Dustin White

Volcanic ash layers illuminate the resilience of Neanderthals and early modern humans to natural hazards

Marked changes in human dispersal and development during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition have been attributed to massive volcanic eruption and/or severe climatic deterioration. We test this concept using records of volcanic ash layers of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption dated to ca. 40,000 y ago (40 ka B.P.). The distribution of the Campanian Ignimbrite has been enhanced by the discovery of cryptotephra deposits (volcanic ash layers that are not visible to the naked eye) in archaeological cave sequences. They enable us to synchronize archaeological and paleoclimatic records through the period of transition from Neanderthal to the earliest anatomically modern human populations in Europe. Our results confirm that the combined effects of a major volcanic eruption and severe climatic cooling failed to have lasting impacts on Neanderthals or early modern humans in Europe. We infer that modern humans proved a greater competitive threat to indigenous populations than natural disasters.

Fish and fishing in Holocene Cis-Baikal, Siberia: a review

ABSTRACT Eastern Siberias Lake Baikal and its tributaries are productive fisheries, and the regions Holocene archaeological sites confirm that this is a long-standing phenomenon. Recent zooarchaeological investigations of sites here allow Holocene fishing practices to be examined in more detail than was previously possible. Along much of the lakes coast, bathymetry is very steep and the water very cold; here fishing appears to have been supplemental to other subsistence practices such as sealing and ungulate hunting. In shallower areas, waters were warmer and supported very productive fisheries for littoral species, perhaps through the use of nets or traps. The regions rivers offered their own resident species but also were used as spawning grounds by some lake fishes. The lakes littoral fisheries, while productive, likely produced fish throughout the year and did not require complex labor organization to be effectively used. Some sections of the regions rivers, particularly those that were spawning grounds for some lake fishes, may have required more complex sociopolitical organization to be exploited efficiently. Such fish runs were short-lived and the best fishing places likely were spatially restricted. This potentially created the need for pools of labor, required organization of harvesting and processing, and generated surpluses that could be stored and manipulated.