Holger Kels

The earliest Aurignacian in Romania: New investigations at the open air site of Româneşti-Dumbrăviţa I (Banat)

Previous archaeological research in the Banat area (South-western Romania) resulted in the definition of a chronologically late Krems-Dufour type Aurignacian, followed by the isolated find of several considerably old anatomically modern human (AMH) remains at Oase Cave, several decades later. The last find set the stage for new stratigraphic, chronological and archaeological reassessment of Banat Aurignacian settlements at Tincova, Coşava and RomâneştiDumbrăviţa. This study presents the attribute analysis of the Aurignacian lithic assemblage at Româneşti-Dumbrăviţa I, involving both old and recently excavated collections. Alongside the more accurate identification of the main technological and typological features, pointing to a Protoaurignacian/Early Aurignacian assignation of the Early Upper Palaeolithic industry here, new chronological landmarks, much older than previously considered, became available. Preliminary thermoluminescence results point to an estimated age between 45 and 40 ka for the main accumulation in GH3 at Româneşti, thus indicating a possible contemporaneity of the Banat Aurignacian and the Oase AMH finds. A brief comparative outline of the Banat Aurignacian settlements is also provided, followed by and attempt at placing the local Aurignacian into the European Early Upper Palaeolithic landscape. Zusammenfassung Bisherige Forschung zum Beginn des Jungpaläolithikums im Banat ergaben widersprüchliche Ergebnisse. Nachdem die von dort bekannt gewordenen Aurignacien-Freilandfundstellen Tincova, Coşava und Româneşti-Dumbrăviţa zunächst chronologisch an das Ende dieses Technokomplexes gestellt worden waren, wurde nach der Entdeckung der Überreste früher anatomisch moderner Menschen in der Oase-Höhle angenommen, es handele sich um ein Proto-Aurignacien. In dem vorliegenden Artikel werden diese Widersprüche anhand neuer Grabungen und erster absoluter Datierungen sowie einer detaillierten Analyse der Altund Neufunde an der Fundstation Româneşti-Dumbrăviţa aufgelöst. Demnach handelt es sich an diesem Fundplatz um eine Steingeräteindustrie, die sowohl Merkmale des Proto-Aurignacien als auch des klassischen Aurignacien aufweist. Erste Thermolumineszenz-Alter zwischen 45 kyr BP im Liegenden und 40 kyr BP im Hangenden deuten auf eine frühe Zeitstellung von Româneşti-Dumbrăviţa innerhalb des älteren Jungpaläolithikums und eine zeitliche Überschneidung mit den Menschenresten aus der Oase-Höhle. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird die Bedeutung des Banat im Rahmen der Ausbreitung des frühen modernen Menschen nach Europa diskutiert.

Neanderthals in the Cold: Middle Paleolithic Sites from the Open-Cast Mine of Garzweiler, Nordrhein-Westfalen (Germany)

In the years 1999–2001, an area of approximately 150 ha was surveyed by continuous control of the loess walls of the open-cast lignite mine of Garzweiler near Cologne, Germany. A total of 46 Middle Paleolithic sites were located, most of them clustering in connection to small stream positions. Despite the importance of natural factors during the site formation processes, lithic artifacts and skeleton elements preserved well, suggesting high impact of human and non-human agents, followed by low to moderate post-depositional alteration of finds. Altogether, eight sites were dated to the first maximum of the last glaciation (MIS 4). They consist of small assemblages of lithics mainly produced ad hoc from raw nodules carried along during hunting and gathering activities, and low frequencies of faunal remains. Traces of human use are restricted to reindeer. Therefore, it is concluded that these sites represent scanty remnants of kill and butchering sites of this species, enriched by additional faunal remains of unknown agency. The local loess stratigraphy as well as a brief survey of the environmental data from contemporaneous sites in Central and Eastern Europe reveals conditions more moderate than previously expected. It is inferred that changing environments after the last Interglacial Complex (MIS 5) had less effect on the dynamics of Neanderthal populations than formerly hypothesized.

Three climatic cycles recorded in a loess-palaeosol sequence at Semlac (Romania) – implications for dust accumulation in the Carpathian Basin and the northern Hemisphere

Semlac is regarded as a key section for the Carpathian Basin because of the good preservation of the fine silt. The site is situated at the Mures River in its lower reaches (Banat region, western Romanian). The more than 10 m thick loess sequence includes four fossil sol-complexes developed in homogenous relatively fine silty loess and dates back to marine isotope stage (MIS) 10. This setting offers possibilities to a) improve the understanding of the type and composition of the lowland loess sequences in the Carpathian Basin for the last interglacial palaeosol complex and beyond, b) reconstruct the temporal evolution of the local loess-palaeosol successions and c) compare the loess of the region to loess-sequences in adjacent areas (Carpathian Basin, Lower Danube) and to dust proxy data in the northern hemisphere. A strikingly sinusoidal course of physical property data in depth and time point to relatively homogenous, quasi-continuous background sedimentation of dust, which are interpreted as resulting from long-range transport. This is in contrast to a commonly observed more glacial-interglacial pattern with sharp boundaries of paleosols

Environmental change indicated by a site-specific grain size ratio - the example of the Semlac loess-paleosol sequence (Romania)

Loess sequences provide important and at least a partial continuous record of Quaternary palaeoenvironmental change. In addition, loess-palaeosol sequences provide valuable information concerning environmental change and climate evolution. It is customary to reconstruct such changes by means of grain sizes ratios. In this study, we calculated an site-specific grain size (GS) ratio (Schulte et al. in review) and compare this ratio with the common U-ratio (Vandenberghe et al.1985) and, in addition, with selected geochemical parameters. As an example we present the Middle to Late Pleistocene loess-paleosol section of Semlac in western Romania (MIS 10 – 1)