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SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MODULE GUIDE
2016
MODULE: GAP3082
PALAEOLITHIC PIONEERS: ADAPTATION & COLONIZATION IN GLOBAL
PERSPECTIVE
Module Co‐Ordinator: Dr Ryan Rabett
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GAP3082 Module Content
The need for effective socio‐economic mechanisms of adaptation to global climate instability is now firmly acknowledged as one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. The great time‐depth of past human‐environment interaction available through Archaeology and Palaeoecology is now being sought increasingly by scientists and policy‐makers to provide a crucial perspective on the way we understand and model the effects of global climate change, and in creating ways to respond to it.
The emergence of new forms of behaviour is fundamentally linked to the process of adaptation to new or changed habitats. The dispersal and colonization of much of the globe by early human groups during the last 120,000 years, and the way humanity has responded to the often sustained climatic instability of this period is likely to have been a major contributor in the emergence, diversity and success of behavioural traits among Homo sapiens populations. In this module we shall examine the Palaeolithic archaeological record of human expansion into a range of global environments (including glacial, tropical, island, desert, newly deglaciated and inundated settings). We shall follow routes taken, some of the driving forces behind migration, and some of the ways that the process of colonizing new environments can be modelled. Teaching Methods Lectures: 1 hour per week Teaching will be through a combination of lectures and seminars. Lectures will be held in room GEO/0G/033 on Wednesdays: 12:00‐13:00. The aim of this teaching contact time will be to provide students with an overview of key lines of evidence, issues and approaches to the topic. Lectures will be in the form of Powerpoint presentations; PDFs of which will be made available to students on a weekly basis. Note, however, that as all presentations will involve animated elements that do not translate into PDF format, it is essential that students take notes during lectures and rely on access to lecture material only as a supplement to attendance. Basic hand‐outs will be provided at the start of each lecture. Seminars will also be held in GEO/0G/033 on Fridays: 12:00‐14:00. These weekly meetings are intended to promote discussion around the topic of the week’s lecture and focused around topic questions, as indicated below (SEMINARS) with associated readings. The class will be split into two groups (A & B). Group A will read and lead discussion on Topic 1 each week; Group B will read and lead on Topic 2 each week (except Week 1 & 11, when all students will read the material listed for Topic 1). Groups will provide: a) a summary; b) a critical assessment; c) identify key issues raised by the paper that are of wider relevance to the topic of the seminar/lecture that week. Discussion will be student‐led and all students are expected to contribute to the seminar discussions.
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Transferable Skills
Competency Development Points Module:
LEVEL 3: ADVANCED Core Supplementary◦ Communication (written) ◦ Critical analysis, evaluation & interpretation◦ Presentation (verbal & graphic) ◦ Individual talks; portfolios; conference presentations (posters?)◦ Collaborative/team‐working ◦ Interacting with professionals in the field◦ Confidence & leadership ◦ Professional networking; (grad. prizes & awards); co‐authorship?◦ Interdisciplinarity ◦ Multi‐faceted approach to problem‐solving/research◦ Field‐based team‐work ◦ Participating in active field research projects (e.g. faculty)
◦ Computing ◦ Data (database) creation & modelling◦ Attention to detail ◦ Deconstructing definitions/concepts (e.g. ʹcultureʹ)◦ Research skills ◦ Front‐line research/ real‐world (primary) data◦ Practical experience ◦ Applying (scientific) methodologies (semi‐autonomous work)◦ Landscape‐based ◦ Landscape digitisation & heritage; sustainable development◦ Management ◦ Policy/management (hazard, urban, geotourism & World Heritage)
◦ Pro‐active planning, self‐motivation ◦ Research (question‐driven)◦ Time management/ multi‐tasking ◦ Scheduling & management of independent research (e.g. dissertation)◦ Resilience, tenacity, adapt. to change ◦ Receive as well as offer constructive (scientific) criticism◦ Creativity & innovation ◦ Synthetic (combining different types of evid.) & novel interpretation◦ Perspective ◦ Role of the Past in understanding Present nat. & cult. environments◦ National & International scope ◦ Human‐enviro. relationship (impact/adaptation); globalization
Categories Employment Competencies
Interpersonal skills
Technical skills
Productivity skills
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Subject‐Specific Learning Outcomes Students completing this module will take away a sound basic understanding of:
□ The record of early human colonization and adaptation to different environments and conditions around the world;
□ Explanatory models of early human dispersal; □ How responses to environmental and climatic change have influenced diversity in
human culture; □ The value of long‐term perspectives in helping to contextualise modern concerns
about climate and environmental change. Assessment One assessed 1500‐2000 word essay (excluding bibliography, which should contain at least 8‐10 references) worth 35% of the final grade. The essay options are presented below. Deadline for submission is: 17:00 on Friday 11th November (Week 7). One assessed 500‐1000 word review of any paper in the seminar reading list (the suggested format for which will be given in the 1st seminar). Over the course of the module all of the papers on this list will be covered in our seminar discussions, providing you with insights into some of the key arguments and wider context of each paper. The objective of this exercise is to: a) help develop your ability to summarize and critically assess material in a concise format – providing valuable experience that is transferable to essay writing and to writing under examination conditions; b) introduce you to the basics of the peer‐review process that is at the heart of academic research. This piece of work is worth 20% of your final grade. The deadline for submission will be 17:00 on Friday 9th December (Week 11). One (2hr) written class test to be sat by all students in the Week 12 seminar slot (16th December, 12:00‐14:00). This will count for 45% of their overall module mark. This will take the form of a selection of six essay questions from which students will be required to answer TWO. Format for the essay All essays should have a clearly defined introduction, main section and a conclusion. All statements drawn from published material MUST be referenced in Harvard style: e.g. (Jones 2012), Jones (2012), (Jones et al. 2012), or (Smith & Jones 2012) – further details available upon request. A full bibliography in alphabetical order is required at the end of the essay (and the review). Students are required to select ONE of the following titles for their essay:
1. Has the notion of a ‘Human Revolution’ (Mellars 2007) helped or hindered the study of long‐term patterns in human behavioural development?
2. How significant has been the role of coastal environments in human dispersal?
3. What is the Anthropocene, when did it start and why is it significant to discussions about human adaptation?
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Format for the paper review You should aim to cover the following three themes in your review:
□ Summary of the paper; □ Critical assessment of the paper (strengths and weaknesses), including its
methodology and conclusions; □ Wider context and significance of the themes the paper addresses, as well as the
value of its contribution to wider debates. All submitted work is to be submitted electronically via TURNITIN to the Module co‐ordinator. Marking will be completed and work returned within 2 weeks of the due‐date for the essay; the paper review and class test will be returned after the Christmas break. See your Undergraduate Handbook for details about late submission and justification for absence – note that unless there are exceptional circumstances work submitted late will be penalised in accordance with University policy, so don’t waste marks un‐necessarily! “Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to iParadigms for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the iParadigms reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the TurnitinUK service shall be subject to such Terms and Conditions of Use as may be agreed between iParadigms and the Institution from time to time and posted on the TurnitinUK site” (Centre for Educational Development, Student Guidance Centre, QUB). Extensions for students registered with Disability Services Students who are registered with Disability Services and have as part of their reasonable adjustments ‘flexibility with coursework deadlines’ may apply, if necessary, for an extension to the coursework submission date. The extension should, normally, be agreed with the module co‐ordinator in advance of the published submission deadline. Please use the ‘Reasonable Adjustments Extension Form’ from the School Office. This form will be retained by the module co‐ordinator. For further details see: http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/sgc/disability/FileStore/Filetoupload,628673,en.doc Module Content and Readings There are three bibliographies related to this course. The first are Selected Readings associated with each lecture. You are not required to read all of these; they are intended to help give you a broad sense of the topics being discussed each week and as points of reference as you prepare both of your assessed pieces of work: the essay and short seminar paper review. You will notice that some of the readings also appear in the Seminar Readings. These latter (especially those which your group will be leading seminar discussions about) you are expected to have read ahead of each seminar. All of the seminar papers will be made available as PDFs to download via QSIS. A third, more comprehensive bibliography, incorporating all of the references used in the module, is also provided through QSIS. None of these lists is exhaustive, and I shall be looking for students to extend their readings beyond them. If you cannot find a particular reference, let me know.
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Lectures Week 1 (28th Sept.) 1. THE PLEISTOCENE PLANET
In this lecture we focus on the climatic conditions which formed both a context and posed adaptive challenges to human colonisation and settlement during the Late Pleistocene. We shall be looking at some of the different proxies that are used to help establish chronologies, ocean and climate circulation and vegetation sequences from different parts of the world. Key headings:
□ Grand cycles of planetary change; □ Rapid climate change during the late Quaternary; □ Deglaciation
Selected readings: Andel, T. H. van 2002. The climate and landscape of the middle Weichselian glaciation in
Europe: The Stage 3 Project. Quaternary Research 57: 2‐8. Bell, M., & Walker, M.J.C. 1992. Late Quaternary Environmental Change. Physical and Human
Perspectives. Wiley: New York (Chapters 2‐5). Bird, M., Taylor, D., Hunt, C. 2005. Palaeoenvironments of insular Southeast Asia during the
Last Glacial period: a savanna corridor in Sundaland? Quaternary Science Reviews 24: 2228‐2242.
Burroughs, W.J. 2005. Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge (Chapter 2).
Guthrie, D. & van Kolfschoten, T. 2000. Neither warm and moist, nor cold and arid: the ecology of the Mid Upper Palaeolithic. Roebroeks, W., Mussi, M., Svoboda, J., Fennema, K. (eds.) Hunters of the Golden Age: The Mid Upper Palaeolithic of Eurasia 30,000‐20,000 BP. Leiden University Press: Leiden, pp. 13‐20.
Haslam, M., Clarkson, C., Petraglia, M., Korisettar, R., Jones, S., Shipton, C., Ditchfield, P., Ambrose, S.H. 2010. The 74 ka Toba super‐eruption and southern Indian hominins: archaeology, lithic technology and environments at Jwalapuram Locality 3. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 3370‐3384.
Hetherington, R. & Reid, R.G.B. 2010. The Climate Connection: Climate Change and Modern Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge (Chapter 5).
Lane, C.S., Chorn, B.T., Johnson, T.C. 2013. Ash from the Toba supereruption in Lake Malawi shows no volcanic winter in East Africa at 75 ka. PNAS 110(20): 8025‐8029.
Lowe, J. J. & Walker, M.J.C. 1997 Reconstructing Quaternary Environments, Second Edition. Addison Wesley Longman: London (Chapters 1 & 7).
Petraglia, M., Korisettar, R., Boivin, N., Clarkson, C., Ditchfield, P., Jones, S., Koshy, J., Mirazón Lahr, M., Oppenheimer, C., Pyle, D., Roberts, R., Schwenninger, J‐L., Arnold, L., White, K. 2007. Middle Paleolithic assemblages from the Indian Subcontinent before and after the Toba super‐eruption. Science 317:114‐116.
Rahmstorf, S. 2002. Ocean circulation and climate during the past 120,000 years. Nature 419: 207‐214.
Williams, M. 2012. Did the 73 ka Toba super‐eruption have an enduring effect? Insights from genetics, prehistoric archaeology, pollen analysis, stable isotope geochemistry, geomorphology, ice cores, and climate models. Quaternary International 269: 87‐93.
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Week 2 (5th Oct.) 2. HUMAN ADAPTATION & DISPERSAL
In the previous lecture we briefly explored the global climate conditions during the last glacial period. This second introductory lecture will provide an overview of the principles of adaptation and dispersal. These are closely intertwined in evolutionary science and central to the human story that we shall be following through the course of the module. Key headings:
□ Adaptation – concept; human adaptive ‘prosthesis’; □ Dispersal – role of dispersal in adaptive change; three categories of early human
dispersal. Selected readings: Armitage, S.J., Jasim, S.A., Marks, A.E., Parker, A.G., Usik, V.I., Uerpmann, H‐P. 2011. The
Southern Route “Out of Africa”: evidence for an early expansion of modern humans into Arabia. Science 331: 453‐456.
Banks, W.E., d’Errico, F. & Zilhão, J. 2013. Human‐climate interaction during the Early Upper Paleolithic: testing the hypothesis of an adaptive shift between the Proto‐Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian. Journal of Human Evolution 64: 39‐55.
Banks, W.E., d’Errico, F. & Zilhão, J. 2013. Revisiting the chronology of the Proto‐Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian in Europe: A reply to Higham et al.’s comments on Banks et al. (2013). Journal of Human Evolution 65: 810‐817.
Benazzi, S., Slon, V., Talamo, S., Negrino, F., Peresani, M., Bailey, S.E., Sawyer, S., Panetta, D., Vicino, G., Starnini, E., Mannino, M.A., Salvadori, P.A., Meyer, M., Pääbo, S. & Hublin, J.J. 2015. The makers of the Proto‐aurignacian and implications for Neandertal extinction. Science 348(6236): 793‐796.
Biro, D., Haslam, M. & Rutz, C. 2013. Tool use as adaptation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 368: 20120408.
Blockley, S.P.E., Donahue, R.E., Pollard, A.M. 2000. Radiocarbon calibration and Late Glacial occupation in northwest Europe. Antiquity 74(1): 112‐121.
Conard, N.J., Grootes, P.M., Smith, F.H. 2004. Unexpectedly recent dates for human remains from Vogelherd. Nature 430: 198‐201.
Davies, W. 2001. A very model of a modern human industry: new perspectives on the origins and spread of the Aurignacian in Europe. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 67: 195‐217.
Davies, W. 2007. Re‐evaluating the Aurignacian as an expression of modern human mobility and dispersal. Mellars, P., Boyle, K., Bar‐Yosef, O., Stringer, C. (eds.) Rethinking the Human Revolution. McDonald Institute Monograph Series: Cambridge, pp.263‐274.
Green, R.E., Krause, J., Briggs, A.W. et al. (53 additional authors). 2010. A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome. Science 328: 710‐722.
Higham, T., Wood, R., Moreau, L., Conard, N., Bronk Ramsey, C. 2013. Comments on ‘Human‐climate interaction during the early Upper Paleolithic: Testing the hypothesis of an adaptive shift between the Proto‐Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian’ by Banks et al. Journal of Human Evolution 65: 806‐809.
Hublin, J‐J. 2015. The modern human colonization of western Eurasia: when and where? Quaternary Science Reviews 118 194‐210.
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Liu, W., Jin, C‐Z., Zhang, Y‐Q., Cai, Y‐J., Xing, S., Wu, X‐J., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Pan, W‐S., Qin, D‐G., An, Z‐S., Trinkaus, E., Wu, X‐Z. 2010. Human remains from Zhirendong, South China, and modern human emergence in East Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) doi: 10.1073/pnas.1014386107.
Moore, M.W. & Brumm, A. 2007. Stone artifacts and hominins in island Southeast Asia: New insights from Flores, eastern Indonesia. Journal of Human Evolution 52: 85‐102.
Osborne, A.H., Vance, D., Rohling, E.J., Barton, N., Rogerson, M., Fello, N. 2008. A humid corridor across the Sahara for the migration of early modern humans out of Africa 120,000 years ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 105 (43): 16444‐16447.
Shea, J.J. 2008. Transitions or turnovers? Climatically‐forced extinctions of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the east Mediterranean Levant. Quaternary Science Reviews 27: 2253‐70.
Week 3 (12th Oct.) 3. REGIONAL TRAJECTORIES OF EARLY HOMO SAPIENS BEHAVIOUR
For much of the last thirty years significant changes observed in the character of the European Late Pleistocene record between Mousterian and subsequent Upper Palaeolithic stone tool industries has been tied to the arrival of modern humans, and with them a major shift in behavioural capacities: the ‘Human Revolution’. Only in the last decade has invigorated research in Africa and Asia, including some sensational discoveries, begun to reveal that the European evidence is only one part of a much wider and potentially more diverse story. In this lecture we will: Key headings:
□ Examine the main areas of cultural‐economic change identified between Middle and Upper Palaeolithic as they have been deduced from the western Eurasian evidence;
□ Place these patterns into the context of emerging and equally distinctive Pleistocene sequences from beyond western Eurasia.
Selected references: Ames, C.J.H., Riel‐Salvatore, J., Collins, B.R. 2013. Why we need an alternative approach to
the study of modern human behaviour. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 37(1): 21‐47 [request from RR].
Bouzouggara, A., Barton, N., Vanhaeren, M., d’Errico, F., Collcutt, S., Higham, T., Hodge, E., Parfitt, S., Rhodes, E., Schwenninger, J‐L., Stringer, C., Turner, E., Ward, S., Moutmir, A., Stambouli, A. 2007. 82,000‐year‐old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 104(24): 9964‐9969.
Burroughs, W.J. 2005. Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge (Chapter 4).
Brantingham, P.J., Kuhn, S.L., Kerry, K.W. 2004. The Early Upper Palaeolithic Beyond Western Europe. University of California Press: London.
Conard, N. J. & Bolus, M. 2003. Radiocarbon dating the appearance of modern humans and timing of cultural innovations in Europe: new results and new challenges. Journal of Human Evolution 44: 331‐371.
Conard, N.J. 2003. Palaeolithic ivory sculptures from southwestern Germany and the origins of figurative art. Nature 426: 830‐832.
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d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., Barton, N., Bouzouggar, A., Mienis, H., Richterg, D., Hublin, J‐J., McPherron, S.P., Lozouet, P. 2009. Additional evidence on the use of personal ornaments in the Middle Paleolithic of North Africa. PNAS 106(38): 16051‐16056.
Douka, K., Grimaldi, S., Boschian, G., del Lucchese, A. & Higham, T.F.G. 2012. A new chronostratigraphic framework for the Upper Palaeolithic of Riparo Mochi (Italy). Journal of Human Evolution 62: 286‐299.
Finlayson, C. & Carrión, J.S. 2007. Rapid ecological turnover and its impact on Neanderthal and other human populations. TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution 22(4): 213‐222.
Habgood, P.J. & Franklin, N.R. 2010. Explanations for patterning in the ‘package of traits’ of modern human behaviour within Sahul. Bulletin of the Indo‐Pacific Prehistory Association 30: 14‐27.
Henshilwood, C. & Marean, C. 2003. The origin of modern human behaviour (including Comments). Current Anthropology 44(5): 627‐651.
Hublin, J‐J. 2015. The modern human colonization of western Eurasia: when and where? Quaternary Science Reviews 118: 194‐210.
McBrearty, S. & Brooks, A.S. 2000. The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origins of modern human behaviour. Journal of Human Evolution 39: 453‐563.
McBrearty, S. 2007. Down with the Revolution. Mellars, P., Stringer, S., Bar‐Yosef, O., Boyle, K. (eds.) Rethinking the Human Revolution: New Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origins and Dispersal of Modern Humans. McDonald Institute Monograph Series: Cambridge, pp. 133‐151.
Mellars, P. 2005. The impossible coincidence. A single‐species model of the origins of modern human behaviour in Europe. Evolutionary Anthropology 14: 12‐27.
Mellars, P. 2006. Why did modern human populations disperse from Africa ca. 60,000 years ago? A new model. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 103(25): 9381‐9386.
Vanhaeren, M., d’Errico, F., Stringer, C., James, S.L., Todd, J.A., Mienis, H.K. 2006. Middle Paleolithic Shell Beads in Israel and Algeria. Science 312: 1785‐1788.
Verpoorte, A. The first modern humans in Europe? A closer look at the dating evidence from the Swabian Jura (Germany). Antiquity 79(304): 269‐279.
Week 4 (19th Oct.) 4. THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS
Settlement of the mammoth steppe in eastern and central Eurasia, and especially the axis of human‐mammoth interaction (as evidenced from archaeological sites discovered within it), represents one of the key adaptive stories of the late glacial period. The nature of that relationship, though, remains less certain than its almost iconic status would suppose. This week we shall consider some of the evidence from Eastern Gravettian sites in Austria and Moravia in the west of the region, and then turn eastwards to examine comparable and culturally‐related, though generally later, sites on the Central Russian Plain. Armed with this background, in seminar we will examine some the most recent thinking about the status of Eurasia’s Mammoth hunters. Key headings:
□ Pre‐LGM Moravian evidence; □ Mammoth bone deposits; □ Post‐LGM Central Russian Plain evidence.
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Selected references: Bosch, M.J. 2012. Human‐Mammoth dynamics in the mid‐Upper Palaeolithic of the middle
Danube region. Quaternary International 276‐277: 170‐182. Haynes, G. 2006. Mammoth landscapes: good country for hunter‐gatherers. Quaternary
International 142‐143: 20‐29. Iakovleva, L. & Djindjian, F. 2005. New data on Mammoth bone settlements of Eastern
Europe in the light of the new excavations of the Gontsy site (Ukraine). Quaternary International 126‐128: 195‐207.
Iakovleva, L., Djindjian, F., Maschenko, E.N., Konik, S., Moigne, A‐M. 2012. The late Upper Palaeolithic site of Gontsy (Ukraine): a reference for the reconstruction of the hunteregatherer system based on a mammoth economy. Quaternary International 255: 86‐93.
Pitulko, V.V., Nikolsky, P.A., Girya, E.Y., Basilyan, A.E., Tumskoy, V.E., Koulakov, S.A., Astakhov, S.N., Yu. Pavlova, E.Y. & Anisimov, M.A. 2004. The Yana RHS site: humans in the Arctic before the Last Glacial Maximum. Science 303: 52‐56.
Shipman, P. 2015. How do you kill 86 mammoths? Taphonomic investigations of mammoth megasites. Quaternary International 359‐360: 38‐46.
Soffer, O. 1993. Upper Paleolithic adaptations in Central and Eastern Europe and man‐mammoth interactions. Soffer, O. & Praslov, N.D. (eds.) From Kostenki to Clovis: Upper Paleolithic‐Paleo‐Indian Adaptations. Plenum Press: New York, pp. 31‐49.
Soffer, O., Adovasio, J.M., Kornietz, N.L., Velichko, A.A., Gribchenko, Y.N., Lenz, B.R., Suntsov, V.Y. 1997. Cultural stratigraphy at Mezhirich, an Upper Palaeolithic site in Ukraine with multiple occupations. Antiquity 71: 48‐62.
Svoboda, J. Péan, S., Wojtal, P. 2005. Mammoth bone deposits and subsistence practices during Mid‐Upper Palaeolithic in Central Europe: three cases from Moravia and Poland. Quaternary International 126‐128: 209‐221.
Trinkhaus, E., Formicola, V., Svoboda, J., Hillson, S.W., Holliday, T.W. 2001. Dolnί Věstonice 15: Pathology and Persistence in the Pavlovian. Journal of Archaeological Science 28: 1291‐1308.
Verpoorte, A. 2009. Limiting factors on early modern human dispersals: The human biogeography of late Pleniglacial Europe. Quaternary International 201: 77‐85.
Wojtal, P. & Sobczyk, K. 2005. Man and woolly mammoth at the Krakow Spadzista Street (B) – taphonomy of the site. Journal of Archaeological Science 32: 193‐206.
Week 5 (26th Oct.) 5. TROPICAL RAINFOREST ADAPTATIONS
For many years it was thought impossible that early human groups could have survived under tropical rainforest conditions before the advent of agriculture. Recent research in Southeast Asia has demonstrated that people have been living successfully in this environment from at least 50,000 years ago. In this lecture we shall cover the following: Key headings:
□ Modern and Pleistocene environments; □ Early Modern human record; □ Rainforest subsistence strategies; □ Hominins in Wallacea.
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Selected readings: Aiello, L.C. 2010. Five Years of Homo floresiensis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology
142: 167‐179. Aubert, M., Brumm, A., Ramli, M., Sutikna, T., Saptomo, E.W., Hakim, B., Morwood, M.J.,
van den Bergh, G., Kinsley, L., Dosseto, A. 2014. Pleistocene cave art from Sulawesi, Indonesia. Nature 514: 223‐236.
Bailey, R.C., Head, G., Jenike, M., Owen, B., Rechtman, R., Zechenter, E. 1989. Hunting and gathering in tropical rain forest: is it possible? American Anthropologist 91(1): 59‐82.
Balme, J. & O’Connor, S. 2014. Early modern humans in Island Southeast Asia and Sahul: adaptive and creative societies with simple lithic industries. Dennell, R. & Porr, R. (eds.) South Asia, Australia and the Search for Human Origins. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 164‐174.
Barker, G., Barton, H., Bird, M. et al. (23 additional authors) 2007. The ‘human revolution’ in tropical Southeast Asia: the antiquity and behaviour of anatomically modern humans at Niah Cave (Sarawak, Borneo). Journal of Human Evolution 52: 243‐261.
Conrad, C. 2015. Archaeozoology in Mainland Southeast Asia: Changing methodology and Pleistocene to Holocene forager subsistence patterns in Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia. Open Quaternary 1(7): 1‐23.
Demeter, F., Shackelford, L.L., Bacon, A‐M., Duringer, P., Westaway, K., Sayavongkhamdyg, T., Bragab, J., Sichanthongtipg, P., Khamdalavongg, P., Ponche, J‐L., Wang, H., Lundstrom, C., Patole‐Edoumba, E., Karpoff, A‐M. 2012. Anatomically modern human in Southeast Asia (Laos) by 46 ka. PNAS 109(36): 14375‐14380.
Dennell, R., Louys, J., OʹRegan, H.J., Wilkinson, D.M. 2013. The origins and persistence of Homo floresiensis on Flores: biogeographical and ecological perspectives. Quaternary Science Reviews 96: 98‐107.
Mellars, P. 2006. Going East: new genetic and archaeological perspectives on the modern human colonization of Eurasia. Science 313: 796‐800.
Mijares, A.S., Détroit, F., Piper, P., Grün, R., Bellwood, P., Aubert, M., Champion, G., Cuevas, N., DeLeon, A., Dizon, E. 2010. New evidence for a 67,000‐year‐old human presence at Callao Cave, Luzon, Philippines. Journal of Human Evolution 59(1): 123‐132.
Moore, M. & Brumm, A. 2007. Stone artifacts and hominins in Island Southeast Asia: New insights from Flores, Eastern Indonesia. Journal of Human Evolution 52: 85‐102.
Mudar, K. & Anderson, D. 2007. New evidence for Southeast Asian Pleistocene foraging economies: faunal remains from the early levels of Lang Rongrien rockshelter, Krabi, Thailand. Asian Perspectives 46(2): 298‐334.
Piper, P.J. & Rabett, R.J. 2014. Late Pleistocene subsistence strategies in Island Southeast Asia and their implications for understanding the development of modern human behaviour. Dennell, R. and Porr, R. (eds.) South Asia, Australia and the Search for Human Origins. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 118‐134.
Week 6 (2nd Nov.) 6. ISLAND COLONIZATION
The ability to cross the sea (to breach an apparent barrier between habitat patches) carries profound conceptual as well as real‐world significance for early colonizers, to the extent that maritime activities have come to be seen as a mark of behavioural complexity especially in reference to Homo sapiens. The seafaring abilities of earlier hominin species, though, continue to be debated. This week we’ll look at islands in the Mediterranean – covering:
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Key headings: □ Sea crossings and marine resource exploitation; □ Recovery issues and current advances; □ Survey the archaeological evidence from the main islands of the Mediterranean.
Selected readings: Ammerman, A.J. & Noller, J.S., 2005. New light on Aetokremnos. World Archaeology 37(4):
533‐543. Bailey, G.N., 2010. Earliest coastal settlement, marine palaeoeconomics and human
dispersal: the Africa‐Arabia connection. Anderson, A., Barrett, J.H., Boyle, K. (eds.) The Global Origins and Development of Seafaring. McDonald Institute Monograph Series: Cambridge pp. 29‐40.
Bailey, G.N., J.S. Carrion, D.A. Fa, C. Finlayson, G. Finlayson, Rodriguez‐Vidal, J. 2008. The coastal shelf of the Mediterranean and beyond: corridor and refugium for human populations in the Pleistocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 27: 2095‐99.
Broodbank, C. 2013. The Making of the Middle Sea. Thames and Hudson: London (Chapter 5). Leppard, T.P. 2014. Modelling the impacts of Mediterranean island colonization by archaic
hominins: the likelihood of an insular Lower Palaeolithic. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 27(2): 231‐253.
Phoca‐Cosmetatou, N. & Rabett, R. 2014. Pleistocene island occupation in the Mediterranean: insights from a tied‐biome approach to glacial refugia. Boyle, K., Rabett, R., Hunt, C. (eds.) Living in the Landscape. McDonald Institute Monograph Series: Cambridge, p. 83‐108 (and references therein).
Rick, T.C., Kirch, P.V., Erlandson, J.M., Fitzpatrick, S.M. 2013. Archeology, deep history, and the human transformation of island ecosystems. Anthropocene 4: 33‐45.
Runnels, C. 2014. Early Palaeolithic on the Greek islands? Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 27(2): 211‐230.
Simmons, A., 1991. Humans, island colonization and Pleistocene extinctions in the Mediterranean: the view from Akrotiri Aetokremnos, Cyprus. Antiquity 65: 857‐69.
Simmons, A. & Mandel, R., 2007. Not such a new light: a response to Ammerman and Noller. World Archaeology 39: 475‐482.
Week 7 (9th Nov.) 7. DESERT COLONIZATION
In this lecture we are going to briefly look at the nature of desert environments and of the link that exists between Holocene desert hunter‐gatherers and the reconstruction of prehistoric socio‐economic systems. Using three case‐studies, we will then consider the following areas: Key headings:
□ How far back in time we can push Holocene desert adaptations; □ The role that refugia have played in the exploitation of these environments during
the late Quaternary; □ The response of early human groups to desert ‘boom and bust’ ecology.
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Selected readings: Blinkhorn, J. & Petraglia, M.D. 2014. Assessing models for the dispersal of modern humans
to South Asia. Dennell, R. & Porr, R. (eds.) South Asia, Australia and the Search for Human Origins. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 64‐75.
d’Errico, F., Backwell, L., Villa, P., Degano, I., Lucejko, J.J., Bamford, M.K., Higham, T.F.G., Colombini, M.P., Beaumont, P.B. 2012. Early evidence of San material culture represented by organic artifacts from Border Cave, South Africa. PNAS doi/10.1073/pnas.1204213109
Fernandes, V., Alshamali, F., Alves, M., Costa, M.D., Pereira, J.B., Silva, N.M., Cherni, L., Harich, N., Cerny, V., Soares, P., Richards, M.B., Pereira, L. 2012. The Arabian cradle: mitochondrial relicts of the first steps along the Southern Route out of Africa. The American Journal of Human Genetics 90: 347‐355.
Groucutt, H.S. & Petraglia, M.D. 2014. An Arabian perspective on the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa. Dennell, R. & Porr, R. (eds.) South Asia, Australia and the Search for Human Origins. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 51‐63.
Jones, J., Farr, L., Barton, H., Drake, N., White, K., Barker, G. 2011. Geoarchaeological patterns in the pre‐desert and desert ecozones of northern Cyrenaica. Libyan Studies 42: 12‐19.
Keppel, G., Van Niel, K.P., Wardell‐Johnson, G.W., Yates, C.J., Byrne, M., Mucina, L., Schut, A.G.T., Hopper, S.D., Franklin, S.E. 2012. Refugia: identifying and understanding safe havens for biodiversity under climate change. Global Ecology & Biogeography 21: 393‐404.
Osborne, A.H., Vance, D., Rohling, E.J., Barton, N., Rogerson, M., Fello, N. 2008. A humid corridor across the Sahara for the migration of early modern humans out of Africa 120,000 years ago. (PNAS) 105 (43): 16444‐16447
Petraglia, M.D., Alsharekh, A., Breeze, P., Clarkson, C., Crassard, R., Drake, N.A., Groucutt, H.S., Jennings, R., Parker, A.G., Parton, A., Roberts, R.G., Shipton, C., Matheson, C., al‐Omari1, A., Veall, M‐A. 2012. Hominin dispersal into the Nefud Desert and Middle Palaeolithic settlement along the Jubbah palaeolake, Northern Arabia. PLOS One 7(11): e49840.
Petraglia, M.D., Alsharekh, A.M., Crassard, R., Drake, N.A., Groucutt, H., Parker, A.G., Roberts, R.G. 2011. Middle Paleolithic occupation on a Marine Isotope Stage 5 lakeshore in the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia. Quaternary Science Reviews 30: 1555‐59.
Reynolds, T.E.G. 2014. Possible Population Histories in North Cyrenaica during the MSA/Early Upper Palaeolithic. Boyle, K., Rabett, R., Hunt, C. (eds.) Living in the Landscape: Essays in honour of Graeme Barker. McDonald Institute Monograph Series: Cambridge, pp. 49‐58.
Scerri, E.M.L., Breeze, P.S., Parton, A., Groucutt, H.S., White, T.S., Stimpson, C., Clark‐Balzan, L., Jennings, R. Alsharekh, A., Petraglia, M.D. in press. Middle to Late Pleistocene human habitation in the western Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia. Quaternary International.
Smith, M., Veth, P., Hiscock, P., Wallis, L.A. 2005. Global deserts in perspective. Veth, P., Smith, M., Hiscock, P. (eds.) Desert Peoples: Archaeological Perspectives. Blackwell Publishing: Oxford, pp. 1‐14.
Thackeray, A.I. 2005. Perspectives on late Stone Age hunter‐gatherer archaeology in arid southern Africa. Veth, P., Smith, M., Hiscock, P. (eds.) Desert Peoples: Archaeological Perspectives. Blackwell Publishing: Oxford, pp. 159‐176.
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Veth, P. 1989. Islands in the interior: a model for the colonization of Australiaʹs arid zone. Archaeology in Oceania 24(3): 81‐92.
Veth, P., Smith, M., Hiscock, P. 2004. Desert Peoples. Blackwell Publishing: London. Widlok, T. 2005. Theoretical shifts in the anthropology of desert hunter‐gatherers. Veth, P.,
Smith, M., Hiscock, P. (eds.) Desert Peoples: Archaeological Perspectives. Blackwell Publishing: Oxford, pp. 17‐33.
Williams, A.N., Ulm, S., Cook, A.R., Langley, M.C., Collard, M. 2013. Human refugia in Australia during the Last Glacial Maximum and Terminal Pleistocene: a geospatial analysis of the 25‐12 ka Australian archaeological record. Journal of Archaeological Science 40: 4612–25.
Week 8 (16th Nov.) 8. COASTAL ROUTES
The possibility that coastal routes played a significant role in early human dispersal has received widespread acceptance in the literature – from our species’ earliest movements out of Africa to the most recent initial colonization of remote islands in Oceania and the southern Pacific within the last thousand years (New Zealand being c.700 years). In this lecture we’re going to focus on two of these episodes. Key headings:
□ The out of Africa ‘Southern Route’ hypothesis; □ Maritime dispersal model for the initial colonization of the Americas .
Selected references: Boivin, N., Fuller, D.Q., Dennell, R., Allaby, R., Petraglia, M.D. 2013. Human dispersal across
diverse environments of Asia during the Upper Pleistocene. Quaternary International 300: 32‐47.
Dickinson, W.R. 2011. Geological perspectives on the Monte Verde archeological site in Chile and pre‐Clovis coastal migration in the Americas. Quaternary Research 76: 201‐210.
Erlandson, J.M. 2001. The archaeology of aquatic adaptations: paradigms for a new millennium. Journal of Archaeological Research 9(4): 287‐350.
Erlandson, J. & Braje, T. in press. Coasting out of Africa: The potential of mangrove forests and marine habitats to facilitate human coastal expansion via the Southern Dispersal Route. Quaternary International.
Erlandson, J.M., Moss, M.L., Des Lauriers, M. 2008. Life on the edge: early maritime cultures of the Pacific Coast of North America. Quaternary Science Reviews 27(23‐24): 2232‐2245.
Fagundes, N.J.R., Kanitz, R., Eckert, R., Valls, A.C.S., Bogo, M.R, Salzano, F.M., Smith, D.G., Silva, W.A. Jr., Zago, M.A., Ribeiro‐dos‐Santos, A.K., Santos, S.E.B., Petzl‐Erler, M.L., Bonatto, S.L. 2008. Mitochondrial population genomics supports a single pre‐Clovis origin with a coastal route for the peopling of the Americas. The American Journal of Human Genetics 82: 583‐592.
Macaulay, V., Hill, C., Achilli, A., Rengo, C., Clarke, D., Meehan, W., Blackburn, J., Semino, O., Scozzari, R., Cruciani, F., Taha, Adi, Kassim Shaari, Norazila, Maripa Raja, J., Ismail, Patimah, Zainuddin, Zafarina, Goodwin, W., Bulbeck, D., Bandelt, H.‐J., Oppenheimer, S., Torroni, A., Richards, M. 2005. Single, rapid coastal settlement of Asia revealed by analysis of complete mitochondrial genomes. Science 308: 1034‐1036.
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Mandryk, C.A.S., Josenhans, H., Fedje, D.W., Mathewes, R.W. 2001. Late Quaternary paleoenvironments of Northwestern North America: implications for inland versus coastal migration routes. Quaternary Science Reviews 20: 301‐314.
Oppenheimer, S. 2009. The great arc of dispersal of Modern Humans: Africa to Australia. Quaternary International 202: 2‐13.
Rick, T.C., Erlandson, J.M., Vellanoweth, R.L., Braje, T.J. 2005. From Pleistocene mariners to complex hunter‐gatherers: The archaeology of the California Channel Islands. Journal of World Prehistory 19: 169‐228.
Stringer, C. 2000. Coasting out of Africa. Nature 405: 24‐27. Walter, R.C., Buffler, R.T., Bruggemann, H., Guillaume, M.M.M., Berhe, S.M., Negassi, B.,
Libsekal, Y., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., von Coselk, R., Néraudeau, D., Gagnon, M. 2000. Early human occupation of the Red Sea coast of Eritrea during the last interglacial. Nature 405: 65‐69.
Westley, K. & Dix, J. 2006. Coastal environments and their role in prehistoric migrations. Journal of Maritime Archaeology 1(1): 9‐28.
Week 9 (23rd Nov.) 9. COLONIZING NEWLY DEGLACIATED AND INUNDATED ENVIRONMENTS
This week we explore how early human communities in two very different parts of the world responded to comparatively short‐term, large scale landscape transformation. Specifically, we’re going to examine the emergence of new landscapes and the submerging of old ones at the end of the last glacial period. The lecture will focus on two case‐studies. Key headings:
□ In Eastern Canada: Palaeoindian dispersal into landscapes newly released from the grip so the Laurentide Ice Sheet;
□ In Southeast Asia: the loss of land through the inundation of the Sunda Shelf and the impact this had of regional socio‐economic trajectories.
Selected readings: Barker, G., Lloyd‐Smith, L., Barton, H., Cole, F., Hunt, C., Piper, P., Rabett, R., Paz, V., Szabó,
K. 2011. Foraging‐farming transitions at the Niah Caves, Sarawak, Borneo. Antiquity 85: 1‐18.
Bellwood, P. 2005. First farmers: the origins of agricultural societies. Blackwell: Oxford. Bellwood, P. 2011. Holocene population history in the Pacific region as a model for
worldwide food producer dispersals. Current Anthropology 52 (S4): S363‐S378. Bulbeck, D.F. 2008. An integrated perspective on the Austronesian diaspora: the switch from
cereal agriculture to maritime foraging in the colonisation of island Southeast Asia. Australian Archaeology 67: 31‐51.
Denham, T. 2013. Early farming in Island Southeast Asia: an alternative hypothesis. Antiquity 87(335): 250‐257.
Dobney, K., Cucchi, T., Larson, G. 2008. The pigs of Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific: New evidence for taxonomic status and human‐mediated dispersal. Asian Perspectives 47(1): 59‐74.
Ellis, C. 2011. Measuring Paleoindian range mobility and land‐use in the Great Lakes/Northeast. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30: 385‐401.
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Ellis, C., Goodyear, A.C., Morseà, D.F., Tankersley, K.B. 1998. Archaeology of the Pleistocene‐Holocene transition in eastern North America. Quaternary International 49/50: 151‐166.
Heinsohn, T. 2003. Animal translocation: long‐term human influences on the vertebrate zoogeography of Australasia (natural dispersal versus ethnophoresy). Australian Zoologist 32(3): 351‐376.
Hunt, C. & Rabett, R. 2014. Holocene landscape intervention and plant food production strategies in Island and Mainland Southeast Asia. Journal of Archaeological Science 51: 22‐33.
Jackson, L.J., Ellis, C., Morgan, A.V., McAndrews, J.H., 2000. Glacial lake levels and Eastern Great Lakes Palaeo‐Indians. Geoarchaeology 15(5): 415‐40.
Lovis, W.A., Donahue, R.E., Holman, M.B. 2005. Long‐distance logistic mobility as an organizing principle among northern hunter‐gatherers: a Great Lakes Middle Holocene settlement system. American Antiquity 70(4): 669‐693.
O’Connor, S., Ono, R., Clarkson, C. 2011. Pelagic Fishing at 42,000 Years before the present and the maritime skills of modern humans. Science 334: 1117‐1121.
O’Shea, J.M. & Meadows, G.A. 2009. Evidence for early hunters beneath the Great Lakes. PNAS 106(25): 10120‐23.
Pawlik, A.F., Piper, P.J., Faylona, M.G.P.G., Padilla, Jr., S.G., Carlos, J., Mijares, A.S.B., Vallejo, Jr. B., Reyes, M., Amano, N., Ingicco, T., Porr, M. Adaptation and foraging from the Terminal Pleistocene to the Early Holocene: Excavation at Bubog on Ilin Island, Philippines. Journal of Field Archaeology 39(3): 230‐247.
Rabett, R.J. & Piper, P.J. 2012. The emergence of bone technologies at the end of the Pleistocene in Southeast Asia: regional and evolutionary implications Cambridge Archaeological Journal 22(1): 37‐56.
Rabett, R., Appleby, J., Blyth, A., Farr, L., Gallou, A., Giffiths, T., Hawkes, J., Marcus, D., Marlow, L., Morley, M., Nguyêń Cao Tâń, Nguyêń Van Son, Penkman, K., Reynolds, T., Stimpson, S., Szabó, K. 2011. Inland shell midden site‐formation: investigation into a late Pleistocene to early Holocene midden from Tràng An, northern Vietnam, Quaternary International 239: 153‐169.
Smith, B.D. 2006. Eastern North America as an independent center of plant domestication. PNAS 103(33): 12223‐12228.
Soares, P., Trejaut, J. A., Jun‐Hun Loo, Hill, C., Mormina, M., Lee, C‐L., Chen, Y‐M., Hudjashov, G., Forster, P., Macaulay, V., Bulbeck, D., Oppenheimer, S., Lin, M., Richards, M. B. 2008. Climate Change and Postglacial Human Dispersals in Southeast Asia. Molecular Biology Evolution 25(6): 1209‐1218.
Solheim, W.G. 1984‐85. The Nusantao Hypothesis: the origin and spread of Austronesian speakers. Asian Perspectives 26(1): 77‐88.
Speth, J.D., Newlander, K., White, A.A., Lemke, A.K., Anderson, L.E. 2013. Early Paleoindian big‐game hunting in North America: Provisioning or Politics? Quaternary International 285: 111‐139.
Storck, P.L., 1982. Palaeo‐Indian Settlement Patterns Associated with the Strandline of Glacial Lake Algonquin in Southcentral Ontario. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 6: 1‐31.
Storck, P.L. & Spiess, A.E. 1994. The significance of new faunal identifications attributed to an Early Paleoindian (Gainey Complex) occupation at the Udora site, Ontario, Canada. American Antiquity 59(1): 121‐142.
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Week 10 (30th Nov.) 10. THE COLONIZATION PROCESS
The different factors that come into play when human groups begin to colonize a new environment are explored in this lecture. We will consider successful adaptations, the distinctive identities that tend to develop as colony communities become increasingly established, as well as maladaptive forces. A generalized model of human colonization is presented. Key headings:
□ Key drivers behind colonization – climate & environment, demography, competition and technology;
□ Modelling the process of Upper Pleistocene human colonization – three‐stage Jamestown model, and four‐stage generalized model.
Selected readings: Blanton, D.B. 2003. The weather is fine, wish you were here, because I’m the last one alive:
‘learning’ the environment in the English New World colonies. Rockman, M. and Steele, J. (eds.) Colonisation of Unfamiliar Landscapes: The Archaeology of Adaptation. Routledge: London, pp. 190‐200.
Dugmore, A.J., McGovern, T.H., Vésteinsson, O., Arneborg, J., Streeter, R., Keller, C. 2012. Cultural adaptation, compounding vulnerabilities and conjunctures in Norse Greenland. PNAS 109(10): 3658‐3663.
Finlayson, C. & Carrión, J.S. 2007. Rapid ecological turnover and its impact on Neanderthal and other human populations. TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution 22(4): 213‐222.
Fort, J., Pujol, T., Cavalli‐Sforza, L.L. 2004. Palaeolithic populations and waves of advance. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 14(1): 53‐61.
Martin, P.S. 1973. The discovery of America. Science 179: 969‐974. Rabett, R.J. 2012. Human Adaptation in the Asian Palaeolithic: Hominin Dispersal and Behaviour
during the Late Quaternary. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge (Chapter 8). Roberts, P. & Petraglia, M.D. 2015. Pleistocene rainforests: barriers or attractive
environments for early human foragers? World Archaeology DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2015.1073119
Rockman, M. 2003. Knowledge and learning in the archaeology of colonization. Rockman, M. and Steele, J. (eds.) Colonization of Unfamiliar Landscapes: The Archaeology of Adaptation. London: Routledge, pp. 3‐24.
Rockman, M. & Steele, J. 2003. Colonization of Unfamiliar Landscapes: The Archaeology of Adaptation. London: Routledge.
Thomsen, D.C., Smith, T.F. & Keys, N. 2012. Adaptation or manipulation? Unpacking climate change response strategies. Ecology & Society 17(3): 20 (9 pages) http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol17/iss3/art20/
Week 11 (7th Dec.) 11. THE LONGER PLEISTOCENE
In this lecture we shall reflect on the success of the human adaptive radiation and consider some of its longer‐term consequences. The lecture will demonstrate why studying the deep past is not only valuable in its own right, as a way to help understand the human lineage
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and the origins of our cultural diversity; but also as a way to better understand and contextualise our contemporary world. Key headings:
□ Advent – Pinnacle Point; □ Anthropocene – marking the consequences of human action on the planet; □ The longer now – growing importance of long‐term thinking and the role of
disciplines like archaeology and palaeoecology within this changing scientific reality. Selected readings: Burroughs, W.J. 2005. Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos. Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge. (Chapter 8). Cranbrook, Earl of, & Piper, P.J. 2013. Paleontology to policy: the Quaternary history of
Southeast Asian tapirs (Tapiridae) in relation to large mammal species turnover, with a proposal for conservation of Malayan tapir by reintroduction to Borneo. Integrative Zoology 8: 95‐120.
Crutzen, P.J. 2002a. Geology of mankind. Nature 415: 23. Ellis, E.C., Kaplan, J.O., Fuller, D.Q., Vavrus, S., Klein Goldewijk, K., Verburg, P.H. 2013.
Used planet: a global history. PNAS 110(2): 7978‐7985. Eriksson, A., Betti, L., Friend, A.D., Lycett, S.J., Singarayer, J.S., von Cramon‐Taubadel, N.,
Valdes, P.J., Balloux, F., Manica, A. 2012. Late Pleistocene climate change and the global expansion of anatomically modern humans. PNAS 109(40): 16089‐16094.
Hetherington, R. & Reid, R.G.B. 2010. The Climate Connection: Climate Change and Modern Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge (Chapter 9).
Lane, P. 2015. Archaeology in the age of the Anthropocene: a critical assessment of its scope and societal contributions. Journal of Field Archaeology (Open Access) DOI: 10.1179/2042458215Y.0000000022
Lewis, S.L. & Maslin, M.A. 2015. Defining the Anthropocene. Nature 519: 171‐80. Marean, C.W., Bar‐Matthews, M., Bernatchez, J., Fisher, E., Goldberg, P., Herriesm A.I.R.,
Jacobs, Z., Jerardino, A., Karkanas, P., Minichillo, T., Nilssen, P.J., Thompson, E., Watts, I., Williams, H.M. 2007. Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene. Nature 449: 905‐909.
Richerson, P.J., Boyd, R., Bettinger, R.L. 2001. Was agriculture impossible during the Pleistocene but mandatory during the Holocene? A climate change hypothesis. American Antiquity, 66(3): 387‐411.
Smith, B.D. & Zeder, M.A. 2013. The onset of the Anthropocene. Anthropocene 4: 8‐13 Zalasiewicz, J. et al. (Members of the Anthropocene Working Group) 2015. Colonization of
the Americas, ‘Little Ice Age’ climate, and bomb produced carbon: their role in defining the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene Review DOI: 10.1177/2053019615587056.
Ziegler, M., Simon, M.H., Hall, I.R., Barker, S., Stringer, C., Zahn, R. E. 2013. Development of Middle Stone Age innovation linked to rapid climate change. Nature Communications DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2897.
Week 12 (14th Dec.) 12. REVISION SESSION – no formal lecture scheduled (details to follow)
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Seminars Week 1 (30th Sept.) Pleistocene planet Topics and required readings:
1. What was the impact of the Toba super‐eruption c. 74,000 years ago? Lane, C.S., Chorn, B.T., Johnson, T.C. 2013. Ash from the Toba supereruption in Lake
Malawi shows no volcanic winter in East Africa at 75 ka. PNAS 110(20): 8025‐8029. Petraglia, M., Korisettar, R., Boivin, N., Clarkson, C., Ditchfield, P., Jones, S., Koshy, J.,
Mirazón Lahr, M., Oppenheimer, C., Pyle, D., Roberts, R., Schwenninger, J‐L., Arnold, L., White, K. 2007. Middle Paleolithic assemblages from the Indian Subcontinent before and after the Toba super‐eruption. Science 317: 114‐116.
Williams, M. 2012. Did the 73 ka Toba super‐eruption have an enduring effect? Insights from genetics, prehistoric archaeology, pollen analysis, stable isotope geochemistry, geomorphology, ice cores, and climate models. Quaternary International 269: 87‐93.
Week 2 (7th Oct.) Adaptation & dispersal Topics and required readings:
1. What is the role of technology in hominin adaptation? Biro, D., Haslam, M., Rutz, C. 2013. Tool use as adaptation. Philosophical Transactions of the
Royal Society B, 368: 20120408. Shea, J.J. 2008. Transitions or turnovers? Climatically‐forced extinctions of Homo sapiens and
Neanderthals in the east Mediterranean Levant. Quaternary Science Reviews 27: 2253‐2270.
2. Aurignacian dispersal into Europe?
Banks, W.E., d’Errico, F., Zilhão, J. 2013. Human‐climate interaction during the Early Upper Paleolithic: testing the hypothesis of an adaptive shift between the Proto‐Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian. Journal of Human Evolution 64: 39‐55.
Banks, W.E., d’Errico, F., Zilhão, J. 2013. Revisiting the chronology of the Proto‐Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian in Europe: A reply to Higham et al.’s comments on Banks et al. (2013). Journal of Human Evolution 65: 810‐817.
Higham, T., Wood, R., Moreau, L., Conard, N., Bronk Ramsey, C. 2013. Comments on ‘Human‐climate interaction during the early Upper Paleolithic: Testing the hypothesis of an adaptive shift between the Proto‐Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian’ by Banks et al. Journal of Human Evolution 65: 806‐809.
Week 3 (14th Oct.) Regional trajectories Topics and required readings:
1. What is the legacy of the European perspective to early human dispersal? Henshilwood, C. & Marean, C. 2003. The origin of modern human behaviour (read p. 1‐11 +
look at some of the Comments that follow). Current Anthropology 44(5): 627‐651. McBrearty, S. 2007. Down with the Revolution. Mellars, P., Stringer, S., Bar‐Yosef, O., Boyle,
K. (eds.) Rethinking the Human Revolution: New Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origins and Dispersal of Modern Humans. McDonald Institute Monograph Series: Cambridge, pp. 133‐151.
Ryan RabettSticky Noteand behaviour
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Mellars, P. 2005. The impossible coincidence. A single‐species model of the origins of modern human behaviour in Europe. Evolutionary Anthropology 14: 12‐27.
2. Were there different ways of being a behaviourally modern human?
d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., Barton, N., Bouzouggar, A., Mienis, H., Richterg, D., Hublin, J‐J., McPherron, S.P., Lozouet, P. 2009. Additional evidence on the use of personal ornaments in the Middle Paleolithic of North Africa. PNAS 106(38): 16051‐16056.
Habgood, P.J. & Franklin, N.R. 2010. Explanations for patterning in the ‘package of traits’ of modern human behaviour within Sahul. Bulletin of the Indo‐Pacific Prehistory Association 30: 14‐27.
Week 4 (21st Oct.) Mammoth hunters Topics and required readings:
1. Did humans predate mammoths or scavenge them? Bosch, M.J. 2012. Human‐Mammoth dynamics in the mid‐Upper Palaeolithic of the middle
Danube region. Quaternary International 276‐277: 170‐182. Shipman, P. 2015. How do you kill 86 mammoths? Taphonomic investigations of mammoth
megasites. Quaternary International 359‐360: 38‐46.
2. Did glacial environments inhibit early modern human dispersal? Pitulko, V.V., Nikolsky, P.A., Girya, E.Y., Basilyan, A.E., Tumskoy, V.E., Koulakov, S.A.,
Astakhov, S.N., Yu. Pavlova, E.Y., Anisimov, M.A. 2004. The Yana RHS site: humans in the Arctic before the Last Glacial Maximum. Science 303: 52‐56.
Verpoorte, A. 2009. Limiting factors on early modern human dispersals: The human biogeography of late Pleniglacial Europe. Quaternary International 201: 77‐85.
Week 5 (28th Oct.) Tropical rainforest Topics and required readings:
1. Homo floresiensis or Homo sapiens? Aiello, L.C. 2010. Five Years of Homo floresiensis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology
142: 167‐179. Jacob, T., Indriati, E., Soejono, R.P., Hsü, K., Frayer, D.W., Eckhardt, R.B., Kuperavage, A.J.,
Thorne, A., Henneberg, M. 2006. Pygmoid Australomelanesian Homo sapiens skeletal remains from Liang Bua, Flores: population affinities and pathological abnormalities. PNAS 103(36): 13421‐13426.
2. Was modern human behaviour in South East Asia really so different to Europe?
Aubert, M., Brumm, A., Ramli, M., Sutikna, T., Saptomo, E.W., Hakim, B., Morwood, M.J., van den Bergh, G., Kinsley, L., Dosseto, A. 2014. Pleistocene cave art from Sulawesi, Indonesia. Nature 514: 223‐236.
Mellars, P. 2006. Going East: new genetic and archaeological perspectives on the modern human colonization of Eurasia. Science 313: 796‐800.
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Week 6 (4th Nov.) Islands Topics and required readings:
1. Is the extensive faunal component at Akrotiri Aetokremmos the result of human predation? Ammerman, A.J. & Noller, J.S., 2005. New light on Aetokremnos. World Archaeology 37(4):
533‐543. Simmons, A., 1991. Humans, island colonization and Pleistocene extinctions in the
Mediterranean: the view from Akrotiri Aetokremnos, Cyprus. Antiquity 65: 857‐69. Simmons, A. & Mandel, R., 2007. Not such a new light: a response to Ammerman and
Noller. World Archaeology 39: 475‐482.
2. How do humans impact on island environments? Leppard, T. 2014. Modelling the impacts of Mediterranean island colonization by archaic
hominins: the likelihood of an insular Lower Palaeolithic. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 27(2): 231‐253.
Rick, T.C., Kirch, P.V., Erlandson, J.M., Fitzpatrick, S.M. 2013. Archeology, deep history, and the human transformation of island ecosystems. Anthropocene 4: 33‐45.
Week 7 (11th Nov.) Deserts Topics and required readings:
1. What is the antiquity of modern African desert adaptations? d’Errico, F., Backwell, L., Villa, P., Degano, I., Lucejko, J.J., Bamford, M.K., Higham, T.F.G.,
Colombini, M.P., Beaumont, P.B. 2012. Early evidence of San material culture represented by organic artifacts from Border Cave, South Africa. PNAS doi/10.1073/pnas.1204213109.
Thackeray, A.I. 2005. Perspectives on late Stone Age hunter‐gatherer archaeology in arid southern Africa. Veth, P., Smith, M., Hiscock, P. (eds.) Desert Peoples: Archaeological Perspectives. Blackwell Publishing: Oxford, pp. 159‐176.
2. What were the movements of Palaeolithic populations in North Africa?
Reynolds, T.E.G. 2014. Possible Population Histories in North Cyrenaica during the MSA/Early Upper Palaeolithic. Boyle, K., Rabett, R., Hunt, C. (eds.) Living in the Landscape: Essays in honour of Graeme Barker. McDonald Institute Monograph Series: Cambridge, pp. 49‐58.
Jones, S., Farr, L., Barton, H., Drake, N., White, K., Barker, G. 2011. Geoarchaeological patterns in the pre‐desert and desert ecozones of northern Cyrenaica. Libyan Studies 42: 12‐19.
Week 8 (18th Nov.) Coastlines Topics and required readings:
1. How viable is the coastal ‘Southern Route’ hypothesis? Boivin, N., Fuller, D.Q., Dennell, R., Allaby, R., Petraglia, M.D. 2013. Human dispersal across
diverse environments of Asia during the Upper Pleistocene. Quaternary International 300: 32‐47.
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Erlandson, J. & Braje, T. in press. Coasting out of Africa: The potential of mangrove forests and marine habitats to facilitate human coastal expansion via the Southern Dispersal Route. Quaternary International.
2. Does the late Pleistocene maritime occupation on the Pacific coast of the Americas provide
strong evidence that the initial colonization of the continent came this way? Dickinson, W.R. 2011. Geological perspectives on the Monte Verde archeological site in
Chile and pre‐Clovis coastal migration in the Americas. Quaternary Research 76: 201‐210.
Erlandson, J.M., Moss, M.L., Des Lauriers, M. 2008. Life on the edge: early maritime cultures of the Pacific Coast of North America. Quaternary Science Reviews 27(23‐24): 2232‐2245.
Week 9 (25th Nov.) Deglaciation/Inundation Topics and required readings:
1. What was structuring mobility across newly deglaciated landscapes? Ellis, C. 2011. Measuring Paleoindian range mobility and land‐use in the Great
Lakes/Northeast. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30: 385‐401. Speth, J.D., Newlander, K., White, A.A., Lemke, A.K., Anderson, L.E. 2013. Early
Paleoindian big‐game hunting in North America: Provisioning or Politics? Quaternary International 285: 111‐139.
2. How did early human groups respond to environmental changes associated with inundation?
Bellwood, P. 2011. Holocene population history in the Pacific region as a model for worldwide food producer dispersals. Current Anthropology 52 (S4): S363‐S378.
Denham, T. 2013. Early farming in Island Southeast Asia: an alternative hypothesis. Antiquity 87(335): 250‐257.
Pawlik, A.F., Piper, P.J., Faylona, M.G.P.G., Padilla, Jr., S.G., Carlos, J., Mijares, A.S.B., Vallejo, Jr. B., Reyes, M., Amano, N., Ingicco, T., Porr, M. 2014. Adaptation and foraging from the Terminal Pleistocene to the Early Holocene: Excavation at Bubog on Ilin Island, Philippines. Journal of Field Archaeology 39(3): 230‐247.
Week 10 (2nd Dec.) Colonization process Topics and required readings:
1. Adapting to the structure of the environment Finlayson, C. & Carrión, J.S. 2007. Rapid ecological turnover and its impact on Neanderthal
and other human populations. TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution 22(4): 213‐222. Roberts, P. & Petraglia, M.D. 2015. Pleistocene rainforests: barriers or attractive
environments for early human foragers? World Archaeology DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2015.1073119
2. What is the impact of maladaptation?
Dugmore, A.J., McGovern, T.H., Vésteinsson, O., Arneborg, J., Streeter, R., Keller, C. 2012. Cultural adaptation, compounding vulnerabilities and conjunctures in Norse Greenland. PNAS 109(10): 3658‐3663.
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Thomsen, D.C., Smith, T.F., Keys, N. 2012. Adaptation or manipulation? Unpacking climate change response strategies. Ecology & Society 17(3): 20 (9 pages) http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol17/iss3/art20/
Week 11 (9th Dec.) Longer Pleistocene Topics and required readings:
1. When did the Anthropocene start? Lewis, S.L. & Maslin, M.A. 2015. Defining the Anthropocene. Nature 519: 171‐80. Ruddiman, W.F. 2013. The Anthropocene. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 41:
45‐68. Smith, B.D. & Zeder, M.A. 2013. The onset of the Anthropocene. Anthropocene 4: 8‐13. Zalasiewicz, J. et al. (Members of the Anthropocene Working Group) 2015. Colonization of
the Americas, ‘Little Ice Age’ climate, and bomb produced carbon: their role in defining the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene Review DOI: 10.1177/2053019615587056.
2. Open session for discussion on any aspect of the module, and module reviews (SEM & SET)
Week 12 (16th Dec.) Class Test (2hrs)