The Physical and Ecological Context of Lower Palaeolithic Movements
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Durham E-Theses Population movements into Europe during the Pleistocene: a comparative approach Grimshaw, Lucinda Celia How to cite: Grimshaw, Lucinda Celia (2004) Population movements into Europe during the Pleistocene: a comparative approach, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3045/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Population movements into Europe during the Pleistocene: a comparative approach. • Lucinda Celia Grimshaw Ph.D. Thesis University of Durham Department of Archaeology • 2004 Volume One of Two Volumes The copyright of this thesis rests with the author or the university to which it was submitted. No quotation from It, or information derived from It may be published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any Information derived from it should be acknowledged . • e Population movements into Europe during the Pleistocene: a comparative approach. Lucinda Celia Grimshaw This thesis concerns the movement of hominid groups into Europe during the • Pleistocene. Four key issues are addressed by this project: the determination of whether it is possible to detect periods of movement in the archaeological record; the examination of whether archaeological treatments of movement have been justified; the establishment of a framework of interpretation of the archaeological record of movement in order to allow movement processes to be investigated; and the exploration of possible changes in the nature of population movements during the Pleistocene. In order to fulfil these aims, and to overcome the lack of a comparative ethnographic record of hunter-gatherer population expansion, a review of population movement processes described by academic disciplines that observe dispersals and • migrations of human groups and non-human species, such as ecology, sociology and geography is presented. The processes highlighted by this review are used to build an interpretive framework of the behaviours associated with movement. The current state of archaeological knowledge of movement processes is discussed, in the form of a narrative analysis of the work of four archaeologists that have extensively worked on hominid dispersals. A methodology for the study of population movement processes in the Pleistocene is forwarded, and applied to the initial occupation ofEurope during the Early and Middle Pleistocene, and the spread of Homo sapiens groups and the Upper Palaeolithic during the Late Pleistocene. The strength of the interpretive framework, and the usefulness of the concepts taken from contemporary observations of movements are considered, and the value ofthe archaeological approaches to the • episodes of movement is evaluated. The interpretive framework is also used to assess whether social or biological models are more applicable to Pleistocene hominid movements. Recommendations for future studies of past population movements through the archaeological record conclude the thesis. • Table of Contents. TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. 3 LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... 9 LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ 21 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. 23 CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION........................................................................... 24 • THE PROBLEM OF POPULATION MOVEMENTS IN PLEISTOCENE EUROPE .................... 24 Archaeological treatments ofpopulation movements......................................... 24 Palaeolithic approaches to colonisation and dispersal . ..................................... 25 Assumptions underlying Palaeolithic colonisations ............................................ 28 Biological or social models? ............................................................................... 30 THE SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS OF POPULATION MOVEMENT IN PLEISTOCENE EUROPE OFFERED BY THIS STUDY ............................................................................. 31 The interpretive framework. ................................................................................ 31 The archaeological models.................................................................................. 33 The data collection and analysis . ........................................................................ 34 CHAPTER 2 : BIOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL MODELS OF POPULATION MOVEMENT ................................................................................. 36 BIOGEOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 36 Ecological biogeography..................................................................................... 37 • Ecological biogeographical approaches to range constraints .......................... 38 Features of wide ranging species ..................................................................... 40 Establishment of new populations ................................................................... 40 The characteristics of successful biological invaders ...................................... 43 The process of spread in biological invasions ................................................. 45 Consequences of biological invasions ............................................................. 48 Historical biogeography...................................................................................... 49 Jump or sweepstake dispersal .......................................................................... 49 Diffusion .......................................................................................................... 51 Secular migration ...... ,...................................................................................... 53 Detection of biological movements in the archaeological record....................... 54 SOCIOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL APPROACHES TO MIGRATION ........................... 57 The causes and nature of human migrations....................................................... 57 The characteristics of migrants ........................................................................... 61 Models of human migration. ................................................................................ 61 The consequences ofmigration. .......................................................................... 64 • Detection of human migration in the archaeological record. ............................. 65 APPLICATION OF THE BIOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL MODELS TO THE PLEISTOCENE RECORD OF EUROPE .................................................................................................. 68 CHAPTER 3 : ANALYSIS OF THE MAJOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL MODELS OF HOMINID DISPERSAL .................................................................................... 70 NARRATIVE ANALYSIS ............................................................................................. 71 Emplotment.......................................................................................................... 72 Formal argument ................................................................................................. 73 Ideological implications. ..................................................................................... 74 3 Relationships between the narrative elements . ................................................... 75 Linguistic tropes .................................................................................................. 76 GAMBLE'S DISPERSAL NARRATIVES ........................................................................ 78 Aims and agenda . ................................................................................................ 78 Theoretical view . ................................................................................................. 79 Models ofdispersal .............................................................................................. 82 The regional environmental model of the 1980s ............................................. 82 Modifications to the regional environmental model. ...................................... 85 The "release from proximity" model of the late 1990s ................................... 86 • Narrative analysis . .............................................................................................. 89 Strengths and weaknesses ofthe model. .............................................................. 91 The theoretical viewpoint. ............................................................................... 91 The regional environmental