Hasty Foragers: The Crimea Island and Europe During the Last Interglacial Jürgen Richter Victor Chabai, Jürgen Richter, Thorsten Uthmeier (eds.), Kabazi II: Last Interglacial Occupation, Environment and Subsistence. Palaeolithic Sites of Crimea, Volume 1, Simferopol - Cologne, 275-286 2005 Universität zu Köln Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte Weyertal 125 50923 Köln www.ufg.uni-koeln.de Chapter 16 Hasty Foragers: The Crimea Island and Europe During the Last Interglacial Jürgen Richter he last interglacial or Eemian Interglacial, from 126.000 to 115.000 B.P., saw warm and humid climatic Tconditions in Europe similar to those of the present time, or even a li�le more favourable (overview: Van Kolfschoten & Gibbard 2000). Thus, archaeological sites from the last interglacial offer the opportunity to observe the behaviour of Middle Palaeolithic humans under similar climatic conditions and in, potentially, comparable environments as they prevail today. Unfortunately, Eemian archaeological sites are ex- stretched as far east as Siberia, as new finds from the tremely rare in Europe (Fig. 16-1), and a recent Yenisei area indicate (Chlachula et al. 2003). comprehensive study lists only 30 sites for Central Given the short duration of the Eemian, of only Europe (Wenzel 1998, 3). For Western Europe (cf. 11.000 years or 0.5% of the Quaternary, there are still Monnier et al. 2002) the situation is even worse, and more sites than one might expect, especially in Cen- human traces dated to the last interglacial from the tral Germany and in Slovakia, where many traver- British Isles are completely lacking. Very few sites tine sites with excellent preservation of organic mat- in Eastern Europe are tentatively a�ributed to the ter are concentrated. Eemian archaeological sites are Eemian, most of the claimed Eemian ages still being mostly preserved in travertines and caves, and more highly questionable (Chabai et al. 2004, 425). On the rarely in lake basins, fluvial and beach deposits and other hand, Eemian human occupation might have volcanic deposits (Wenzel 1998, 3). E����� N���������: ��� K����� II E������� In the Crimea, Kabazi II is the only site containing According to radiometric dates from fossil mol- archaeological layers which date with relative cer- luscs from the shores, the Eemian sea level of the tainty to the last interglacial. Due to the fact that Black Sea, known as the Karangat transgression, the sea level of the Black Sea had risen considerably was between 10 and 20 m higher than today. The at that time, the Crimea must have been an island mollusc shells yielded Th/U dates of between 125 throughout a large part of the Eemian interglacial. and 95 ka (Arslanov et al. 2002). With respect to the 275 Jürgen Richter Fig. 16-1 Eemian sites in central and eastern Europe (compiled after Wenzel 1998,3; Chabai et al. 2004; Campy et al. 1989; Cliquet 1994; Otte et al. 1998). List of sites: 1. El Castillo, layers 24-26 21. Neumark-Nord 2. Saint-Germain-des-Vaux 22. Gröbern 3. Caours 23. Vindija, layer K 4. Seclin 24. Krapina, layer 2-4 5. Baume de Gigny, layer XXI (?) 25. Veternica Cave, layer j 6. Sclayn, layer VIII-XIII 26. Kulna Cave, layer 11 (not occupiedby humans) 27. Bojnice III 7. Balzi Rossi/Menton 28. Crvena Stijna, layer XXIX-XVIII 8. Tönchesberg 2B 29. Gánovce 9. Wallertheim 30. Horka-Ondrej 10. Stuttgart-Untertürkheim 31. Hranovnica-Hincava (?) 11. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 32. Beharovce-Sobotisko (?) 12. Vogelherd-Höhlensohle (?) 33. Elaea (?) 13. Saccopastore 34. Yezupil III 14. Lehringen 35. Karain 15. Veltheim-Steinmühle 36. Kabazi II, unit V/VI 16. Burgtonna 37. Antonovka I (?) 17. Weimar-Parktravertin 38. Belokuzminovka 1 18. Taubach 39. Ilskaya (?) 19. Rabutz 40. Tabun C 20. Grabschütz 41. Skhul 276 Chapter 16 Hasty Foragers: The Crimea Island and Europe during the Last Interglacial Crimea Island, it seems highly improbable that a the whole Kabazi II stratigraphy. Forests and steppe- small, isolated island population would have been forests with both coniferous and broad-leaved trees able to survive over 10.000 years without any con- prevailed during the interglacial and early glacial tact with groups from the outside. Thus, the Kabazi periods, and boreal steppe landscapes became only II interglacial occupations resulted rather from the dominant during the second half of oxygene iso- presence of continental visitors, than from the rem- tope stage 3 (Gerasimenko, this volume). On the nants of island eremites. This would imply the use other hand, the vicinity of the southern Russian of boats as early as 120.000 years ago! plain with its permanently continental climate and The Eemian age of the lower layers of Kabazi its open landscapes has always played an impor- II has resulted from different perspectives and dis- tant role as a supplier of ungulate biomass, such as ciplines contributing to the present volume. The Equus hydruntinus. analysis of the archaeological remnants can alone Humans could always survive in the Crimea, neither support nor contradict any chronological and the principal hunting prey within the Kabazi hypothesis, because particular typological features region, Equus hydruntinus was always available. The of the stone industry that might securely indicate climatic alterations of the last interglacial-glacial cy- an Eemian age have not been found anywhere in cle are thus visible in the stratigraphic record of the Europe. Kabazi II sequence; however they were not strong Archaeozoological analysis stresses the impor- enough to compel human populations to change tance of Equus hydruntinus as the principal hunt- either their nutrional preferences nor their techno- ing prey not only during the interglacial, but also logical systems. For nearly ninety thousand years, throughout the whole sequence of overlying strata Kabazi II, the small place in the shade of a limestone of Kabazi II. In the interglacial layers, rhino, red boulder, remained essentially the same: As many as deer and bovids are present in small numbers, but fi�y times or more, people occupied this place for it remains unclear whether humans hunted or scav- some hours to butcher Equus hydruntinus that had enged them. The microfauna shows a continuous been killed nearby. sequence of species of more or less open landscapes Transformation analysis indicates, for the inter- throughout both the Eemian and Weichselian lay- glacial layers, the existence of a circulating mobility ers of Kabazi II, eventually accomplished, in the pa�ern. Kabazi II was a short halt within a chain of Eemian layers, only by a few species of humid and similar locations related to hunting. Campsites of that forested landscapes. The snails seem to indicate, in time differed probably not much from the hunting the lower layers, a whole interglacial cycle from the locations, and we cannot exclude that people stayed beginning over the climatic optimum to the final cli- for a night or two at Kabazi II. The fires, which burnt matic deterioration. from time to time nearby, might support this view. Palynology, however, argues for the deposition The principle activity, however, remained always of the lower layers only during the second half and (at least 19 times) the same: people came to butcher the end of the Eemian. The pollen record mirrors the usually two or three Equus hydruntinus, sometimes 4 famous sequence from Tenaghi Phillipon in Greece, animals, but only once as few as one (layer V/4) or thus revealing the importance of the Crimea as a re- as many as 5 animals (layer VI/8). During their ac- fugium for hornbeam and other broad-leaved trees tivities, they discarded usually between 40 and 100 during periods of climatic deterioration. Thus, the stone artefacts, among them less than 10 retouched palynological record of Kabazi II delivers strong ar- tools at each time (Chabai, this volume). guments for a chronological position of layers V/3 to Such continuity of an economic and functional VI/17 within late MIS 5e and early MIS 5d. Conse- pa�ern of a long series of human occupations, as quently, the age of the lower layers of Kabazi II lies well as the particular environmental se�ing of the between 120.000 and 110.000 B.P. Crimea, constitutes a fundamental difference to On the one hand, the moderate climate of the what is generally known about interglacial human Crimean region constitutes a dominant feature of adaptation from the rest of Europe. 277 Jürgen Richter A S���� L��� �� ��� E����� A���������� �� E����� 125.000 years ago, climatic amelioration came very second part of the interglacial displays a domi- rapidly. Whereas the Greenland GRIP ice core nance of hornbeam (pollen stage E5), hornbeam- would appear to indicate short, cold interruptions spruce (pollen stage E6a), pine-fir-spruce (pollen in the interglacial climate, the terrestric pollen stage 6b) and finally pine forest (pollen stage E7). record from more than 100 localities in northern Recent correlations between the deep sea chro- Central Europe argues for relatively stable climatic nology and terrestric records have shown that the conditions during the last interglacial (Kühl and Eemian vegetational stage „appears to be about Li� 2003). 6000 years younger than the base of MIS 5“ (Shack- A simultaneous drop in steppe landscapes leton et al. 2003, 155) and survived into marine iso- and a rise in forested landscapes in Central Europe tope stage 5d (MIS 5d) „at the same time as sub- characterised the vegetation at the beginning of the stantial continental ice was accumulating in North Eemian interglacial (Fig. 16-2). When the Eemian America“. This offset was taken into account when period began at about 125.000 B.P., the polar ice caps calculating the chronological position of the Kabazi had already reached their minimum extension, as II pollen record (Gerasimenko, this volume).