Freddy Damblon

Early modern human settlement of Europe north of the Alps occurred 43,500 years ago in a cold steppe-type environment

Significance Modern humans dispersed into Europe and replaced Neanderthals at least 40,000 years ago. However, the precise timing and climatic context of this dispersal are heavily debated. Therefore, a new project combining paleoenvironmental and archaeological fieldwork has been undertaken at Willendorf II (Austria), a key site for this time period. This project has concluded that modern humans producing Aurignacian stone tools occupied Central Europe about 43,500 years ago in a medium-cold steppe environment with some boreal trees along valleys. This discovery represents the oldest well-documented occurrence of behaviorally modern humans in Europe and demonstrates contemporaneity with Neanderthals in other parts of Europe, showing that behaviorally modern humans and Neanderthals shared this region longer than previously thought. The first settlement of Europe by modern humans is thought to have occurred between 50,000 and 40,000 calendar years ago (cal B.P.). In Europe, modern human remains of this time period are scarce and often are not associated with archaeology or originate from old excavations with no contextual information. Hence, the behavior of the first modern humans in Europe is still unknown. Aurignacian assemblages—demonstrably made by modern humans—are commonly used as proxies for the presence of fully behaviorally and anatomically modern humans. The site of Willendorf II (Austria) is well known for its Early Upper Paleolithic horizons, which are among the oldest in Europe. However, their age and attribution to the Aurignacian remain an issue of debate. Here, we show that archaeological horizon 3 (AH 3) consists of faunal remains and Early Aurignacian lithic artifacts. By using stratigraphic, paleoenvironmental, and chronological data, AH 3 is ascribed to the onset of Greenland Interstadial 11, around 43,500 cal B.P., and thus is older than any other Aurignacian assemblage. Furthermore, the AH 3 assemblage overlaps with the latest directly radiocarbon-dated Neanderthal remains, suggesting that Neanderthal and modern human presence overlapped in Europe for some millennia, possibly at rather close geographical range. Most importantly, for the first time to our knowledge, we have a high-resolution environmental context for an Early Aurignacian site in Central Europe, demonstrating an early appearance of behaviorally modern humans in a medium-cold steppe-type environment with some boreal trees along valleys around 43,500 cal B.P.

Climatic signature and radiocarbon chronology of middle and late pleniglacial loess from Eurasia: comparison with the marine and Greenland records.

Recent investigations devoted to the Eurasian loess formations have provided an integrated high-resolution climatic sequence well radiocarbon dated between 13.4 and 42.5 kyr BP on charcoal and wood remains. Here, we show that the reproducible climatic signature of this loess sequence can be compared by proxy-correlation with the Greenland ice climatic signals, taking into account the distribution of the aeolian components in both records. This correlation allows situating with precision the series of 14C dates obtained from loess with regard to the Greenland climatic sequence. In this way, comparing the atmospheric loess-derived 14C chronology with the chronologies of the marine sequences becomes possible.

The in situ Glyptostroboxylon forest of Hoegaarden (Belgium) at the Initial Eocene Thermal Maximum (55 Ma)

Abstract Hundreds of silicified standing stumps have been discovered within a lignitic horizon in the middle of the Tienen Formation near Hoegaarden in northeast Belgium. The anatomical features of the fossil stumps, as those of the numerous silicified secondary xylem remains collected since the last century from this area, demonstrate that they all belong to a single taxodiaceous taxon. The stumps bear characteristics shared by Taxodioxylon gypsaceum and Glyptostroboxylon tenerum, but affinities with the latter appear closer. They are attributed to Glyptostroboxylon sp. Calibration of the sedimentological, stratigraphical and organic carbon isotope data reveals that these taxodiaceous fossil trees developed in a swampy lowland environment most probably during the Initial Eocene Thermal Maximum at ca. 55 Ma.

Identification of a fossil wood specimen in the Red Sandstone Group of southwestern Tanzania: stratigraphical and tectonic implications

A piece of silicified fossil wood was found in the middle part of the Red Sandstone Group of the Songwe-Kiwira area, north of Lake Malawi (Nvasa) in the Western Branch of the East African Rift System. It is identified as Pahudioxylon Chowdhury et el., 1960. Until now, Pahudioxylon has been strictly restricted to the Cenozoic. The occurrence of Pahudioxylon in the Red Beds Formation supports a Cenozoic (Miocene) age rather than a Mesozoic age for this formation. Comparison with a collection of modern species gives information about the environmental conditions of deposition of the Red Sandstone Group. A discussion follows on the significance of the Red Sandstone Group during the Rukwa-Malawi Rift development.

Comparison of cross-field pitting in fresh, dried and charcoalified softwoods

Cross-field pitting is one of the most reliable characters for softwood identification. During charcoalification, a range of severe qualitative and quantitative modifications may occur in cross-field pitting. As most fossil or archaeological wood remains are preserved as charcoal (fusain), the question arises whether these modifications hamper the accurate identification of some taxa. This work is a systematic biometric study of a wide range of gymnosperm cross-field pitting after experimental charcoalification. We focused on the window-like, piceoid, taxodioid, cupressoid, araucarioid and podocarpoid cross-field pitting types. Our main results are the following: 1) Cross-field pits of wood specimens dried out before charcoalification are hidden by a thin closing wall; in this case, it is often impossible to discriminate between the various types of cross-field pitting. 2) Piceoid cross-field pitting becomes taxodioid-like after charcoalification. 3) Biometric study of charred softwood cross-field pitting dimensions shows that the ratios between height and width of pit aperture and border allow us to distinguish and characterise four types of pitting (window-like, piceoid, taxodioid, cupressoid +araucarioid +podocarpoid [= CAP]). The discrimination within the CAP type requires further investigation.

Climatic events and Upper Paleolithic chronology in the Dniester basin: New C-14 results from Cosautsi

We discuss the radiocarbon chronology of the loess deposited during the Upper Pleniglacial (Isotope Stage II) for the key site of Cosautsi (Republic of Moldova), which presents some major problems in (super 14) C dating. Special care was paid to accurate microstratigraphic positioning of samples, collection of top-quality material (mainly conifer charcoal), and selection of uncontaminated pieces for dating and crossdating with bones by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and/or conventional (super 14) C dating. The results provide reliable and precise information on the sedimentation processes, the succession of short climatic events and the cycle of recurrent human settlements on the site between approximately 20,000 and 16,000 BP. Two sets of climatic improvements can be ascribed to interstadial oscillations named, successively, Cosautsi VI (19,500-19,000 BP) and Cosautsi V (18-17,500 BP).

Agaristoxylon garennicum Gerrienne et al., gen. et sp. nov., an arborescent Ericaceae from the Belgian Upper Paleocene: palaeoenvironmental implications

This paper describes a silicified trunk fragment, Agaristoxylon garennicum Gerrienne et al., gen. et sp. nov., collected from a new locality at Peruwelz (Belgium) in the marine Thanetian (Upper Paleocene), and discusses the fossilisation conditions of the specimen. The anatomical structure of Agaristoxylon is similar to that of the modem ericaceous genus Agarista (Agauria), encountered in the tropical and subtropical North and South America, and in the tropical regions of Africa, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands. Together with other palaeontological data, the presence of Agaristoxylon supports the hypothesis that a climate of subtropical type with high atmospheric humidity could have prevailed in Belgium, at least locally, during the Late Paleocene. The occurrence of indistinct growth rings suggests the existence of seasonal drier periods

The Late Palaeolithic Site of Kammern-Grubgraben (Lower Austria). Additional Data on Loess Stratigraphy and Palaeoenvironment

The combined stratigraphic, archaeological and chronological data gained at Kammern-Grubgraben since 1985 led to the establishment of a loess palaeosol reference sequence for Lower Austria covering the second half of the Late Pleniglacial. Extended to the Middle Dniester Basin, this approach allows the Kammern-Grubgraben data to be inserted into a high-resolution palaeoenvironmental record framed between c. 21,000 and 13,000 BP by a long series of radiocarbon dates on charcoal, which is further correlated with the Greenland ice record.