William Davies

The Archaeogenetics of Europe

A new timescale has recently been established for human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages, making mtDNA at present the most informative genetic marker system for studying European prehistory. Here, we review the new chronology and compare mtDNA with Y-chromosome patterns, in order to summarize what we have learnt from archaeogenetics concerning five episodes over the past 50,000 years which significantly contributed to the settlement history of Europe: the pioneer colonisation of the Upper Palaeolithic, the Late Glacial re-colonisation of the continent from southern refugia after the Last Glacial Maximum, the postglacial re-colonization of deserted areas after the Younger Dryas cold snap, the arrival of Near Easterners with an incipient Neolithic package, and the small-scale migrations along continent-wide economic exchange networks beginning with the Copper Age. The available data from uniparental genetic systems have already transformed our view of the prehistory of Europe, but our knowledge of these processes remains limited. Nevertheless, their legacy remains as sedimentary layers in the gene pool of modern Europeans, and our understanding of them will improve substantially when more mtDNAs are completely sequenced, the Y chromosome more thoroughly analysed, and haplotype blocks of the autosomal genome become amenable to phylogeographic studies.

The archaeological and genetic foundations of the European population during the Late Glacial: implications for ‘agricultural thinking’

This article presents the initial results from the S2AGES database of calibrated radiocarbon estimates from western Europe in the period 25,000–10,000 years ago. Our aim is to present a population history of this sub-continental region by providing a chronologically-secure framework for the interpretation of data from genetics and archaeology. In particular, we define five population events in this period, using dates-as-data, and examine the implications for the archaeology of Late Glacial colonization. We contrast this detailed regional approach to the larger project which we call the cognitive origins synthesis that includes historical linguistics in the reconstruction of population history. We conclude that only archaeology can currently provide the framework for population history and the evaluation of genetic data. Finally, if progress is to be made in the new interdisciplinary field of population history then both disciplines need to refrain from inappropriate agricultural thinking that fosters distorting models of European prehistory, and they should also pay less, if any, attention to historical linguistics.

Chronology of the Grotte du Renne (France) and implications for the context of ornaments and human remains within the Châtelperronian

There is extensive debate concerning the cognitive and behavioral adaptation of Neanderthals, especially in the period when the earliest anatomically modern humans dispersed into Western Europe, around 35,000–40,000 B.P. The site of the Grotte du Renne (at Arcy-sur-Cure) is of great importance because it provides the most persuasive evidence for behavioral complexity among Neanderthals. A range of ornaments and tools usually associated with modern human industries, such as the Aurignacian, were excavated from three of the Châtelperronian levels at the site, along with Neanderthal fossil remains (mainly teeth). This extremely rare occurrence has been taken to suggest that Neanderthals were the creators of these items. Whether Neanderthals independently achieved this level of behavioral complexity and whether this was culturally transmitted or mimicked via incoming modern humans has been contentious. At the heart of this discussion lies an assumption regarding the integrity of the excavated remains. One means of testing this is by radiocarbon dating; however, until recently, our ability to generate both accurate and precise results for this period has been compromised. A series of 31 accelerator mass spectrometry ultrafiltered dates on bones, antlers, artifacts, and teeth from six key archaeological levels shows an unexpected degree of variation. This suggests that some mixing of material may have occurred, which implies a more complex depositional history at the site and makes it difficult to be confident about the association of artifacts with human remains in the Châtelperronian levels.

Palaeolithic radiocarbon chronology: quantifying our confidence beyond two half-lives

It is now three decades since Waterbolk introduced evaluation criteria to 14C chronology. Despite this, and other subsequent attempts to introduce quality control in the use of 14C data, no systematic procedure has been adopted by the archaeological community. As a result, our databases may be significantly weakened by questionable dates and/or questionable associations between dated samples and the archaeological phenomena they are intended to represent. As the use of chronometric data in general becomes more ambitious, we must pause and assess how reliable these data are. Here, we forward a set of evaluation criteria which take into account archaeological (e.g. associational, stratigraphic) and chronometric (e.g. pre-treatment and measurement) criteria. We intend to use such criteria to evaluate a large 14C dataset we have assembled to investigate Late Glacial settlement in Europe, the Near East and North Africa, supported by the Leverhulme Trust. We suggest that the procedure presented here may at least form the basis of the development of more rigorous, scientific use of 14C dates.

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.

Mitochondrial DNA Signals of Late Glacial Recolonization of Europe from Near Eastern Refugia

Human populations, along with those of many other species, are thought to have contracted into a number of refuge areas at the height of the last Ice Age. European populations are believed to be, to a large extent, the descendants of the inhabitants of these refugia, and some extant mtDNA lineages can be traced to refugia in Franco-Cantabria (haplogroups H1, H3, V, and U5b1), the Italian Peninsula (U5b3), and the East European Plain (U4 and U5a). Parts of the Near East, such as the Levant, were also continuously inhabited throughout the Last Glacial Maximum, but unlike western and eastern Europe, no archaeological or genetic evidence for Late Glacial expansions into Europe from the Near East has hitherto been discovered. Here we report, on the basis of an enlarged whole-genome mitochondrial database, that a substantial, perhaps predominant, signal from mitochondrial haplogroups J and T, previously thought to have spread primarily from the Near East into Europe with the Neolithic population, may in fact reflect dispersals during the Late Glacial period, ∼19-12 thousand years (ka) ago.

Chronology of the Grotte du Renne (France) and implications for the context of ornaments and human remains within the Chatelperronian

There is extensive debate concerning the cognitive and behavioral adaptation of Neanderthals, especially in the period when the earliest anatomically modern humans dispersed into Western Europe, around 35,000–40,000 B.P. The site of the Grotte du Renne (at Arcy-sur-Cure) is of great importance because it provides the most persuasive evidence for behavioral complexity among Neanderthals. A range of ornaments and tools usually associated with modern human industries, such as the Aurignacian, were excavated from three of the Châtelperronian levels at the site, along with Neanderthal fossil remains (mainly teeth). This extremely rare occurrence has been taken to suggest that Neanderthals were the creators of these items. Whether Neanderthals independently achieved this level of behavioral complexity and whether this was culturally transmitted or mimicked via incoming modern humans has been contentious. At the heart of this discussion lies an assumption regarding the integrity of the excavated remains. One means of testing this is by radiocarbon dating; however, until recently, our ability to generate both accurate and precise results for this period has been compromised. A series of 31 accelerator mass spectrometry ultrafiltered dates on bones, antlers, artifacts, and teeth from six key archaeological levels shows an unexpected degree of variation. This suggests that some mixing of material may have occurred, which implies a more complex depositional history at the site and makes it difficult to be confident about the association of artifacts with human remains in the Châtelperronian levels.

Climate, Creativity and Competition: Evaluating the Neanderthal ‘glass ceiling.’

This paper evaluates the degree to which Neanderthal creativity and innovation can be analysed like that of Homo sapiens. Ethnographic data (modern Homo sapiens) and heuristic models are proposed for testing against the Neanderthal record, and the key role of mobility in the generation and spread of novel traits is examined in detail. It is argued that change should not be assumed to be progressive and inevitable, and that once originated, it will not necessarily persist thereafter. Scales of analysis and of innovatory change (artefactual, temporal and spatial) are evaluated, as these are crucial to our understanding of how novel traits might be selected and developed. Mobility and duration of interaction can be expected to affect the iteration, type and intensity of innovation and the transmission of novel traits. Contrary to some recent research, it is argued that effective population levels in themselves are not responsible for the intensity of transmission and development of innovations, but rather that the structure and type of social networks within groups of differing levels of mobility are more important. Until c.50-45 ka BP, the proposed ephemeral, effectively-closed social network structure of Neanderthal society acted against the extended spatio-temporal transmission of novel traits, resulting in periodic cycles of (re-)invention and extinction events, with little opportunity for cumulative development of innovations.

Rediscovering Paleolithic art: Overlooked ceramic figurines from the Pavlovian

This paper presents the first results from a new research project that focuses on the emergence of ceramic technologies across Paleolithic Europe. Pavlovian ceramics from Moravia provide the earliest known evidence of these technologies, with one of the largest assemblages from the site of Pavlov I. This paper presents new analyses of both the figurative art and the broader assemblage of worked “pellets,” shedding new light on the range of technologies employed when working with this innovative material. Using both macro‐ and microscopic analyses, we identified four distinct chaines operatoires across the figurative and non‐figurative ceramics that were excavated from Pavlov I in the 1950s—1960s, demonstrating a more diverse range of manufacturing sequences than scholars previously purported. In particular, analyzing the “pellets” demonstrates that studying the figurative sculptures in isolation may lead to biased interpretations of the importance of some techniques, such as engraving.

Chapter 8 - Climate, creativity and competition: evaluating the Neanderthal ‘glass ceiling’

This paper evaluates the degree to which Neanderthal creativity and innovation can be analysed like that of Homo sapiens. Ethnographic data (modern Homo sapiens) and heuristic models are proposed for testing against the Neanderthal record, and the key role of mobility in the generation and spread of novel traits is examined in detail. It is argued that change should not be assumed to be progressive and inevitable, and that once originated, it will not necessarily persist thereafter. Scales of analysis and of innovatory change (artefactual, temporal and spatial) are evaluated, as these are crucial to our understanding of how novel traits might be selected and developed. Mobility and duration of interaction can be expected to affect the iteration, type and intensity of innovation and the transmission of novel traits. Contrary to some recent research, it is argued that effective population levels in themselves are not responsible for the intensity of transmission and development of innovations, but rather that the structure and type of social networks within groups of differing levels of mobility are more important. Until c.50-45 ka BP, the proposed ephemeral, effectively-closed social network structure of Neanderthal society acted against the extended spatio-temporal transmission of novel traits, resulting in periodic cycles of (re-)invention and extinction events, with little opportunity for cumulative development of innovations.