Hominin Occupation at Waziers, Northern France Reconstruction of the Environment at Waziers and Hominin Activities During the Last Interglacial
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Hominin occupation at Waziers, northern France Reconstruction of the environment at Waziers and hominin activities during the Last Interglacial Liangai Shen Hominin occupation at Waziers, northern France Reconstruction of the environment at Waziers and hominin activities during the Last Interglacial Liangai Shen s2136155 Master’s thesis Dr. M. H. Field Archaeobotany University of Leiden, Faculty of Archaeology Leiden 13/06/2019 final version 2 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.....................................................................4 1. INTRODUCTION...........................................................................5 2. INTRODUCTION TO WAZIERS........................................................7 2.1 LOCATION OF WAZIERS.................................................................................7 2.2 RESEARCH HISTORY OF WAZIERS....................................................................7 2.2.1 Research before 2017......................................................................7 2.2.2 Excavation in 2017...........................................................................9 2.2.2.1 Fauna..................................................................................................... 9 2.2.2.2 wood.................................................................................................... 10 2.2.2.3 Lithic Industry......................................................................................11 3. EARLY HOMININ OCCUPATION OF NORTHWESTERN EUROPE..........12 4. PLANT MACROFOSSILS FROM WAZIERS COUPE 1 PARTIE 1...........16 4.1 METHODOLOGY.........................................................................................16 4.1.1 The collection of samples...............................................................16 4.1.2 Procedure of experiments..............................................................17 4.1.2.1 Sieving................................................................................................ 17 4.1.2.2 Picking plant remains..........................................................................17 4.1.2.3 Identification.......................................................................................18 4.1.2.4 Tubing.................................................................................................. 18 4.2 RESULTS..................................................................................................18 4.3 ECOLOGY OF PLANTS..................................................................................22 4.3.1 Aquatic...........................................................................................22 4.3.2 Waterside and damp ground..........................................................25 4.3.3 Woodland and shade tolerant........................................................27 4.3.4 Unclassified....................................................................................27 4.4 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PALEOENVIRONMENT................................................29 5. DISCUSSION..............................................................................33 6. CONCLUSION.............................................................................37 ABSTRACT.....................................................................................38 BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................39 LIST OF FIGURES...........................................................................45 LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................45 3 Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my supervisor, Dr. M. H. Field, who helped me a lot with my thesis and my studies at Leiden University. I would also like to thank those in the botanical laboratory who were always very friendly in helping me solve problems. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents and sister for supporting my studies at Leiden University. 4 1. Introduction The site of Waziers is a Late Pleistocene site located in northern France. Excavations were conducted by a multidisciplinary team after the first diagnosis by La Communauté d’Agglomération du Douaisis-Direction de l’Archéologie Préventive (CADDAP) in 2012. Various kinds of archaeological records were excavated from the site, including plant and animal remains and lithic artefacts, and various researches have been carried on. Early research has shown that the sediments were formed during the Last Interglacial period. Archaeological records from Waziers indicate that there was a fluvial channel underground; fluvial processes can be deduced from the stratigraphy of the profile. The artefacts excavated from the site indicate hominin occupation in this area. This thesis is based on the macroscopic botanical remains from the profile Coupe 1 Partie 1 (C1 P1). Plant remains in Waziers have been well-preserved, and provide much useful information. The method used here is ‘treasure hunt’. The purpose of the treasure hunt is to know what plants are present in the samples. The ecology of plants will be discussed, and the paleoenvironment of Waziers will be reconstructed based on the results of the treasure hunt. The special location of Waziers, as well as the evidence of hominin occupation discovered from the site, make it important in understanding human occupation in Northwestern Europe during the Last Interglacial period. In recent years, human absence in Britain during the Last Interglacial has been a significant topic and at the same time, evidence shows that hominins occupied continental Northwestern Europe. The limits and range of early hominin occupation are very important because they can provide crucial information about hominins’ abilities and strategies when faced with various climatic conditions and ecosystems. This thesis will discuss reasons for early hominins’ absence in Britain during the Last Interglacial, despite their presence in adjacent Northwestern Europe. The excavation of the site of Waziers may reinforce some assumptions. Furthermore, based on the botanical data, zooarchaeological data, and lithic artefacts from Waziers, early hominin activities in Waziers area will be discussed in this thesis. There are three research questions of this thesis. The first one is to discuss the vegetation composition of Waziers during the Last Interglacial and then reconstruct the palaeoenvironment. The second one is to discuss the hominin occupation at Waziers and the link with hominin occupation in Britain, i.e., the 5 biogeography of early hominins. The last one is to try to discuss the hominin activities at Waziers on the basis of multidisciplinary data. 2. Introduction to Waziers 2.1 Location of Waziers 6 The site of Waziers is located in northern France, at a place called “Le Bas Terroir”, a few kilometres northeast of Douai. It is on the south-western edge of a low plain of La Scarpe (fig. 1). The altitude is approximately 23 metres above sea level (Hérisson et al. 2017, 11). 2.2 Research history of Waziers Figure 1. Location of site of Waziers (Hérisson et al. 2017, 11) 2.2.1 Research before 2017 In 2011, La Communauté d’Agglomération du Douaisis-Direction de l’Archéologie Préventive (CADDAP) made the diagnosis before the development project in Waziers. Archaeological remains from the Iron Age and Roman times were found, which meant that a rescue excavation was needed. Y. Petite conducted the surveys. The seventh survey revealed a peat layer thicker than one metre and initially considered to be from the Late Glacial period. In February 2013, a second diagnosis was made near to the previous that provided more 7 information. Faunal remains, including an aurochs bone with anthropogenic marks, and lithic artefacts were collected in the peat level. Radiocarbon dating was measured wood collected from the peat, and its results showed that the age of the peat level traced back to 43,500 BP, which was earlier than initial assumptions (Hérisson et al. 2017, 15). The discoveries made by CADDAP motivated the intervention of a multidisciplinary team. It was assumed that the stratigraphic sequence of Waziers could be traced back to the Eemian; in order to confirm these assumptions, a three-year (2014–2016) excavation project was scheduled. Key findings of this excavation will be introduced briefly below (Hérisson et al. 2017, 18). The three-year excavation resulted in several significant achievements. Firstly, the hypothesis regarding the Eemian age of Waziers was confirmed based on the results of the multi-proxy analyses: the litho-stratigraphic analysis showed that the peat deposit was older than the Last Glacial; and the malacological analysis showed that the malacological assemblage in Waziers was typical of assemblage in the Eemian Interglacial. The mammalian fauna data showed that fauna assemblage in Waziers was typical of the Interglacial during the Pleistocene. Additionally, the uranium-thorium dating on oogonia of Characeae also confirmed the Eemian hypothesis (Hérisson et al. 2017, 49). Secondly, the locations of the Eemian channel and related deposits were determined as a result of various geophysical prospecting campaigns, core drills, and archaeological surveys: the channel follows the axis of the road towards the ring road in Douai. The paleoenvironmental evolution of the site was documented using multi-proxy analyses at high resolution, with the malacology and palynology data showing a significant potential to reconstruct the paleoenvironment of the site. Furthermore, the excavation