Mark D. Bateman’s research while affiliated with The University of Sheffield and other places

Humans emerged across Africa shortly before 300 thousand years ago (ka)1, 2–3. Although this pan-African evolutionary process implicates diverse environments in the human story, the role of tropical forests remains poorly understood. Here we report a clear association between late Middle Pleistocene material culture and a wet tropical forest in southern Côte d’Ivoire, a region of present-day rainforest. Twinned optically stimulated luminescence and electron spin resonance dating methods constrain the onset of human occupations at Bété I to around 150 ka, linking them with Homo sapiens. Plant wax biomarker, stable isotope, phytolith and pollen analyses of associated sediments all point to a wet forest environment. The results represent the oldest yet known clear association between humans and this habitat type. The secure attribution of stone tool assemblages with the wet forest environment demonstrates that Africa’s forests were not a major ecological barrier for H. sapiens as early as around 150 ka.

Late glacial stratigraphy at Barmston on the coast of East Yorkshire, England indicates deposition in small discrete basins over LGM Skipsea Till beginning with laminated clay-silt deposition whilst ice was still present, if largely buried beneath sediments. Subsequent melt-out created several small basins. Organic sediments in one of these, exposed by coastal erosion in 1980, preserved an insect fauna indicative of an open landscape around a pond. Mutual climatic range (MCR) estimates suggest summer temperatures similar to, or slightly cooler than present day but with winters significantly cooler. Radiocarbon dates from the base and top of the peat within the sequence provide a range of 14135 ± 539 to 13126 ± 314 calibrated years BP, before erosion and soliflucted sands and gravels terminated organic deposition. Later deposits are disturbed by structures of unknown function of Bronze Age date, the whole being sealed by more recent colluvium.

Erfkroon (28.868° S, 25.594° E) is a large open-air archaeological and paleontological site with Later Stone Age (LSA) and Middle Stone Age (MSA) artifacts eroding out of four terraces formed in the Modder River valley ~60km northwest of Bloemfontein, South Africa. The oldest terrace, the Wolwespruit Terrace has not been dated and lacks artifacts and fauna. The next younger Erfkroon Terrace has rare artifacts and fauna that may date to MIS 6-8. Most faunal remains and artifacts were documented in the Orangia Terrace that spans MIS 1-5. The Orangia Terrace consists of multiple allostratigraphic units that contain abundant MSA, Early LSA, Robberg and Lockshoek artifacts. The Soetdoring Terrace and correlated Sandy Cap are mostly Late Holocene and historic in age based on artifact content. Unique Florisian Land Mammal Age (LMA) faunal remains include an articulated Equus capensis partial skeleton and a near complete Megalotragus priscus horn core and cranium.

Middle Stone Age (MSA) technologies first appear in the archaeological records of northern, eastern and southern Africa during the Middle Pleistocene epoch. The absence of MSA sites from West Africa limits evaluation of shared behaviours across the continent during the late Middle Pleistocene and the diversity of subsequent regionalized trajectories. Here we present evidence for the late Middle Pleistocene MSA occupation of the West African littoral at Bargny, Senegal, dating to 150 thousand years ago. Palaeoecological evidence suggests that Bargny was a hydrological refugium during the MSA occupation, supporting estuarine conditions during Middle Pleistocene arid phases. The stone tool technology at Bargny presents characteristics widely shared across Africa in the late Middle Pleistocene but which remain uniquely stable in West Africa to the onset of the Holocene. We explore how the persistent habitability of West African environments, including mangroves, contributes to distinctly West African trajectories of behavioural stability.

Archaeological and palaeoecological evidence relating to human activity in the English Midlands is scant compared to elsewhere in Britain. Knowledge of human activity in pre-Roman and Roman times is often fragmentary and disparate in parts of the region where it could be assumed that the resident population was small with little Roman impact. To examine these contentions, a palaeoenvironmental investigation from Aqualate Mere near Newport, Staffordshire, has been undertaken on the sediment record extending back to c. 1300 cal. BC. An analysis of microfossils, microscopic charcoal, sediment chemistry and mineral magnetism from a core dated by ¹⁴C, SCPs, ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs has provided an opportunity to reconstruct land use changes and atmospheric pollution from the later prehistoric period onwards. The results challenge the idea this region was a backwater as there is near-continuous agricultural activity around the mere since the Late Bronze Age through to modern times. This is characterised by phases of woodland decline, an intensification of farming, soil erosion, evidence for possible eutrophication and regional lead pollution.

The role of Quaternary ice sheet fluctuations in driving meltwater pulses and ocean circulation perturbations is widely acknowledged. What is less clear is the role of these processes in driving changes in past atmospheric dust activity, and possible wider links between dust and climate. Terrestrial windblown dust (loess) deposits along the northern fringe of the European loess belt potentially record past atmospheric dust emission from regions close to the former Eurasian Ice Sheet (EIS) and provide a means to evaluate the role of ice sheet fluctuations in the past dust cycle. Numerical loess chronologies across this region generally agree on greatly enhanced dust deposition rates during MIS 2, when the EIS reached its maximum extent. Yet, uncertainties over the sources of this material prevent understanding of the precise causes of this greatly enhanced atmospheric dustiness, and any potential link to ice sheet fluctuations and climate. In southeast England, loess accumulation dominantly occurred in two phases centered on 25e23.5 ka and 20e19 ka, matching the timing of coalescence of the Fennoscandian and British-Irish ice sheets and specifically advances and retreats of nearby ice lobes in the western North Sea. As such, these deposits provide an ideal test of the role of ice sheet fluctuations in atmospheric dust dynamics. Here we undertake such a test through a detailed provenance study of loess in southeast England and potential dust source sediments across the North Sea region. We group extensive new and published data sets of detrital zircon UePb ages from basement rocks and Cenozoic sediments in the North Sea area, which not only provide new insight into both loess source, but also the nature of sediment transport over NW Europe into the North Sea basin more widely. Multi-proxy evidence allows us to unambiguously identify ice sheet derived sediments in the exposed North Sea basin as the dominant source of loess in southeast England, while fluvial sediments delivered by rivers draining Continental Europe possibly contributed additional source material to the first loess accumulation phase. We propose that sudden retreats of the North Sea Lobe released substantial amounts of sediment rich meltwater into the southern North Sea and Channel basins, driving accelerated dust emission, loess deposition and provenance variability in NW Europe during MIS 2. Moreover, we propose that this model of dust activity driven by proglacial sediment availability may be applicable for EIS marginal regions more widely, even where resultant loess cover is rarely preserved due to extensive erosion and reworking along the ice marginal spillway. This implies the role of ice sheets in controlling wider dust emission may be underestimated. In addition to driving changes in ocean circulation through meltwater pulses, ice sheet dynamics in the Quaternary may have also driven substantial and abrupt changes in atmospheric dust activity. This mechanism may in part explain the coupling between dust and climate events widely seen in Quaternary dust sediment records and suggests a possible major role of high latitude dust emission in MIS 2 dustiness across Europe and beyond.