Eemian) Lakeland of Neumark- Nord (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany)
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LUTZ KINDLER · GEOFF M. SMITH · ALEJANDRO GARCÍA-MORENO SABINE GAUDZINSKI-WINDHEUSER · EDUARD POP · WIL ROEBROEKS THE LAST INTERGLACIAL (EEMIAN) LAKELAND OF NEUMARK- NORD (SAXONY-ANHALT, GERMANY). SEQUENCING NEANDERTHAL OCCUPATIONS, ASSESSING SUBSISTENCE OPPORTUNITIES AND PREY SELECTION BASED ON ESTIMATIONS OF UNGULATE CARRYING CAPACITIES, BIOMASS PRODUCTION AND ENERGY VALUES Abstract The high-resolution palaeoenvironmental record from the last interglacial (Eemian) lakeland at Neumark- Nord (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany) holds the rare potential to study Neanderthal subsistence ca. 125,000 years ago in remarkable detail. Using the palynological record from the large lake Neumark-Nord 1 (NN1) and the adjacent small “pool” Neumark-Nord 2 (NN2) a sequence of lithic and faunal assemblages has been estab- lished, indicating Neanderthal presence in the lakeland throughout the Eemian. Calculations of the herbi- vore carrying capacity for the Neumark area during the Eemian reveal high biomass estimates. Using these estimates it was possible to calculate the structure of the source population, based on the faunal record rich in species and individuals, from littoral deposits assigned to the frst mesocratic phase of the Eemian. The results can be used as a frame of reference for making inferences on subsistence opportunities and prey selection based on taphonomical and zooarchaeological studies of the Neumark-Nord faunal assemblages. In a broader perspective our study demonstrates the benefts from inferring energy values (kcal) and body mass (kg) as ancillary parameters to zooarchaeological analyses to understand the relationships between death assemblage and their habitats from which they originate. Keywords Last Interglacial, Eemian, zooarchaeology, taphonomy, thanatocoenosis, biocoenosis, carrying capacity, bio- mass, herbivore community structure, subsistence, prey selection, Neanderthals Introduction Palaeolithic Archaeology holds the potential to trace tionary framework (Lee / De Vore 1968), reconstruct- the roots of our behaviour far back in time through ing human subsistence in the Pleistocene became a a diachronic perspective. With frst attempts of plac- major research agenda for Palaeolithic Archaeology. ing the human “hunting way of life” in an evolu- In the broadest sense subsistence comprises all the Publiziert in: A. García-Moreno / J. M. Hutson / G. M. Smith / L. Kindler / E. Turner / A. Villaluenga / S. Gaudzinski- Windheuser, Human behavioural adaptationsHuman to interglacial behavioural lakeshore adaptations environments. to interglacial RGZM – Tagungen lakeshore 37 environments 67 (Mainz und Heidelberg [Propylaeum] 2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.647 Fig. 1 The Great European Plain is one of the major topographical features of Europe characterized by an almost mountain- free landform. Today most of the Plain belongs to a temperate mixed and broadleaf forest biome. The area generally re- ferred to as the North European Plain is roughly outlined with the black rectangle. – (Source: CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons. wikimedia. org/w/index.php?curid=1607793). efforts undertaken to fulfl and maintain durably operated and evolved. This constitutes a challenge the basic demands of humans, most prominently when connecting human behaviour and ecology in and essential the appropriation and preparation of the archaeological context. However, on the North food (Sahlins 1972). Subsistence is constrained by European Plain, relatively short interglacial climatic the availability and distribution of resources in the stages led to comparable environmental conditions, environment. Thus, subsistence strategies, tactics in which we can study the evolution of human ecol- or patterns decoded from the archaeological record ogy and the human niche, through time up to our can only be assessed with reference to the framing present interglacial, the Holocene. Thus, the lake- ecological conditions. land of Neumark-Nord is a rare high-resolution eco- For most of the time in human history climate logical and archaeological archive from the last in- oscillations were more extreme than what we have terglacial (Eemian) offering ideal conditions to study experienced in the more recent past, i. e. the odd Neanderthal adaptations to forested environments thousands of years of the Holocene. As a result, we on the North European Plain (Gaudzinski-Wind heu- witness landscapes and environments with no mod- ser / Roebroeks, 2014; Gaudzinski-Windheuser et al. ern analogues to the ones in which earlier humans 2014). 68 Lutz Kindler et al. · The last interglacial (Eemian) lakeland of Neumark-Nord The earliest occupation of the biogeographic range of cold adapted faunal com- North European Plain munities with core dispersal areas in the East or warm adapted faunal communities with core dis- The North European Plain covers parts of northern persal areas in the South (von Koenigswald 2003). France, southeastern England, Belgium, the Nether- When exactly humans became a part of these fau- lands, Germany, southern Scandinavia and Poland. nal communities on the North European Plain is Its limits and extent are defned more by the com- still an issue. After phases of short-lived “Pioneer mon use of the term than by strict geographical dispersals” around the Lower to Middle Pleistocene features. This region is part of the Great European transition (exemplifed by the evidence from Hap- Plain, which stretches from the northwestern foot of pisburgh, UK, Parftt et al. 2005; 2010; Ashton et al. the Pyrenees in a long crescent through the North of 2014), we can assume that from 600 kya onwards Europe to the western foot of the Ural in the East humans became frequent occupants of Central Eu- (fg. 1). Its basic feature is the regular relief in an rope, in the frst instance during phases of favoura- almost mountain-free landscape. Today this vast re- ble environmental conditions (Roebroeks 2006; Jöris gion belongs to the temperate mixed and broadleaf 2014). From the middle part of the Middle Pleisto- forest biome and, far to the southeast, the forest cene onwards, humans seem to be present in sig- steppe zone. nifcantly more challenging – cold dry – conditions, During the Pleistocene the rather remote position with sites no longer limited to the western (Atlan- of the North European Plain in the Old World con- tic) and southern (Mediterranean) parts of Europe, stituted the terminal end of many human and other but also located in its more continental parts, east animal dispersals in Western Eurasia. The climatic of the river Rhine (Haidle / Pawlik 2010; Kahlke et oscillations of the Pleistocene, e. g. represented in al. 2011; Cohen et al. 2012). Such a range expan- Marine Isotope Stages (MIS), had enormous effects sion into more challenging environments might be on the extant of land mass, geomorphology, hydrol- related to the development of new strategies for ogy and environments. During the pleniglacials of survival (Hosfeld 2016), including the introduction the cold stages large parts of the North European of fre as a fxed part of the human technological Plain were overthrust by glaciers several times. In repertoire (Roebroeks / Villa 2011; Shimelmitz et al. contrast, during the full-interglacial warm phases 2014; MacDonald 2017). Establishing the exact spa- sea levels were rising and mixed and broadleaf for- tiotemporal patterns of presence and absence and est dispersed over the Plain. Nevertheless, with the the factors determining these, including adapta- onset of the 100 kya glacial-interglacial cycle about tions and alterations in subsistence and the process 1 mya ago, grassland-types of environments and of “Neanderthalisation” (Hublin 2009), is still a big steppe-tundras covered the European Plain most of challenge. the time. The drastic environmental, faunal, botani- For obvious reasons Northern Europe was de- cal and sedimentological responses to global climate populated during the pleniglacials, when glaciers change at these latitudes allows for a comparably expanded, and the remaining parts of the Plain fne subdivision of the terrestrial Pleistocene stratig- became a hostile periglacial terrain. For most time raphy on the North European Plain (Litt et al. 2007). segments of the Pleistocene the climate was cool This constitutes an ideal framework for the study of and cool-temperate, and in particular drier, with hominin environmental responses, including the de- dispersal of grassland and tundra steppe cover on velopment of cultural and biological adaptation as the North European Plain as well as in the southerly well as expansion and contraction of the geographic adjacent low mountain range. Most of what we range of human populations. know about human subsistence stems from these Depending on climate and environmental condi- environments. It seems that Neanderthals adapted tions, the North European Plain formed part of the their survival strategies well to these environments Human behavioural adaptations to interglacial lakeshore environments 69 and focused on high nutritional resources which Europe, these environments are often considered as were predominantly stored in large herbivores rather challenging environments for Neanderthals, (Gaud zinski-Windheuser / Kindler 2012). The low based on reconstructions of the production and plant biomass production during most of the Pleis- distribution of edible resources. Like modern-day tocene in these northern latitudes and the inferred temperate and tropical forests, Pleistocene intergla- high daily energy