Spatial interpretation of high-resolution environmental proxy data of the Middle Pleistocene Palaeolithic faunal kill site Schöningen 13 II-4, Germany

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

  • Brigitte Urban
  • Kim J. Krahn
  • Thomas Kasper
  • Alejandro García-Moreno
  • Jarod M. Hutson
  • Aritza Villaluenga
  • Elaine Turner
  • Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser
  • Dalia Farghaly
  • Mario Tucci
  • Antje Schwalb

To spatially characterize the palaeolakeshore environment at the archaeological kill site Schöningen 13 II-4 of the Middle Pleistocene Reinsdorf sequence, in-depth palynological, geochemical, aquatic microfossil and archaeological analyses were undertaken on sediment sections with an average thickness of about 15 cm, concordantly overlain by faunal remains, dominated by horse, from the unique ‘Spear Horizon’ layers of the 1995 excavation campaign. The data reveal a distinctive lake level drop, documented by the change from a carbonate-rich lake marl to a carbonate-free organic mud with increased carbon content and decreasing C/N, Si/Al, Si/K and Fe/Al ratios, indicating a higher pedogenic supply of organic matter and drier conditions at the site. Compared with older, similar transitional phases of lake level changes occurring within the Reinsdorf sequence, it is important that these youngest sediments are undisturbed, indicating continuous development. Ostracod and diatom analyses indicate a lowering water level with higher salinities and rich aquatic vegetation. Mesorheophilic ostracod species along with tychoplanktic diatom taxa point to flowing waters and turbulence at the lakeshore, presumably related to spring-fed streams originating from nearby highlands. Palynological results reveal a very diverse zonal vegetation pattern around the palaeolakeshore considering an area of investigation of approximately 50 × 75 m and a tessellated type of regional vegetation during the formation of the archaeological horizons. On topographically lower elevated areas, birch groves and taxa favouring wet, marshy conditions such as Cyperaceae, indicative of terrestrialization, were predominating, while other stands of this transitional phase reveal a very dry, grass-dominated steppe woodland favouring a rich wildlife with a striking number of megaherbivores. Our results suggest that the lithological differences of the ‘Spear Horizon’ layers containing the archaeological finds were due to their respective topographical situation and that the layers were deposited almost simultaneously during the beginning of the lake level drop. Human activities seem to have concentrated in sparsely vegetated areas along the palaeolakeshore, rather than in areas of adjacent denser birch swamp forest stands.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftBoreas
Jahrgang52
Ausgabenummer3
Seiten (von - bis)440-458
Anzahl der Seiten19
ISSN0300-9483
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 01.07.2023

Bibliographische Notiz

Funding Information:
We thank the Ministry of Science and Culture, Hanover, Germany (Brigitte Urban), PRO*Niedersachsen, Project: 74ZN1230 and the German Science Foundation (DFG: UR25/11‐1, SCHW671/22‐1, project number 350769604) for funding this study. We deeply appreciate the work of Hartmut Thieme and his former excavation team of the Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (NLD) Hanover for collecting the block samples. We acknowledge Thomas Terberger from NLD, Hanover who made sampling of the blocks possible for his support of this research. We thank Sabine Hansen and Lisa Hillenbrand for assistance with laboratory work, Emad Elba and Lisa Brogmus for calculating and drawing the pollen diagrams and for valuable assistance with graphic presentations. The work on the Schöningen finds is the result of a collaborative project between Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre and the Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, Johannes‐Gutenberg‐Universität Mainz and Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, with financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (GA6839/‐1). We finally would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their valuable comments that helped improve our manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Boreas published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Boreas Collegium.

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Aktivitäten

  1. Digitale Unterstützung des Schreibens im sprachlich heterogenen Deutschunterricht - Eine DBR-Studie an berufsbildenden Schulen in Hamburg & Niedersachsen
  2. Effects of an Internet-based guided self-help intervention for college women with eating disorders: Long-term results from a large randomized controlled trial.
  3. Personal norms of sustainability and their consequences in ecological-economic systems under uncertainty – The case of rangeland management in semi-arid regions
  4. Implementing an Internet-based platform for eating disorder screening, prevention, and treatment on college campuses: Preliminary results from a state-wide initiative.
  5. Prima Conferencia Internacional “Alternativas de desarrollo sostenible: cómo cambiar el paradigma social con énfasis en la centralidad del ser humano y la naturaleza” 2012
  6. Institutionenübergreifende Kooperationen in der Lehrkräftebildung: Konzeptionelle Ansätze, Zugänge zur Begleitforschung sowie Befunde zu Potenzialen und Herausforderungen
  7. 5th International Conference of the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI), 21st European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP)
  8. (Beruflichen) Herausforderungen der Nachhaltigkeitstransformation mit Methoden der Gamification begegnen – Mobile Escape Rooms als Resonanzräume spielerisch-transformativen Lernens
  9. Forschendes Lernen zum Whole School Approach als doppelter Lernanlass von Studierenden und schulischem Berufsbildungspersonal – Konzeption und Umsetzung eines universitären Seminars
  10. Hochschulöffentlicher Vortrag: Citizenship Education and Student Protests - Einblicke in ein binationales Forschungsprojekt zum Thema Citizenship Education in South Africa and Germany"
  11. Hochschulöffentlicher Vortrag: "Citizenship Education and Student Protests - Einblicke in ein binationales Forschungsprojekt zum Thema Citizenship Education in South Africa and Germany"
  12. Mehr Nachhaltigkeit im Wirtschaftsunterricht: Eine qualitative Exploration von Nachhaltigkeitsberichten als Grundlage von arbeits- und geschäftsprozessorientierten Lehr-Lern-Arrangements
  13. „Whole School Approach" als Anspruch einer ganzheitlichen Berufsbildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung im Lernort berufsbildende Schule – Theoretische Konzeptionen und empirische Explorationen
  14. The more attractive the more effective? Investigating the association of user experience and efficacy of an online and app-based gratitude intervention to reduce repetitive negative thinking
  15. 5th Producto Lifetimes and the Environment Conference (PLATE 2023): Gender roles as barriers to sustainable fashion lifetimes. How a deconstruction of norms can exted the use phase of garments.

Publikationen

  1. A framework for drivers fostering social-ecological restoration within forest landscape based on people’s participation. A systematic literature review
  2. Climate reporting quality following the recommendations of the task force on climate-related financial disclosures: A Focus on the German capital market
  3. Initial hazard screening for genotoxicity of photo-transformation products of ciprofloxacin by applying a combination of experimental and in-silico testing
  4. Spring barley performance benefits from simultaneous shallow straw incorporation and top dressing as revealed by rhizotrons with resealable sampling ports
  5. Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of guided and unguided internet- and mobile-based indicated transdiagnostic prevention of depression and anxiety (ICare Prevent)
  6. Comparative effectiveness of three versions of a stepped care model for insomnia differing in the amount of therapist support in internet-delivered treatment
  7. The role of organized publics in articulating the exnovation of fossil-fuel technologies for intra- and intergenerational energy justice in energy transitions
  8. „Es ist eher so, dass wir miteinander konkurrieren“: Außerschulische Bildungsprojekte für ‚Geflüchtete‘ im Kontext von ‚EU-Türkei-Deal‘ und New Educational Governance
  9. A literature review concerning the non-carbon-related environmental goals of the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)
  10. Assessing the environmental fate of S-metolachlor, its commercial product Mercantor Gold® and their photoproducts using a water-sediment test and in silico methods
  11. Naturschutzfachliche und naturschutzrechtliche Anforderungen im Gefolge der Ausdehnung des Raumordnungsregimes auf die deutsche ausschließliche Wirtschaftszone
  12. Contrasting temporal trends and relationships of total organic carbon, black carbon, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in rural low-altitude and remote high-altitude lakes
  13. A multi-level assessment of changes in stakeholder constellations, interest and influence on ecosystem services under different landscape scenarios in southwestern Ethiopia
  14. Musikalische Auseinandersetzungen mit dem Nationalsozialismus. Eine Autoethnographie des Erinnerungsprojektes Sound in the Silence im ehemaligen Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück
  15. Performance of the Chemcatcher ® passive sampler when used to monitor 10 polar and semi-polar pesticides in 16 Central European streams, and comparison with two other sampling methods
  16. Evidence for the age and timing of environmental change associated with a Lower Palaeolithic site within the Middle Pleistocene Reinsdorf sequence of the Schöningen coal mine, Germany
  17. Der "fachdidaktische Code" der Lebenswelt- und/oder (?) Situationsorientierung in der fachdidaktischen Diskussion der sozialwissenschaftlichen Unterrichtsfächer sowie des Lernfeldkonzepts
  18. Agriculture and everyday realities on small farms – An entrepreneurial challenge to farmers between the desire for autonomy and a secure existence. Two examples from east and south-east Poland
  19. Entwicklung eines Konzeptes für ein Mikrosystem zur gleichzeitigen Messung und Bestimmung von Konzentrationen in 3-Komponentenmischungen anhand der Wasser-Ethanol-Saccharose Lösungen für die Qualitätssicherung
  20. Julian von Oppen: Flucht, Migration und pädagogische Organisationen. Zur Bedeutung von kultureller Differenz in der Sozialen Arbeit mit unbegleiteten minderjährigen Geflüchteten. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa 2018,204 Seiten; ISBN 978-3-7799-3840-8