Search

Genomic analyses of Neanderthals have previously provided insights into their population history and relationship to modern humans1–8, but the social organization of Neanderthal communities remains poorly understood. Here we present genetic data for 13 Neanderthals from two Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia: 11 from Chagyrskaya Cave9,10 and 2 from Okladnikov Cave11—making this one of the largest genetic studies of a Neanderthal population to date. We used hybridization capture to obtain genome-wide nuclear data, as well as mitochondrial and Y-chromosome sequences. Some Chagyrskaya individuals were closely related, including a father–daughter pair and a pair of second-degree relatives, indicating that at least some of the individuals lived at the same time. Up to one-third of these individuals’ genomes had long segments of homozygosity, suggesting that the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals were part of a small community. In addition, the Y-chromosome diversity is an order of magnitude lower than the mitochondrial diversity, a pattern that we found is best explained by female migration between communities. Thus, the genetic data presented here provide a detailed documentation of the social organization of an isolated Neanderthal community at the easternmost extent of their known range.

Previous research indicates that the human genetic diversity found in Wallacea - islands in present-day Eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste that were never part of the Sunda or Sahul continental shelves - has been shaped by complex interactions between migrating Austronesian farmers and indigenous hunter-gatherer communities. Here, we provide new insights into this region’s demographic history based on genome-wide data from 16 ancient individuals (2600-250 yrs BP) from islands of the North Moluccas, Sulawesi, and East Nusa Tenggara. While the ancestry of individuals from the northern islands fit earlier views of contact between groups related to the Austronesian expansion and the first colonization of Sahul, the ancestry of individuals from the southern islands revealed additional contributions from Mainland Southeast Asia, which seems to predate the Austronesian admixture in the region. Admixture time estimates for the oldest individuals of Wallacea are closerto archaeological estimates for the Austronesian arrival into the region than are admixture time estimates for present-day groups. The decreasing trend in admixture times exhibited by younger individuals supports a scenario of multiple or continuous admixture involving Papuan- and Asian-related groups. Our results clarify previously debated times of admixture and suggest that the Neolithic dispersals into Island Southeast Asia are associated with the spread of multiple genetic ancestries.

SummaryNeanderthal genomes have been recovered from sites across Eurasia, painting an increasingly complex picture of their populations’ structure, mostly indicating that late European Neanderthals belonged to a single metapopulation with no significant evidence of deep population structure. Here we report the discovery of a late Neanderthal individual, nicknamed “Thorin”, from Grotte Mandrin in Mediterranean France, and his genome. These dentognathic fossils, including a rare example of distomolars, are associated with a rich archeological record of their final technological traditions in this region ∼50-42 thousand years ago. Thorin’s genome reveals a deep divergence with other late Neanderthals. Thorin belonged to a population with small group size that showed no genetic introgression with other known late European Neanderthals, revealing genetic isolation of his lineage despite them living in neighboring regions. These results have important implications for resolving competing hypotheses about causes of the Neanderthals’ disappearance.One Sentence SummaryA new French Neanderthal fossil and its genome reveal complex population dynamics during the past 100,000 years.

Widespread permafrost thaw is underway as arctic regions warm at twice the rate of the global average. Greenhouse gases (methane and carbon dioxide) released from thawing organic-rich permafrost soils contribute to a positive feedback loop that further accelerates global warming. There is an urgent need to understand the relationship between past permafrost conditions and palaeoclimatic change, to better predict present permafrost response to ongoing and future climate change. Through sulfur isotope analysis (δ34S) of radiocarbon-dated bone collagen samples spanning the last 50,000 years, we have identified what we term a high-magnitude Late Pleniglacial Sulfur Excursion (LPSE) in Eurasia. This anomaly is geographically widespread and several orders of magnitude higher than the sulfur isotope variation previously attributed to changing animal origin or diet alone. We show that a major change in the terrestrial sulfur cycle related to continental-scale environmental processes are, in this context, representing changing permafrost conditions. Sulfur isotope analysis of faunal samples offer an unrivalled prospect of developing high-resolution, tightly chronologically-constrained records of past permafrost change in relation to global climate changes. This would inform on the sensitivity of permafrost to past climate change, enabling constraints to be put on modelled responses of present‐day permafrost to future climate change. More broadly, our findings indicate animal δ34S values may reflect local environmental conditions, complicating the use of δ34S values as a tool for food origin, animal migration, and archaeological palaeodiet and mobility research.

Recent research on Later Stone Age (LSA) San rock art in southern Africa has unveiled some of the paint recipes the artists employed. However, these discoveries still need to be linked to human activities in or near the rock shelters where the paintings were made. In this paper, we report characterization and dating results from the catchment of the Metolong Dam, Phuthiatsana Valley, Lesotho. A total of 92 rock painting samples, six grindstones with traces of colouring materials from an excavated context, and 17 potential raw colouring materials were studied. We identified three previously unreported ingredients used by the artists: manganese oxides, calcined bones, and soot. Grindstones are stained with the same raw materials that the painters used. We propose that one of them may have served to prepare the red pigment used to make a human figure and a bichrome eland at Ha Makotoko, but direct links remain difficult to establish with certainty. The potential colouring materials in the valley are red clays, white clays (kaolinite and illite-or-montmorillonite), and gypsum, three compounds used as paints by the artists. Tests conducted to verify their suitability for paintings show these materials may have been ground, but settling (after pre-grinding) offers a quicker and easier way to obtain a fine powder as observed in the paints. Finally, 12 AMS dates provide an initial framework for studying the changing use of paint recipes in the Phuthiatsana Valley over time. Charcoal appears to have been employed over a period of at least 3000 years and carbon black for at least 2000 years, with soot seemingly used only before 2000 cal. BP. This study is currently the largest characterization and dating study of LSA rock art in southern Africa and shows the potential that such combined investigations offer for linking excavated and parietal components of the region's hunter-gatherer archaeological record.

The Great Hungarian Plain was a crossroads of cultural transformations that have shaped European prehistory. Here we analyse a 5,000-year transect of human genomes, sampled from petrous bones giving consistently excellent endogenous DNA yields, from 13 Hungarian Neolithic, Copper, Bronze and Iron Age burials including two to high (similar to 22x) and seven to similar to 1x coverage, to investigate the impact of these on Europe's genetic landscape. These data suggest genomic shifts with the advent of the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, with interleaved periods of genome stability. The earliest Neolithic context genome shows a European hunter-gatherer genetic signature and a restricted ancestral population size, suggesting direct contact between cultures after the arrival of the first farmers into Europe. The latest, Iron Age, sample reveals an eastern genomic influence concordant with introduced Steppe burial rites. We observe transition towards lighter pigmentation and surprisingly, no Neolithic presence of lactase persistence., Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe; 1332

The timing and character of the Pleistocene peopling of the Americas are measured by the discovery of unequivocal artifacts from well-dated contexts. We report the discovery of a well-dated artifact assemblage containing 14 stemmed projectile points from the Cooper’s Ferry site in western North America, dating to ~16,000 years ago. These stemmed points are several thousand years older than Clovis fluted points (~13,000 cal yr B.P.) and are ~2300 years older than stemmed points found previously at the site. These points date to the end of Marine Isotope Stage 2 when glaciers had closed off an interior land route into the Americas. This assemblage includes an array of stemmed projectile points that resemble pre-Jomon Late Upper Paleolithic tools from the northwestern Pacific Rim dating to ~20,000 to 19,000 years ago, leading us to hypothesize that some of the first technological traditions in the Americas may have originated in the region.

In prehistoric coastal and western-central Thailand, rice was the dominant cultivar. In eastern-central Thailand, however, the first known farmers cultivated millet. Using one of the largest collections of archaeobotanical material in Southeast Asia, this article examines how cropping systems were adapted as domesticates were introduced into eastern-central Thailand. The authors argue that millet reached the region first, to be progressively replaced by rice, possibly due to climatic pressures. But despite the increasing importance of rice, dryland, rain-fed cultivation persisted throughout ancient central Thailand, a result that contributes to refining understanding of the development of farming in Southeast Asia.

Skeletal evidence of two probable cases of treponematosis, caused by infection with the bacterium Treponema pallidum, from the northern Vietnamese early Neolithic site of Man Bac (1906–1523 cal B.C.) is described. The presence of nodes of subperiosteal new bone directly associated with superficial focal cavitations in a young adult male and a seven-year- old child are strongly diagnostic for treponemal disease. Climatic and epidemiological contexts suggest yaws (Treponema pallidum pertenue) as the most likely causative treponeme. This evidence is the oldest discovered in the Asia-Pacific region and is the first well-established pre-Columbian example in this region in terms of diagnosis and secure dating. The coastal ecology, sedentary settlement, and high fertility at the site of Man Bac all provided a biosocial context conducive to the spread of treponemal disease among inhabitants of the site. Co-morbidity with scurvy in both individuals demonstrates that malnutrition during the agricultural transition may have exacerbated the expression of treponematosis in this community. Man Bac is a site of great regional importance owing to its role during the Neolithic transition of Mainland Southeast Asia. During this transition, approximately 4,000 years ago, farmers migrating from southern China into Southeast Asia influenced a number of changes in subsistence and demography and potentially introduced new infectious diseases such as treponematosis to indigenous forager communities. The findings presented here may encourage reevaluation of existing Southeast Asian skeletal samples and demonstrate the importance of using weighted diagnostic criteria for future reporting of treponematosis cases. Hai trường hợp nhiều khả năng mắc bệnh ghẻ cóc do nhiễm vi khuẩn Treponema pallidum, thuộc di chỉ Mán Bạc sơ kì đá mới Việt Nam (cal 1906–1523 B.C.) được mô tả trên bằng chứng di cốt. Sự có mặt của các hạt xương mới dưới màng xương trực tiếp liên quan đến các lỗ ổ bề mặt ở một nam trẻ tuổi trưởng thành và một trẻ em 7 tuổi là chẩn đoán nhiều khả năng cho bệnh này. Bối cảnh khí hậu và dịch tễ học cho thấy bệnh ghẻ cóc do nhiễm xoắn khuẩn Treponema pallidum pertenue là nguyên nhân phổ biến nhất. Bằng chứng trên được phát hiện muộn nhất ở khu vực Châu Á-Thái Bình Dương và là một ví dụ điển hình đầu tiên giai đoạn tiền Columbia trong khu vực này dựa vào chẩn đoán và định niên đại chính xác. Sinh thái biển, lối sống ít di động, và tỷ lệ sinh sản cao ở di chỉ Mán Bạc, tất cả đã tạo ra sự tương tác giữa các yếu tố sinh học và xã hội thuận lợi cho việc lây lan bệnh ghẻ cóc giữa các cư dân thuộc di chỉ này. Cùng với đó là sự mắc bệnh thiếu vitamin C (scurvy) ở cả hai cá thể trên chỉ ra rằng sự suy dinh dưỡng trong suốt quá trình chuyển tiếp nông nghiệp có thể trầm trọng hơn và biểu hiện bệnh ghẻ cóc ở cộng đồng này. Mán Bạc là một di chỉ vùng quan trọng bởi vì nó nằm trong ranh giới giai đoạn chuyển tiếp Đá Mới của Đông Nam Á lục địa. Trong suốt bước chuyển này, khoảng 4000 năm cách đây, các cư dân nông nghiệp di cư từ miền nam Trung Quốc vào Đông Nam Á đã ảnh hưởng nhiều thay đổi trong phương thức sinh kế, dân số, và mang theo bệnh nhiễm trùng mới tiềm ẩn như là bệnh ghẻ cóc vào các cộng đồng nông nghiệp bản địa . Các phát hiện trình bày trên đây hi vọng sẽ là khởi đầu đánh giá lại về sự tồn tại các di cốt Đông Nam Á và minh họa tầm quan trọng của việc sử dụng tiêu chí chẩn đoán tin cậy về các trường hợp bệnh ghẻ cóc cho nghiên cứu tiếp theo.

Previous research indicates that the human genetic diversity found in Wallacea - islands in present-day Eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste that were never part of the Sunda or Sahul continental shelves - has been shaped by complex interactions between migrating Austronesian farmers and indigenous hunter-gatherer communities. Here, we provide new insights into this region’s demographic history based on genome-wide data from 16 ancient individuals (2600-250 yrs BP) from islands of the North Moluccas, Sulawesi, and East Nusa Tenggara. While the ancestry of individuals from the northern islands fit earlier views of contact between groups related to the Austronesian expansion and the first colonization of Sahul, the ancestry of individuals from the southern islands revealed additional contributions from Mainland Southeast Asia, which seems to predate the Austronesian admixture in the region. Admixture time estimates for the oldest individuals of Wallacea are closer to archaeological estimates for the Austronesian arrival into the region than are admixture time estimates for present-day groups. The decreasing trend in admixture times exhibited by younger individuals supports a scenario of multiple or continuous admixture involving Papuan- and Asian-related groups. Our results clarify previously debated times of admixture and suggest that the Neolithic dispersals into Island Southeast Asia are associated with the spread of multiple genetic ancestries.

For decades, researchers have employed sets of radiocarbon dates to reconstruct trends in ancient human populations. The overarching assumption in this analysis is that the frequency of dates is proportional to the magnitude of past human activity. Thus, the distribution of summed or otherwise summarized dates is used to extrapolate population density and mobility patterns. There are, however, a number of underlying assumptions associated with this analysis that workers address to varying degrees and which, if false and not critically accounted for, will introduce bias, misrepresent the magnitude of activity, and ultimately prove misleading in archaeological interpretations. In this regard, research has so far mainly focused on correcting for the effects of time-dependent degradation of archaeological sites and constituent materials, calibration irregularities, and the efficacy of the statistical methods used. Assumptions directly related to sample processing in radiocarbon dating, however, are less discussed in ‘14C-dates-as-data’ analyses. It is, for example, assumed that all carbonaceous materials will yield sufficient, endogenous carbon for radiocarbon measurement. Yet sample failure in radiocarbon dating is common and contingent on, largely, deterministic factors such as post-depositional environment. Sets of radiocarbon dates analyzed, therefore, represent successful measurements independent of reliability. In this work, we discuss the biases introduced by challenges in radiocarbon processing and their impact on 14C-dates-as-data studies.

Elucidating when Neanderthal populations disappeared from Eurasia is a key question in paleoanthropology, and Belgium is one of the key regions for studying the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. Previous radiocarbon dating placed the Spy Neanderthals among the latest surviving Neanderthals in Northwest Europe with reported dates as young as 23,880 ± 240 B.P. (OxA-8912). Questions were raised, however, regarding the reliability of these dates. Soil contamination and carbon-based conservation products are known to cause problems during the radiocarbon dating of bulk collagen samples. Employing a compound-specific approach that is today the most efficient in removing contamination and ancient genomic analysis, we demonstrate here that previous dates produced on Neanderthal specimens from Spy were inaccurately young by up to 10,000 y due to the presence of unremoved contamination. Our compound-specific radiocarbon dates on the Neanderthals from Spy and those from Engis and Fonds-de-Forêt demonstrate that they disappeared from Northwest Europe at 44,200 to 40,600 cal B.P. (at 95.4% probability), much earlier than previously suggested. Our data contribute significantly to refining models for Neanderthal disappearance in Europe and, more broadly, show that chronometric models regarding the appearance or disappearance of animal or hominin groups should be based only on radiocarbon dates obtained using robust pretreatment methods.

The Kostenki-Borshchevo site complex (Voronezh region, Russia) serves as the foundation of Eastern Europe’s Upper Paleolithic chronocultural framework. Here we present new radiocarbon dates for three Kostenki sites. Dates of ∼27.5–27 ka BP for Kostenki 15 suggest that its archaeological layer accumulated over a short period. These results help to confirm that the site is unrelated to Aurignacian assemblages. New dates for the Kostenki-Avdeevo Culture (KAC) Layer I of Kostenki 1 address the longstanding question of its chronology. Our results of ∼23.5–23 ka BP from different areas of the site are consistent with the layer’s accumulation over a short period. These results accord with recently obtained dates for Kostenki’s other KAC sites. Our younger results of ∼22.5–21 ka BP for different material from Layer III of Kostenki 21 are similarly consistent with a short chronological window for Kostenki’s KAC sites. Overall, this and other recent publications support the view that many Kostenki assemblages are chronologically distinct. This provides an important insight into the tempo of Upper Paleolithic cultural change. Introduction - The Kostenki Upper Paleolithic - Kostenki 15 (Gorodtsovskaya) - Kostenki 1 (Polyakovskaya), Layer I - Kostenki 21 (Gmelinskaya) Discussion Conclusion

We have concerns over the reliability of the radiocarbon data used to support a later arrival of Homo sapiens in southern China (1). The pretreatment chemistry methods used to derive their accelerator mass spectrometry dates are not reported, they fail to define the nature of the dated material, and the limited analytical data fall almost completely outside accepted parameters, raising doubts over accuracy. Sun et al. (1) state that they followed the collagen extraction methods outlined in ref. 2, but there are two different protocols described in that paper. We assume they refer to the basic collagen method rather than ultrafiltration. We note that this … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: thomas.higham{at}rlaha.ox.ac.uk. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

The early occupation of America The Cooper's Ferry archaeological site in western North America has provided evidence for the pattern and time course of the early peopling of the Americas. Davis et al. describe new evidence of human activity from this site, including stemmed projectile points. Radiocarbon dating and Bayesian analysis indicate an age between 16,560 and 15,280 years before present. Humans therefore arrived in the Americas before an inland ice-free corridor had opened, so a Pacific coastal route was the probable entry route. The stemmed projectile points closely resemble those found in Upper Paleolithic Japan, also supporting the hypothesis of a coastal route. Science , this issue p. 891

Objectives: This article documents an incomplete child's mandible found in H. Obermaier's excavation campaign (in 1912) in El Castillo Cave, Spain. This fossil was assigned to what was then considered a phase of the “Aurignacian-delta”. Materials and Methods: We exhaustively analyzed the original Obermaier documents, with particular attention to those corresponding to the year of the discovery. We extracted a bone sample to radiocarbon date the fossil directly. We also followed established methods to measure, describe and compare the mandible with other human remains. Results: The analysis of Obermaier's documents and new data derived from modern excavations, show that the mandible was discovered in an interior area of the cave. Direct radiocarbon dating yielded a result of 24,720 ± 210 BP and 29,300 – 28,300 cal BP, a date similar to those known for the Gravettian technocomplex both in the El Castillo site and across Europe. The jaw corresponded to a child aged 4–5 years, with modern morphology, but with a certain robustness, especially in the symphyseal region. Comparisons were made with several modern children (Granada, Spitalfields, and Black series) and with immature fossils (European Aurignacian and Gravettian). The few differences between the modern and the fossil children are related to the symphysis and mandibular corpus thickness and height, and to the symphyseal morphology and larger teeth dimensions. Paleoisotopic data for Castillo C correspond with a varied diet. Numerous cutmarks were identified in the midline internal symphyseal region. Discussion and Conclusions: The results agree with those published for other fossils of similar age and chronology (e.g., the mandible of the Lagar Velho child) and show clear differences from the jaws of the young Neanderthals. The interpretation of the original data on the mandible discovery may indicate the destruction of a burial and the displacement, by percolation or by a den, at least of part of the skeleton. The perimortem manipulations in the child's mandible are the first described in the Gravettian world of Western Europe.

One of the most reliable proofs of terrestrial ice-free conditions within Stadials is the presence of terrestrial vertebrate fauna that require access to vegetation in the winter, for example sedentary birds such as Ptarmigans and herbivorous mammals in particular. The musk ox (Ovibos moschatus) is an example of the latter; modern-day distributions of this species are limited to areas with low snow accumulations. In this paper we discuss the discovery of musk ox bones in Norway. Recently obtained radiocarbon dates on this material demonstrate the presence of this species 41–35 cal kyr B.P. in southern Norway during late Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3). Furthermore the dates have implications for the interpretation of climate and environmental conditions; indicating the existence of a small ice cap in the mountains and climate and vegetation supporting a large mammal fauna in South Norway at that time. publishedVersion

Increasing the productivity and yield of rice in Central Thailand has been a key focus of international and local government policy. Efforts have centered around producing a second winter season of irrigated rice. However, a series of droughts in the region have led to widespread crop failure. We carry out a re-evaluation of weather station and environmental data and combine this with new information from a key archeological site in Central Thailand, Phromthin Tai, whose occupation covers a long and critical period of Thai prehistory. Based on these data, we argue that farmers in the area employed an adaptive and resilient agricultural and wild-plant-food-based subsistence system that was adapted to the region’s high variability in rainfall. This subsistence system bridged the divide between the wild and cultivated and between wet and dry farming. The temporal and spatial diversity inherent in this system makes it vulnerable to destruction by agricultural policies that focus singly on improving yields.

Archaeogenetic studies have described the formation of Eurasian ‘steppe ancestry’ as a mixture of Eastern and Caucasus hunter-gatherers. However, it remains unclear when and where this ancestry arose and whether it was related to a horizon of cultural innovations in the 4th millennium BCE that subsequently facilitated the advance of pastoral societies in Eurasia. Here we generated genome-wide SNP data from 45 prehistoric individuals along a 3000-year temporal transect in the North Caucasus. We observe a genetic separation between the groups of the Caucasus and those of the adjacent steppe. The northern Caucasus groups are genetically similar to contemporaneous populations south of it, suggesting human movement across the mountain range during the Bronze Age. The steppe groups from Yamnaya and subsequent pastoralist cultures show evidence for previously undetected farmer-related ancestry from different contact zones, while Steppe Maykop individuals harbour additional Upper Palaeolithic Siberian and Native American related ancestry., The Caucasus mountain range has impacted on the culture and genetics of the wider region. Here, the authors generate genome-wide SNP data for 45 Eneolithic and Bronze Age individuals across the Caucasus, and find distinct genetic clusters between mountain and steppe zones as well as occasional gene-flow.

Elucidating when Neanderthal populations disappeared from Eurasia is a key question in paleoanthropology, and Belgium is one of the key regions for studying the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. Previous radiocarbon dating placed the Spy Neanderthals among the latest surviving Neanderthals in Northwest Europe with reported dates as young as 23,880 ± 240 B.P. (OxA-8912). Questions were raised, however, regarding the reliability of these dates. Soil contamination and carbon-based conservation products are known to cause problems during the radiocarbon dating of bulk collagen samples. Employing a compound-specific approach that is today the most efficient in removing contamination and ancient genomic analysis, we demonstrate here that previous dates produced on Neanderthal specimens from Spy were inaccurately young by up to 10,000 y due to the presence of unremoved contamination. Our compound-specific radiocarbon dates on the Neanderthals from Spy and those from Engis and Fonds-de-Foret demonstrate that they disappeared from Northwest Europe at 44,200 to 40,600 cal B.P. (at 95.4% probability), much earlier than previously suggested. Our data contribute significantly to refining models for Neanderthal disappearance in Europe and, more broadly, show that chronometric models regarding the appearance or disappearance of animal or hominin groups should be based only on radiocarbon dates obtained using robust pretreatment methods.

The Streletskian is central to understanding the onset of the Upper Palaeolithic on the East European Plain. Early Streletskian assemblages are frequently seen as marking the Neanderthal-anatomically modern human (AMH) anthropological transition, as well as the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic archaeological transition. The age of key Streletskian assemblages, however, remains unclear, and there are outstanding questions over how they relate to Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic facies. The three oldest Streletskian layers—Kostenki 1 Layer V, Kostenki 6 and Kostenki 12 Layer III—were excavated by A. N. Rogachev in the mid-20th century. Here, we re-examine these layers in light of problems noted during Rogachev’s campaigns and later excavations. Layer V in the northern part of Kostenki 1 is the most likely assemblage to be unmixed. A new radiocarbon date of 35,100 ± 500 BP (OxA- X-2717-21) for this assemblage agrees with Rogachev’s stratigraphic interpretation and contradicts later claims of a younger age. More ancient radiocarbon dates for Kostenki 1 Layer V are from areas lacking diagnostic Streletskian points. The Kostenki 6 assemblage’s stratigraphic context is extremely poor, but new radiocarbon dates are consistent with Rogachev’s view that the archaeological material was deposited prior to the CI tephra (i.e. >34.3 ka BP). Multiple lines of evidence indicate that Kostenki 12 Layer III contains material of different ages. Despite some uncertainty over the precise relationship between the dated sample and diagnostic lithic material, Kostenki 1 Layer V (North) therefore currently provides the best age estimate for an early Streletskian context. This age is younger than fully Upper Palaeolithic assemblages elsewhere at Kostenki. Other “Streletskian” assemblages and Streletskian points from younger contexts at Kostenki are briefly reviewed, with possible explanations for their chronostratigraphic distribution considered. We caution that the cultural taxon Streletskian should not be applied to assemblages based simply on the presence of bifacially worked artefacts.

Denisova Cave, a Pleistocene site in the Altai Mountains of Russian Siberia, has yielded significant fossil and lithic evidence for the Pleistocene in Northern Asia. Abundant animal and human bones have been discovered at the site, however, these tend to be highly fragmented, necessitating new approaches to identifying important hominin and faunal fossils. Here we report the results for 8253 bone fragments using ZooMS. Through the integration of this new ZooMS-based data with the previously published macroscopically-identified fauna we aim to create a holistic picture of the zooarchaeological record of the site. We identify trends associated with climate variability throughout the Middle and Upper Pleistocene as well as patterns explaining the process of bone fragmentation. Where morphological analysis of bones from the site have identified a high proportion of carnivore bones (30.2%), we find that these account for only 7.6% of the ZooMS assemblage, with large mammals between 3 and 5 more abundant overall. Our analysis suggests a cyclical pattern in fragmentation of bones which sees initial fragmentation by hominins using percussive tools and secondary carnivore action, such as gnawing and digestion, likely furthering the initial human-induced fragmentation. Introduction Materials Results - Comparing datasets - East chamber - Main Chamber Discussion - Patterns of faunal variablility - Faunal patterns and palaeoclimate - Animal size and impact on ZooMS-based fauna patterns Conclusions Methods

Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov in Karelia, northwest Russia, is one of the largest Early Holocene cemeteries in northern Eurasia, with 177 burials recovered in excavations in the 1930s; originally, more than 400 graves may have been present. A new radiocarbon dating programme, taking into account a correction for freshwater reservoir effects, suggests that the main use of the cemetery spanned only some 100-300 years, centring on ca. 8250 to 8000 cal BP. This coincides remarkably closely with the 8.2 ka cooling event, the most dramatic climatic downturn in the Holocene in the northern hemisphere, inviting an interpretation in terms of human response to a climate-driven environmental change. Rather than suggesting a simple deterministic relationship, we draw on a body of anthropological and archaeological theory to argue that the burial of the dead at this location served to demarcate and negotiate rights of access to a favoured locality with particularly rich and resilient fish and game stocks during a period of regional resource depression. This resulted in increased social stress in human communities that exceeded and subverted the 'normal' commitment of many hunter-gatherers to egalitarianism and widespread resource sharing, and gave rise to greater mortuary complexity. However, this seems to have lasted only for the duration of the climate downturn. Our results have implications for understanding the context of the emergence-and dissolution-of socio-economic inequality and territoriality under conditions of socio-ecological stress.

Most scholars of the subject consider that a pre-Columbian transpacific transfer accounts for the historical role of American sweet potato Ipomoea batatas as the kūmara staple of Indigenous New Zealand/Aotearoa Māori in cooler southwestern Polynesia. Archaeologists have recorded evidence of ancient Polynesian I. batatas cultivation from warmer parts of generally temperate-climate Aotearoa, while assuming that the archipelago’s traditional Murihiku region in southern South Island/Te Waipounamu was too cold to grow and store live Polynesian crops, including relatively hardy kūmara. However, archaeological pits in the form of seasonal Māori kūmara stores (rua kūmara) have been discovered unexpectedly at Pūrākaunui on eastern Murihuku’s Otago coast, over 200 km south of the current Polynesian limit of record for premodern I. batatas production. Secure pit deposits that incorporate starch granules with I. batatas characteristics are radiocarbon-dated within the decadal range 1430–1460 CE at 95% probability in a Bayesian age model, about 150 years after Polynesians first settled Te Waipounamu. These archaeological data become relevant to a body of Māori oral history accounts and traditional knowledge (mātauranga) concerning southern kūmara, incorporating names, memories, landscape features and seemingly enigmatic references to an ancient Murihiku crop presence. Selected components of this lore are interpreted through comparative exegesis for correlation with archaeological science results in testable models of change. In a transfer and adaptation model, crop stores if not seasonal production technologies also were introduced from a warmer, agricultural Aotearoa region into dune microclimates of 15th-century coastal Otago to mitigate megafaunal loss, and perhaps to support Polynesia’s southernmost residential chiefdom in its earliest phase. A crop loss model proposes that cooler seasonal temperatures of the post-1450 Little Ice Age and (or) political change constrained kūmara supply and storage options in Murihiku. The loss model allows for the disappearance of kūmara largely, but not entirely, as a traditional Otago crop presence in Māori social memory.

Modern humans expanded into Eurasia more than 40,000 years ago following their dispersal out of Africa. These Eurasians carried ~2–3% Neanderthal ancestry in their genomes, originating from admixture with Neanderthals that took place sometime between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, probably in the Middle East. In Europe, the modern human expansion preceded the disappearance of Neanderthals from the fossil record by 3,000–5,000 years. The genetic makeup of the first Europeans who colonized the continent more than 40,000 years ago remains poorly understood since few specimens have been studied. Here, we analyse a genome generated from the skull of a female individual from Zlatý kůň, Czechia. We found that she belonged to a population that appears to have contributed genetically neither to later Europeans nor to Asians. Her genome carries ~3% Neanderthal ancestry, similar to those of other Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. However, the lengths of the Neanderthal segments are longer than those observed in the currently oldest modern human genome of the ~45,000-year-old Ust’-Ishim individual from Siberia, suggesting that this individual from Zlatý kůň is one of the earliest Eurasian inhabitants following the expansion out of Africa., The authors present the genome sequence of a >45,000-year-old female Homo sapiens individual from the site of Zlatý kůň, Czechia. Although radiometric dating of the human remains was inconclusive, the authors were able to use molecular methods to demonstrate that she was probably among the earliest Eurasian inhabitants following expansion out of Africa.

Kůlna Cave is the only site in Moravia, Czech Republic, from which large assemblages of both Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian archaeological materials have been excavated from relatively secure stratified deposits. The site therefore offers the unrivalled opportunity to explore the relationship between these two archaeological phases. In this study, we undertake radiocarbon, stable isotope (carbon, nitrogen and sulphur), and ZooMS analysis of the archaeological faunal assemblage to explore the chronological and environmental context of the Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian deposits. Our results show that the Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian deposits can be understood as discrete units from one another, dating to the Late Glacial between c. 15,630 cal. BP and 14,610 cal. BP, and c. 14,140 cal. BP and 12,680 cal. BP, respectively. Stable isotope results (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S) indicate that Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian activity at Kůlna Cave occurred in very different environmental settings. Magdalenian occupation took place within a nutrient-poor landscape that was experiencing rapid changes to environmental moisture, potentially linked to permafrost thaw. In contrast, Epimagdalenian occupation occurred in a relatively stable, temperate environment composed of a mosaic of woodland and grassland habitats. The potential chronological gap between the two phases, and their associations with very different environmental conditions, calls into question whether the Epimagdalenian should be seen as a local, gradual development of the Magdalenian. It also raises the question of whether the gap in occupation at Kůlna Cave could represent a change in settlement dynamics and/or behavioural adaptations to changing environmental conditions. Introduction Background Material and methods - Sample selection - Sample preparation - Radiocarbon analysis - Stable isotope analysis - ZooMS analysis Results - Radiocarbon dating - Isotope and ZooMS results Discussion - Chronology and stratigraphic relationship between the Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian - Late Glacial palaeoenvironments in the Moravian Karst Conclusion

Hafting adhesives play a crucial role in the study of composite objects such as hunting weapons. However, they tend to degrade rapidly and, when they exceptionally preserve, they represent only micro remains. Over the last 20 years, different techniques have been applied to study such hafting residues. These techniques include optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and gas chromatography / mass spectrometry. Hafting adhesives have also been radiocarbon dated in some cases. Here, we present a multi-analytical approach using these techniques as well as photogrammetry and FTIR spectroscopy. Our integrated approach, combining these six techniques in a strategic order, allows us to document, characterise chemically and date hafting adhesives. We applied this methodology to a set of stone tools discovered in Sart-Saint-Laurent (Belgium) without any archaeological context. This multi-analytical work revealed that several of the tools have been hafted with a heated Pinaceae resin around the 2nd-4th century CE, although some of the artefacts can be attributed to the Neolithic. More generally, this work demonstrates the complementary nature of all the techniques employed and their crucial contribution to fully elucidate hafting techniques.

The first formal bone tool in the Central Altai of Russia was found in an Early Upper Palaeolithic assemblage at the Kara-Bom open-air site. Here the authors report the results of AMS dating, use-wear analysis, 3D-modelling and zooarchaeological and collagen fingerprinting analysis, which reveal important new insights into the osseous technology of the Kara-Bomian tradition.

The Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand is one of four known prehistoric loci of copper mining, smelting and casting in Southeast Asia. Many radiocarbon determinations from bronze-consumption sites in north-east Thailand date the earliest copper-base metallurgy there in the late second millennium BC. By applying kernel density estimation analysis to approximately 100 new AMS radiocarbon dates, the authors conclude that the valley's first Neolithic millet farmers had settled there by c. 2000 BC, and initial copper mining and rudimentary smelting began in the late second millennium BC. This overlaps with the established dates for Southeast Asian metal-consumption sites, and provides an important new insight into the development of metallurgy in central Thailand and beyond.

The presence of people in Switzerland in recently deglaciated landscapes after the Last Glacial Maximum represents human utilisation of newly available environments. Understanding these landscapes and the resources available to the people who exploited them is key to understanding not only Late Upper Palaeolithic settlement in Switzerland, but more broadly human behavioural ecology in newly inhabited environmental settings. By applying bone collagen stable isotope analysis (δ13C, δ15N and δ34S) to faunal remains from Late Upper Palaeolithic localities in Switzerland, we investigate animal ecology and environmental conditions during periods of human occupation. High and relatively uniform δ34S values indicate that landscapes north of the Jura Mountains provided comparatively stable environmental conditions, while lower and more variable δ34S values on the Swiss Plateau suggest a dynamic landscape with diverse hydrological and pedological conditions, potentially linked to regionally different patterns of permafrost thaw. This contrasts with the archaeological record that appears relatively uniform between the two regions, suggesting people were employing similar subsistence behaviours across a range of environmental settings. The pattern of change in δ15N across the deglacial period appears consistent between areas that remained ice-free throughout the LGM and those that were glaciated. Most notable is a period of exclusively low δ15N values between 15,200 and 14,800 cal. BP, which could relate a regional expansion of floral biomass in response to environmental change.

The peopling of the Americas marks a major expansion of humans across the planet. However, questions regarding the timing and mechanisms of this dispersal remain, and the previously accepted model (termed ‘Clovis-first’)—suggesting that the first inhabitants of the Americas were linked with the Clovis tradition, a complex marked by distinctive fluted lithic points1—has been effectively refuted. Here we analyse chronometric data from 42 North American and Beringian archaeological sites using a Bayesian age modelling approach, and use the resulting chronological framework to elucidate spatiotemporal patterns of human dispersal. We then integrate these patterns with the available genetic and climatic evidence. The data obtained show that humans were probably present before, during and immediately after the Last Glacial Maximum (about 26.5–19 thousand years ago)2,3 but that more widespread occupation began during a period of abrupt warming, Greenland Interstadial 1 (about 14.7–12.9 thousand years before ad 2000)4. We also identify the near-synchronous commencement of Beringian, Clovis and Western Stemmed cultural traditions, and an overlap of each with the last dates for the appearance of 18 now-extinct faunal genera. Our analysis suggests that the widespread expansion of humans through North America was a key factor in the extinction of large terrestrial mammals. A Bayesian age model suggests that human dispersal to the Americas probably began before the Last Glacial Maximum, overlapping with the last dates of appearance for several faunal genera.

DNA analyses of an early East Asian Ancient, anatomically modern humans interbred with the archaic hominins Neanderthals and Denisovans. However, the extent of this interbreeding and how it affects modern populations is not well understood. Massilani et al. generated genome-wide data from a 34,000-year-old female individual from the Salkhit Valley in eastern Mongolia and conducted a detailed modeling of her ancestry with regard to other Pleistocene human genomes. They found evidence for Denisovan ancestry in ancient human genomes from at least 6000 years before the Salkhit individual lived and determined that the Denisovan contribution differed from that of another ancient Asian individual, as well as from the ancient Denisovan contribution to extant Australasians. This reference point helps us to understand the early history of our species in Eurasia, especially Eastern Eurasia, for which genomic evidence remains scarce. Science , this issue p. 579

Radiocarbon dating of bone and charcoal from sites dating to the Middle and Upper Paleolithic is challenging due to low residual levels of radiocarbon. This means that small amounts of contaminating carbon can wield a great influence over accuracy unless they are fully removed. The site of Kabazi II in the Crimea is important because radiocarbon dates previously obtained from bones in archaeological horizons that date to the Western Crimean Mousterian (WCM) are surprisingly young. We redated the same samples using a single compound dating method that focuses on extracting and dating the amino acid hydroxyproline. We show that single amino acid dates produce significantly older determinations than those that use bulk collagen pretreatment procedures. Our results suggest that instead of dating to 35,000–40,000 cal BP, the bones actually date to >50,000 cal BP. This implies that the WCM at this site is much older than previously thought. In light of these current findings, we considered the dates of other key Crimean sites and concluded that in the absence of reliable pretreatment methods, it would be wise to consider many of them minimum ages. We conclude that there is little robust evidence to suggest Neanderthals were present in the Crimea after 40,000 cal BP.

Manning builds an inappropriate Bayesian age model to assert that the initial occupation at Cooper’s Ferry began only ~15,935 ± 75 to 15,130 ± 20 cal yr B.P., suggesting that our estimation of ~16,560 to 15,280 cal yr B.P. is unsupported. However, this analysis both ignores evidence of human occupation from the earliest undated cultural deposits and reflects a misapplication of Bayesian age-modeling techniques. Consequently, his results are unreliable.

Excavations in 2010 on the Black Sea island of Sveti Ivan (Bulgaria) revealed the remains of a miniature marble sarcophagus containing human and animal remains, along with an inscribed tufa ossuary, beneath a 4th to 5th-century church floor. We found that the tufa ossuary had strong links with Cappadocian rhyolite tuff. The inscriptions on its surface suggest links to John the Baptist since they refer to him by name and contain a reference to his nativity date of June 24. The ancient Greek text also mentions him in the genitive case, i.e. ‘of Saint John’. Here, we review the historical evidence pertaining to the relics and conclude that they most likely reached Sveti Ivan via Constantinople during the 4–5th century CE. To shed more light on the relics, we sampled three of the remains for radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA analysis. Radiocarbon dating of one of the bones (a metacarpal) yielded a first century AD date (5–75 cal AD, 68.2% probability). Ancient DNA analysis of this bone, as well as a rib fragment and a tooth, using shotgun sequencing yielded very little human DNA, ranging between 0 and 0.9% of sequenced reads. However, the DNA did not show any of the post-mortem damage patterns that are typical for ancient DNA. We conclude that the sequences we obtained are most likely the result of modern contamination.

The Riparo Mochi rock shelter, located on the Ligurian coast of Italy, is one of the most important early Upper Paleolithic sites on the Mediterranean rim. Its ∼10-m-deep stratigraphy comprises a Mousterian sequence, followed by various development stages of the Upper Paleolithic. A series of radiometric dates on marine shells bearing traces of human modification has provided a chronological framework for the final Mousterian and the Proto-Aurignacian of the site. Based on modeling results, the end of the Mousterian was dated between 44.0 and 41.8 ka cal BP (68% probability) and the beginning of the Proto-Aurignacian between 42.7 and 41.6 ka cal BP (68% probability). However, these estimates were based on a limited number of radiocarbon ages in the Mousterian levels. Here, we report new dating of the Mochi sequence using luminescence techniques, along with new radiocarbon measurements. The combination of these results using a Bayesian modeling approach allows for the first time the establishment of a more precise timing for the Mousterian occupation at the site. We show that Mousterian groups were already present at Riparo Mochi by at least 65 ka and continued to occupy the site for another 20 ka. The transition to the earliest Upper Paleolithic at the site is centered around 44.3–41.1 ka (95.4% probability), providing our best age estimate for the beginning of the Early Upper Paleolithic and the establishment of modern human groups in the Balzi Rossi. The sequence continues upward with a more evolved Aurignacian phase and a Gravettian phase starting at ∼26 ka or earlier.