Recent investigations into the origins of symbolism indicate that personal ornaments in the form of perforated marine shell beads were used in the Near East, North Africa, and SubSaharan Africa at least 35 ka earlier than any personal ornaments in Europe. Together with instances of pigment use, engravings, and formal bone tools, personal ornaments are used to support an early emergence of behav...

Abstract In this paper, we analyse the fish and small mammal assemblages from Middle Paleolithic horizons of Hohle Fels Cave to reconstruct paleoclimatic paleoenvironmental conditions faced by Neanderthal groups who occupied site. The assemblage indicates that freshwater ecosystem around site was characterized a pre-mountain river system with presence permanent, oxygen-rich, cold running waters...

This paper considers the recent radiometric dating (14C-AMS, TL, ESR) of 76 late Middle and early Upper Paleolithic samples from Ortvale Klde Rockshelter, located in the Republic of Georgia. We present a critical evaluation of each date based on its stratigraphic and archaeological context, its pretreatment and contamination history, and its resulting accuracy and precision, the goal being to e...

The Acheulean to Middle Stone Age (MSA) transition is examined from an evolutionary perspective. The replacement of Acheulean handaxes by MSA points represents a shift from hand-held to hafted technology, but the timing and nature of this process are poorly understood due to the rarity of sites from the early MSA (EMSA), here defined as the portion of the MSA predating 130,000 years ago. The we...

Introduction. This work is devoted to the assessment of Upper Paleolithic sites Northern Tien Shan. Materials and methods. Plains foothills Kazakhstan occupies a large western part Central Asia stretches from Caspian Sea in west Altai Mountains east. There are many sites, vast majority which open-air (surface) sites. Recently several multilayer have been discovered Among them Maibulak, Rakhat, ...

Humans have an unusual life history, with an early weaning age, long childhood, late first reproduction, short interbirth intervals, and long lifespan. In contrast, great apes wean later, reproduce earlier, and have longer intervals between births. Despite 80 y of speculation, the origins of these developmental patterns in Homo sapiens remain unknown. Because they record daily growth during for...

Grotte XVI (Dordogne, France) contains a rich archaeological sequence that begins during the Mousterian and continues through the Magdalenian and includes Châtelperronian and early Aurignacian assemblages. Analyses of the ungulates from this site show no significant change in skeletal part representation, butchering intensity (as measured by cut mark numbers and placement), degree of bone fragm...

Accurate and precise dating is vital to our understanding of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. There are, however, a number of uncertainties in the chronologies currently available for this period. We attempt to examine these uncertainties by utilizing a number of recent developments in the field. These include: the precise dating of the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) tephra by 40Ar/39Ar; ...