic impacts drove broad changes in human subsistence observed in the Late Upper Paleolithic zooarchaeological records. We find that the observed changes in faunal assemblages during the European Late Upper Paleolithic are consistent with climate-driven animal habitat shifts impacting the natural abundances of high-ranked prey species on the landscape rather than human-induced resource depression. The study has important implications for understanding how past climate change impacted and structured the diet and demography of human populations and can serve as a baseline for considerations of resilience and adaptation in the present.
Mobility is a fundamental part of Mesolithic settlement systems, and it is essential to understand contacts, exchanges, and interactions between Mesolithic groups. Mobility is also a general term, and can be used at different levels and scales (Lovis et al., 2006). In this paper, we will focus on seasonal mobility and the annual time frames that can be reconstructed from features that are often present at Dutch Mesolithic sites.
The mobility of hunters and gatherers north of the Carpathians and Sudetes in the postglacial period (18–12 ka BP) was rarely subject to detailed studies. The previous attempts were essentially based on qualitative characteristics of settlement structures, and on analyses of lithic raw materials (Sulgostowska, 2005; Sobkowiak-Tabaka, 2017). They indicated a possible presence of mobility systems, especially during the development of the Epigravettian culture; the systems involved extensive areas of Central Europe (Wilczyński, 2015). The possibility of periodic decreases in mobility, even occupancy of the same territory during the whole year, was also considered in previous studies (e.g. Sobkowiak-Tabaka, 2017). It was assumed that people based on the existence of a mobile base camp, for example during the development of the Federmesser culture, similarly to the systems proposed for other regions of Europe (e.g. Gelhausen, 2011).
The role of environmental change in the evolution of cultural traits is a topic of long-standing scientific debate with strongly contrasting views. Major obstacles for assessing environmental impacts on the evolution of material culture are the fragmentary nature of archaeological and – to a somewhat lesser extent – geoscientific archives and the insufficient chronological resolution of these archives and related proxy data. Together these aspects are causing difficulties in data synchronization. By no means does this paper attempt to solve these issues, but rather aims at shifting the focus from demonstrating strict chains of causes and events to describing roughly contemporaneous developments by compiling and comparing existing evidence from archaeology and geosciences for the period between 40 and 15 ka in Central Europe. Analysis of the archaeological record identifies five instances at around 33, 29, 23.5, 19, and 16 ka, for which evidence suggests an increased speed of cultural evolution. By comparing data from different geoscientific archives, we discuss whether or not these instances have common characteristics. We stress that common characteristics per se are no proof of causality; repeated co-occurrences of certain features over long periods of time, however, suggest that certain explanations may be more plausible than others. While all five cases roughly coincide with pronounced and rapid environmental changes, it is also observed that such conditions do not necessarily trigger major changes in the material culture. Increases and decreases in the diversity of cultural traits seem to be rather correlated with the overall demographic development. In compiling and comparing our data, we also identify periods with high need and potential for future research regarding the relation between environmental change and cultural evolution.
In this article we take a fresh look at the population dynamics of the Polish Plain in the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, using Bayesian analysis and modelling of radiocarbon dates, and contrast the results with data from the North German Plain. We argue against simple adaptationalist models and instead see the cultural landscape as a complex patchwork of old forms and the emerging new traits of the early Mesolithic. We argue that the Mesolithic directly follows the Final Palaeolithic on the Polish Plain, without the chronological hiatus of 150–300 years that is often assumed for that region; while, by contrast, the two cultural patterns—Final Palaeolithic and microlith-based Mesolithic—overlapped significantly in time on the adjacent North German Plain.
In this paper new palaeogeographic and archaeological data from the prehistoric cave Vela Spila on the island of Korčula in Croatia are combined with new realizations of two glacial isostatic adjustment models in order to present relative sea-level change scenarios confronting the inhabitants of the cave at different time slices and to show how they experienced and adapted to sea-level and climate change from the Late Pleistocene through the Holocene. Our results show that from the Late Upper Palaeolithic until the Mesolithic, humans in the study area would have experienced tens of metres of sea-level rise, at rates in some cases up to 12 mm per year, and, owing to the relatively flat morphology of the now submerged plains, hundreds of meters of horizontal coastline change in the plains to the north and south of the island. This evidence supports the hypothesis that the rapid loss of these plains likely contributed to the human abandonment of the cave after the Palaeolithic for about five thousand years, followed by significant changes in lifestyle and diet in the Mesolithic. Our results have important implications for the study of how past human groups, especially in vulnerable coastal areas, were affected by sea level, climate, and other environmental changes. Vela Spila represents a case study of how changing environment and rising seas can force significant alterations in human societies, even when there is no risk of inundation to settlement sites.
Interpretations of the European Upper Paleolithic archaeological record have long relied on concepts of past populations. In particular, cultural taxonomic units—which are used as a framework for describing the archaeological record—are commonly equated with past populations. However, our cultural taxonomy is highly historically contingent, and does not necessarily accurately reflect variation in the archaeological record. Furthermore, we lack a secure theoretical basis for the description of past human populations based on taxonomic units. In order to move past these problems and satisfactorily address questions of Upper Paleolithic populations, we need to entirely revise our approach to chronocultural framework building. Here, I outline a specific way of describing the archaeological record that deliberately avoids the use of cultural taxonomic units and instead concentrates on individual features of material culture. This approach may provide a more appropriate basis for the archaeological study of Upper Paleolithic populations and for comparisons with genetic data.
The focus of this paper is on regionality, the use of main territories and how they are interlinked in the Mesolithic in south Norway during the culmination of the settlement of the mountain area, 8500–7600 cal BP. The main territories and their boundaries are identified by the distribution of specific lithic raw materials and one artefact type, distribution of ungulates and drainage systems. In the Mesolithic, south Norway corresponds to a language family with four dialectic tribes, each one corresponding to a main territory. Based on ethnographic analogies, the inegalitarian higher latitude boreal hunter-gatherer societies had delayed return. The subsistence strategy may have included the defence of resources which were plentiful, concentrated and predictable, with ownership of resource-rich locations such as salmon runs and quarries, while unreliable resources such as unpredictable ungulates may not have been defended. Storing may have resulted in a sedentary period during the yearly round close to resource-rich areas along rivers and coasts. The presence of a cemetery by the seashore at Hummervikholmen, indicates lineal descent groups, linking territories to funerary behaviour. Territorial lineages may have existed, with formal areas for disposal of the dead at least along resource-rich riversides and seashores. However, these may have been destroyed by erosion and other destruction processes. Lithic markers indicate that foragers from the four main territories maintained a network of links following the drainage systems and crossing the mountain area in the Central Main Territory, which was temporarily settled by people from the other main territories. Here, people from different directions could meet during the warm season hunting reindeer. In the river sources around the water divide areas, people may have had meeting places, exchanging information over large areas of south Norway. The activities at the meeting places were connected to a reindeer culture with long diasporic traditions reaching back to their origin at the lateglacial Continent. Reindeer are proposed to have had a central role in the grouping of the main territories.
This article is a study devoted to the spatial organization of a settlement of the Swiderian culture at Kraków-Biezanów site 15. In the course of wide-scale rescue excavations (1999-2008), numerous lithic materials associated with this culture were discovered. They come from archaeological features such as the small kshemenitsa (KB-15/1-feature 1) or spots of material clustering (features 2 and 3), they were collected as single finds. The spatialanalysis of the basic tool groups, i.e. Swiderian points, endscrapers and burins, showed that their distribution around archaeological objects wasnot accidental and points to diversity in functional space organization at the site. The aim of this investigation was to find the reason for the nature of this differentiation. For this purpose, a part of the available material has been studied by means of use-wear analysis. Although the state of preservation of lithics greatly reduced the possibility of carrying out functional analysis, a number of valuable observations were made. Particularly interesting were results concerning Swiderian points and endscrapers. In addition, Swiderian points, as the most intriguing category of typological tool related to the Swiderian culture, were analyzed by morphometric methods (tip cross-sectional area analysis, tip angle analysis, geometrics morphometrics) which were subjected to corroborated use-wear studies. The results obtained indicated the distictive areas (points, endscrapers and burins zones) and shed light on their functional interpretation.
Humans respond in a variety of ways to climate and environmental change. They may adapt, migrate, evolve new technologies, or experience breakdowns in their socio-cultural and economic systems. Working group 4 of the INTIMATE COST action ES0907 aims to summarise and synthesise the effects of climate changes from 60 000–8000 years ago on ecosystems, including animals and humans. The study of ecosystem and human responses and their causes requires close collaboration between archaeologists, zoologists, palaeoecologists, and geomorphologists. An INTIMATE workshop in Ghent, Belgium (November 6–7, 2012) focused on stimulating the integration of archaeological and palaeoecological approaches and methodology to improve reconstructions of ecosystem and human responses to climate changes in the full- and late-glacial and early-Holocene periods in Europe. Six main topics were delimited. High quality chronological control and accurate correlation is crucial for precisely relating ecosystem responses to climate changes and the ensuing human responses. The palaeoecological tool-box should contain both biotic proxies and physical proxies that can be applied flexibly to data collection during this period. Geomorphological and palynological studies reveal direct or indirect climate impacts and environmental changes at regional-scales. The geographical scale of human response will depend on the questions being asked. Humans depend almost exclusively on their local environment, so the impacts of climate changes on both terrestrial and wetland habitats need to be reconstructed at local ecosystem scales in relation to habitation sites. An array of high quality local data-sets across Europe that integrate palaeoenvironmental and archaeological records can be synthesised and examined for causal relationships in time and space. Emerging geographical patterns of climate and environmental change will give an overview of patterns of resilience and vulnerability of human societies to these changes. Gaps in knowledge will become apparent. Humans are a top predator and thus changes affecting the food chain, particularly in keystone prey composition, will be important to their survival. Integrative studies carried out at a variety of spatial and temporal scales encourage a development towards a better understanding of the varying resilience and sensitivity of ecosystems and human societies to palaeoclimate changes.
The most significant change in hunter-gatherer studies has been the shift from expecting hunter-gatherers to have similar properties wherever they are found to recognizing that hunter-gatherer adaptations should vary along many different dimensions. Although archaeologists approach research with different goals, there is remarkable convergence in our knowledge about hunter-gatherers past and present. The ethnographic record of recent hunter-gatherers reveals enormous variation along several dimensions. The specific combinations of characteristics displayed among hunter-gatherers are not infinitely variable but cluster as distinctive “system states” (following Binford, Constructing frames of reference: an analytical method for archaeological theory building using ethnographic and environmental data sets, 2001) that pattern with both environmental and demographic variables at a global scale. Frames of reference based on these generalizations have implications for what archaeologists should expect for hunter-gatherers in different environmental settings, and also for how they should change over time if regional population density generally increases. Recognizing that patterns of variation at the regional scale are different from those at the global scale, I propose a hierarchical strategy for developing expectations for variation among prehistoric hunter-gatherers that can both situate the research locale with respect to global patterns of variation and acknowledge important dimensions of variation in habitat structure that are likely to condition regional variation in hunter-gatherer mobility, subsistence, and social organization.
Volume online: http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-281-1/dissemination/pdf/cba_rr_077.pdf
Oak and pine samples housed at the Institute of Botany, University of Hohenheim, are the backbone of the early Holocene part of the radiocarbon calibration curve, published in 1993 (Becker 1993; Kromer and Becker 1993; Stuiver and Becker 1993; Vogel et al. 1993). Since then the chronologies have been revised. The revisions include 1) the discovery of 41 2) a shiftQ.f 54. yr for theQkkst. past-s. The oak chronology, was also g y gy missln ears In the o.B.1Q ..a p,art back into the d extended with n samples as. far back as 10,429 BP (8480 BC). In addition, the formerly tentatively dated pine chronology (Becker 1993) has been rebuilt and shifted to an earlier date. It is now positioned by 14C matching at-11,$71-9900 BP (9922-7951 BC) with an uncertainty of ±20 yr (Kromer and Spurk 1998). With these new chronologies the 14C calibration curve can now be corrected, eliminating the discrepancy in the dating of the Younger Dryas/Preboreal transition between the proxy data of the GRIP and GISP ice cores (Johnsen et al. 1992; Taylor et al. 1993), the varve chronology of Lake Gosciaz (Goslar et al. 1995) and the pine chronology (Becker, Kromer and Trimborn 1991).
In this paper we present the high-resolution record of proxy climatic data in central Europe during the final stages of the last deglaciation, derived from the annually laminated sediments of Lake Gościa̧ż (central Poland). The isotopic, palynological and other microfossil data confirm sudden changes of climate at the onset and termination of the Younger Dryas (completed within 150 and 70 years, respectively), in close agreement with the previous estimates derived from the polar ice cores and marine sediments. In the upper YD some amelioration of climate took place already about 600 years before the main YD/Preboreal transition. Counting of annual varves in the lake sediments allows a direct estimate of the duration of the Younger sDryas in central Europe; it lasted approximately 1640 years, substantially longer than suggested by previous estimates derived from laminated lake sediments and glacial varves, but agreeing with the radiocarbon calibration data obtained for Barbados corals. The calendar ages of the boundaries of the YD, 12,920 and 11,280 cal BP, are tentatively set.
It is suggested that the GRIP Greenland ice-core should constitute the stratotype for the Last Termination. Based on the oxygen isotope signal in that core, a new event stratigraphy spanning the time interval from ca. 22.0 to 11.5 k GRIP yr BP (ca. 19.0–10.0 k 14C yr BP) is proposed for the North Atlantic region. This covers the period from the Last Glacial Maximum, through Termination 1 of the deep-ocean record, to the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary, and encompasses the Last Glacial Late-glacial of the traditional northwest European stratigraphy. The isotopic record for this period is divided into two stadial episodes, Greenland Stadials 1 (GS-1) and 2 (GS-2), and two interstadial events, Greenland Interstadials 1 (GI-1) and2 (GI-2). In addition, GI-1 and GS-2 are further subdivided into shorter episodes. The event stratigraphy is equally applicable to ice-core, marine and terrestrial records and is considered to be a more appropriate classificatory scheme than the terrestrially based radiocarbon-dated chronostratigraphy that has been used hitherto. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In this paper, we attempt to shed light on a probable cause of cultural change via a new avenue of approach. In brief, the paper represents a micro-study that addresses the Ahrensburgian culture group during the close of the Late Palaeolithic in north central Europe, and its relationship to the Hensbacka group found in central Bohuslän on the coast of western Sweden. Although we do not disagree that environmental conditions are a ‘prime mover’ of cultural change, we hold that it is not the only ‘mover’. In addition, we also discuss the distinct possibility that the term ‘microlithization’ cannot be used as a synonym for the Mesolithic. The foundation of our micro-study is based on interdisciplinary concepts from the fields of archaeology, economic anthropology, geosciences, and marine zoology.
The distribution of frequencies of radiocarbon-dated Palaeolithic sites in northern Eurasia shows three peaks of 40–30, 24–18 and 17–1 ka . We argue that these peaks reflect the waves in the colonization of that area by Anatomically Modern Humans stemming from Central and Eastern Europe and caused by environmental stress.
A growing body of evidence implies that the concept of 'treeless tundra' in eastern and northern Europe fails to explain the rapidity of Lateglacial and postglacial tree population dynamics of the region, yet the knowledge of the geographic locations and shifting of tree populations is fragmentary. Pollen, stomata and plant macrofossil stratigraphies from Lake Kurjanovas in the poorly studied eastern Baltic region provide improved knowledge of ranges of north-eastern European trees during the Lateglacial and subsequent plant population responses to the abrupt climatic changes of the Lateglacial/Holocene transition. The results prove the Lateglacial presence of tree populations (Betula, Pinus and Picea) in the eastern Baltic region. Particularly relevant is the stomatal and plant macrofossil evidence showing the local presence of reproductive Picea populations during the Younger Dryas stadial at 12 900–11 700 cal. a BP, occurring along with Dryas octopetala and arctic herbs, indicating semi-open vegetation. The spread of Pinus–Betula forest at ca. 14 400 cal. a BP, the rise of Picea at ca. 12 800 cal. a BP and the re-establishment of Pinus–Betula forest at ca. 11 700 cal. a BP within a span of centuries further suggest strikingly rapid, climate-driven ecosystem changes rather than gradual plant succession on a newly deglaciated land. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A digital 3D-reconstruction of the Baltic Ice Lake's (BIL) configuration during the termination of the Younger Dryas cold phase (ca. 11 700 cal. yr BP) was compiled using a combined bathymetric–topographic Digital Terrain Model (DTM), Scandinavian ice sheet limits, Baltic Sea Holocene bottom sediment thickness information, and a paleoshoreline database maintained at the Lund University. The bathymetric–topographic DTM, assembled from publicly available data sets, has a resolution of 500 × 500 m on Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area projection allowing area and volume calculations of the BIL to be made with an unprecedented accuracy. When the damming Scandinavian ice sheet margin eventually retreated north of Mount Billingen, the high point in terrain of Southern central Sweden bordering to lower terrain further to the north, the BIL was catastrophically drained resulting in a 25 m drop of the lake level. With our digital reconstruction, we estimate that approximately 7800 km3 of water drained during this event and that the ice dammed lake area was reduced by ca. 18%. Building on previous results suggesting drainage over 1 to 2 years, our lake volume calculations imply that the freshwater flux to the contemporaneous sea in the west was between about 0.12 and 0.25 Sv. The BIL reconstruction provides new detailed information on the paleogeography in the area of southern Scandinavia, both before and after the drainage event, with implications for interpretations of geological records concerning the post-glacial environmental development.
The territory of the East European (Russian) Plain is a terrain highly suitable for the study of the Pleistocene—Holocene transition and its effects on social and environmental processes. Consideration of the Russian Plain in terms of the area directly affected by the Last (Valdai) glaciation and the extraglacial part is of key importance in this respect; this chapter is mainly restricted to the analysis of the former area.
More than a decade has passed since I published an overview of the Terminal Paleolithic of the North European Plain (Schild 1984). During this time, several new prehistoric sites appeared, but my early statement that the North European Plain was not the promised land for archaeologists, particularly those interested in the Terminal Paleolithic, seems to be still valid. Stratified sites with good organic preservation remain rare commodities. Only the pace of destruction of sites increased exponentially Indeed, during this period, there was no major breakthrough in prehistoric research in the North European Plain that would dramatically alter our ideas about the past. On the other hand, it would not be right to say that nothing has happened. The necessary rethinking of old ideas, however, has come from paleoclimatology, dendrochronology, isotope dating, and paleobiology, rather than from archaeology.
Shore-level displacement and glacio-isostatic uplift in the area affected by the Scandinavian ice is calculated from empirical data. Besides 79 shore-level curves from Scandinavia the calculations are also based on some detailed lake-tilting investigations and information concerning present relative uplift recorded by precision levelling and tide gauge data. The course of glacio-isostatic uplift is expressed in solely mathematical terms. The model is transformed to a GIS-application using levelling data. Maps showing the distribution between land, lakes and sea at different times are produced by this application. These maps can also be designed to show changes of the hydrography through time including changes in lakes, glacial lakes, rivers and drainage basins. The accuracy of the calculated shore-levels is generally very high. A result of the calculation is that the existence of the Baltic Ice Lake is questioned as both the calculations and an analysis of the earlier used proofs of the Baltic Ice Lake show that the Baltic basin was most probably at sea level.
The present study focusses on correlation and synchronisation of Weichselian Lateglacial varved lake sediments from western Germany (Meerfelder Maar, Eifel region), northern Germany (Hämelsee, Lower Saxony), central Poland (Lake Gościąż) and eastern Poland (Lake Perespilno) by using varve chronology, tephrochronology, palynostratigraphy and stable isotopes. Comparison of the several independent time scales shows that biotic and abiotic parameters respond abruptly and quasi-synchronously, within the errors of the different chronologies, during the Younger Dryas/Preboreal transition. Moreover, there is a consensus about the length of the Younger Dryas cold stage of 1100–1150 varve years. In the Allerød the prominent Laacher See tephra (12,880 varve years BP) can be used to fix floating varve chronologies. The relative duration of this biozone has been determined in Meerfelder Maar and Hämelsee at between 625 and 670 varve years. In the Meerfelder Maar a combination of continuous varve counting and biostratigraphy has been possible for the almost entire Lateglacial. The comparison between continental limnic sequences and Greenland ice-core records should be made on the basis of independent chronologies in both archives. It is more practicable to develop regional stratotypes on the continental regions instead of simply using ice cores as stratotypes for the Lateglacial for terrestrial European records. In this respect, annually laminated lacustrine sequences have a great potential.
This paper presents an array of analyses of the laminated sediments of Lake Perespilno, eastern Poland, covering the period between Older Dryas and Preboreal. Using the varve chronologies, pollen and 14C data, the laminated sequence of Lake Perespilno has been synchronised with that of Lake Gościa̧ż. The length of the Alleröd and Younger Dryas periods, derived from Lake Perespilno sediments, agrees well with the previous estimates. According to our data, the climate in the Alleröd was relatively mild, with some increase of precipitation and humidity after ca. 13.2kyr cal BP. The beginning of the Younger Dryas is marked by drastic changes in temperature as well as humidity. Thinning of forests facilitated input of allochtonous material to the lake. It seems that the groundwater level as well as lake level dropped significantly, and the period of lowest water table was prolonged for ca. 300 years. Surprisingly, the abrupt warming at the beginning of the Holocene is only slightly reflected in the sediments. Changes in sediment composition at that time seem to be controlled more by the development of surrounding vegetation than by the climate itself.
We present an overview of the extended Hohenheim oak chronology (HOC) and the dendrochronologically dated Preboreal pine tree-ring chronology (PPC). Both provide an absolute, annual time frame of the Holocene, extending into the Younger Dryas (YD) back to 11,919BP. Two floating pine and larch chronologies are 14C dated, covering large parts of the Lateglacial. Dendro-ecological parameters, such as ring width and stable isotope variation are used to infer past environmental conditions. 14C analyses on decadal sections provide a high-precision, high-resolution data set for calibration of the radiocarbon time scale. Based on a marked change in ring-width and growth pattern, the YD termination is clearly identified in the German pine chronology. Its absolute age of 11,570BP appears synchronous, within the errors of the respective chronologies, to related signals in the Greenland ice cores (GRIP, GISP2) and in lacustrine varve sequences. The 14C age of the Laacher-See tephra (LST) is determined from a series of decadal tree-ring samples to 11,063±12 14CBP; the calibrated range is 13,010–13,200 calBP. The climatic impact of the LST is reflected in the growth pattern of our tree ring chronologies.
This paper presents a reconstruction of the climatic changes at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, recorded in the annually laminated sediments of Lake Gościż, Poland. This reconstruction is based on pollen, stable isotope, mineralogical and chemical analyses of sediments, made with a time resolution of 1–4 yr. It reveals a sequence of abrupt climatic changes which preceded and followed the major warming around 11 500 cal BP. Our data show that the warming period was preceded by a 30-yr-long phase of increased winter and decreased summer precipitation (11 550–11 520 cal BP). About 11 520 cal BP, a very brief period of wetter conditions occurred, simultaneously with the beginning of the major warming. However, most of the first phase of the major warming (11 520–11 500 cal BP) was characterised by a generally dry climate, presumably due to lowered winter precipitation. Our records suggest that in this phase the warming concerned winter seasons mostly. In the second phase (11 500–11 460 cal BP) the warming also concerned summer seasons. Also, a distinct increase of humidity is noted in this period, which caused moistening of soils and, despite enhanced evaporation and evapotranspiration, inhibited the process of lake-level drop. The following 70 years (11 460–11 390 cal BP) were rather dry, which caused a distinct lowering of the lake (and probably also of groundwater) level. In this period, maximum biological productivity (per unit area) in the lake is noted. The whole sequence of phases of rather different climates was completed within a time interval (160 years) spanning two human lifes only. One should stress that the transitions between the consecutive phases were rather abrupt, lasting no longer than 10 years.
Multiproxy data (pollen, diatoms, plant macrofossils, 14C and loss on ignition measurements) obtained from two cores (Petrašiūnai and Juodonys) were used to reconstruct the pattern of Lateglacial and early Holocene environmental changes in NE Lithuania.The flourishing of open Pinus forest and presence of light-demanding taxa on poor unstable soils surrounding shallow water basins have been recorded from about 13,100–13,000 cal BP to 12,600 cal BP in the study area. After 13,000 cal BP, expansion of Betula dominated vegetation and increased abundance of cold-tolerant plants together with a simultaneous drop of water temperature indicates a short climate deterioration, tentatively correlated with the “Gerzensee oscillation”. A sudden reduction of the forest cover and extensive development of grass-herb dominated landscape is suggestive of a regional expression of the Younger Dryas cooling, dated to 12,600–11,500 cal BP. Climate aridification resulted in a progressive lowering of the water level and subsequent overgrowth of the basins.Early Holocene vegetation changes show a pattern of forest development with dominance of spruce shortly after 11,500 cal BP. Based on palynological evidence and the presence of plant macrofossils (seeds and needles), early Holocene immigration of Picea sp. to Juodonys (9410 ± 310 BP; Vs-1433) and Petrašiūnai (9420 ± 65 BP; TUa-6177 (DF2471)) is indicated. Further development of the vegetation cover indicates multiple flourishing of predominant open birch vegetation subsequently followed by pine-spruce forest development caused by Preboreal climate instability. The most prominent climate shift, e.g. drop of the temperature and humidity recorded shortly before 11,100 cal BP has been correlated with the “Preboreal Oscillation” (Björck, S., Rundgren, M., Ingolfsson, O., Funder, S., 1997. The Preboreal oscillation around the Nordic Seas: terrestrial and lacustrine responces. Journal of Quaternary Science 12, 455–465). Expansion of birch-predominant forest around shallow water basins has been identified during the Late Preboreal, after 11,100 cal BP.
A number of recent papers have argued that summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates calibrated with the CALPAL software package can be used to identify population trends in prehistory. For instance, Gamble et al. (Gamble, C., Davies, W., Pettitt, P., Richards, M., 2004. Climate change and evolving human diversity in Europe during the last glacial. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 359, 243–254; Gamble, C., Davies, W., Pettitt, P., Richards, M., 2005. The archaeological and genetic foundations of the European population during the Late Glacial: implications for 'agricultural thinking'. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 15, 193–223.) have demonstrated that during the European Late Glacial, demography was more variable than hitherto acknowledged. Building on this work, this paper presents evidence that the large, but so far largely ignored eruption of the Laacher See-volcano, located in present-day western Germany and dated to 12,920 BP, had a dramatic impact on forager demography all along the northern periphery of Late Glacial settlement and precipitated archaeologically visible cultural change. In Southern Scandinavia, these changes took the form of technological simplification, the loss of bow-and-arrow technology, and coincident with these changes, the emergence of the regionally distinct Bromme culture. Groups in north-eastern Europe appear to have responded to the eruption in similar ways, but on the British Isles and in the Thuringian Basin populations contracted or relocated, leaving these areas largely depopulated already before the onset of the Younger Dryas/GS-1 cooling. Demographic models are used to link these changes to the Laacher See-eruption and this research demonstrates that we cannot sideline catastrophic environmental change in our reconstructions of prehistoric culture history.
The relative sea-level curve was developed for the southern Baltic area, based on a set of 315 radiocarbon dates of different terrestrial and marine sediments, collected at 164 sites located in the Polish part of the Southern Baltic and in the adjacent coastal land area. When developing the curve, relicts of various formations related to the shoreline evolution as well as extents of erosional surfaces, determined from seismoacoustic profiles, were taken into account. During the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene, i.e., between 13.0 and 8.5 ka BP, the southern Baltic sea level rose and fell three times, the amplitude of changes extending over 25–27 m. In the Late Boreal, c. 8.5 ka BP, the Baltic—its water level by about 28 m lower than the present one—became permanently connected with the ocean. Until the onset of the Atlantic, the sea level had risen to about 21 m below present sea level. During 8.0–7.0 ka BP, the sea level was rising, to reach −10 m. Subsequently during the Atlantic, until its end, the sea level rose to 2.5 m b.s.l. During the first millenium of the Subboreal, the sea level rose to about 1.3–1.1 m b.s.l., to become—on termination of the Subboreal—about 0.7–0.6 m lower than present. During the Subatlantic, the sea-level changes were minor.
This paper reviews major results of the recent German research priority program “Changes of the geo-biosphere during the last 15,000 years”, a contribution to PAGES focussing on changes of the geo-biosphere during the Weichselian Lateglacial. Different continental archives such as annually laminated lacustrine sediments, floodplain sediments, and speleothems were used to reconstruct environmental response to climatic changes and the Laacher See eruption event at ca 12,900 cal BP. Special emphasis is paid to establish a reliable time control using varve counting, high-precision radiocarbon dating of tree-ring series, and AMS radiocarbon dating of terrestrial plant macrofossils recovered from lacustrine sediments to correlate and synchronize large-scale environmental changes and events in central Europe.
mtDNA sequence variation was studied in 419 individuals from nine Eurasian populations, by high-resolution RFLP analysis, and it was followed by sequencing of the control region of a subset of these mtDNAs and a detailed survey of previously published data from numerous other European populations. This analysis revealed that a major Paleolithic population expansion from the "Atlantic zone" (southwestern Europe) occurred 10,000-15,000 years ago, after the Last Glacial Maximum. As an mtDNA marker for this expansion we identified haplogroup V, an autochthonous European haplogroup, which most likely originated in the northern Iberian peninsula or southwestern France at about the time of the Younger Dryas. Its sister haplogroup, H, which is distributed throughout the entire range of Caucasoid populations and which originated in the Near East approximately 25,000-30,000 years ago, also took part in this expansion, thus rendering it by far the most frequent (40%-60%) haplogroup in western Europe. Subsequent migrations after the Younger Dryas eventually carried those "Atlantic" mtDNAs into central and northern Europe. This scenario, already implied by archaeological records, is given overwhelming support from both the distribution of the autochthonous European Y chromosome type 15, as detected by the probes 49a/f, and the synthetic maps of nuclear data.