The lower course of the Gállego River (NE Spain) has undergone significant geomorphological transformations over the last century due to the complex interplay between natural dynamics and human activities. This study analyzes the evolution of the fluvial system between 1927 and 2026, using four representative sectors located between Zuera and San Juan de Mozarrifar, near the city of Zaragoza (Spain). The methodology relies on diachronic geomorphological mapping comparing an exceptional 1927 photogrammetric survey with 2025-2026 satellite imagery and extensive fieldwork. The results reveal a transition from highly active braided and free-meandering systems in 1927—characterized by mobile gravel bars and sparse riparian vegetation—to a more unstable and anthropized landscape in 2026. While the northernmost sectors near Zuera and San Mateo maintains relatively natural dynamics, downstream areas have experienced intense degradation. Key drivers of this change include river regulation through dams and irrigation networks, alongside industrial and urban expansion since the 1960s. Nonetheless, the most critical alteration is a progressive river incision, reaching depths of up to 10 meters in the southernmost sectors. This process was initially triggered by massive gravel mining and the narrowing of the channel through the creation of waste dumps. Crucially, this incision has exhumed the Quaternary Qt9 terrace and its associated paleodoline infills. These karstic features, composed of silts and peats, now act as loose levels that enhance erosive processes, creating deep pools, rapids, and sharp 90° bends that dictate the modern fluvial pattern. This study concludes that the lower Gállego has shifted from a high-energy natural system in 1927 to a highly regulated and incised reach at present where ancient geological structures now play a decisive role in contemporary dynamics.
Selective pressures related to resource availability, nutritional constraints, and foraging costs have played an important role in shaping primate and early hominin dietary strategies. To distinguish between ecological and technological drivers of dietary evolution, this study examines baboon (Papio cynocephalus) foraging as a comparative model for non-technological foraging systems. Literature based ecological, behavioral, and nutritional datasets were integrated to reconstruct the baboon resource space and to quantify selection differences between resource availability and observed consumption. Isotopic modelling and macronutrient calculations further reveal the consequences of dietary selection. The results show that baboon diets are availability-constrained but selectively adjusted within the seasonal resource space. These selection differences have biochemical consequences. CI-based δ¹ ³C estimates show greater seasonal variability and more closely approximated regional enamel apatite isotope values than AI-based estimates. CI-based macronutrient calculations also show trends toward higher protein and fat values. Combining resource-space modelling with isotopic and nutritional analyses provides a framework for disentangling the respective influences of environmental availability, actual resource use, and technological innovations on hominin dietary evolution.
Different languages occupy every region of the globe. How fast have languages spread and what are the factors systematically impacting these rates? Based on state-of-the-art methods and data from more than 5500 languages this paper reconstructs the movements of prehistorical languages, analyzing more than 2500 language diffusion events. Up until 2000 BP diffusion rates are typically low (0.1–0.3 km/yr). Subsequently all world areas except North America, Australia, and Papua New Guinea exhibit increases in rates, with Eurasian languages, in particular, undergoing an explosive spread. Higher diffusion rates for the languages of farmers than for those of hunter-gatherers contribute to explaining these areal differences. Intriguingly, major fluctuations in diffusion rates not conforming to general patterns are aligned with two of the most dramatic climate change events of the Holocene, namely the 5.5 ka BP end of the African Humid Period and the cooling and drying event of 4.2 ka BP affecting Eurasia.
This research project investigates the depositional and settlement dynamics of the Late Neolithic pile dwelling site of Zug-Riedmatt in Central Switzerland, dated between 3200 and 3050 BCE.Using an interdisciplinary, microarchaeological approach, 14 stratigraphic units at one reference profile (Ref1) covering e complete stratigraphic sequence of the excavation site, were analysed using six disciplines: micromorphology, pollen analysis, palynofacies, macroarchaeobotany, entomology and archaeological observations. Their results were compared as a methodological approach and subsequently presented in a synthetic form in order to reconstruct natural and anthropogenic site formation processes in the stratigraphy.The analysed sediments range from limnic environments (lake marl) to deltaic and waterlogged environments, including the formation of a marshy waterbody. Periods of flooding, erosion and drought have been identified and correlated with seasonal hydrological variations. Traces of human activities such as animal husbandry, agriculture (e.g. cereals, poppies, flax), construction and waste disposal have been found in the settlement layers. The good preservation of the organic remains and the dense sampling strategy allowed insights into the interaction between natural processes and human activities in a dynamic environmental context between Lake Zug, the River Lorze and its deltaic area. The applied methods and results contribute to a better reconstruction of the layer formation processes in prehistoric pile dwelling settlements and demonstrate the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in archaeology.
Archaeological research in the southern coastal region of South Africa continues to demonstrate the importance of this region for understanding the emergence of complex behaviours among Homo sapiens. Specifically, the excavation of the Middle Stone Age layers at Blombos Cave (c. 100-72 ka) has identified extensive evidence for symbolism, such as portable art (engraved ochre) and personal ornaments (perforated shells). However, some recurrent subsistence behaviours, namely the acquisition of lithic raw materials and associated mobility, have not been fully explored. A first step to investigating mobility is to establish the lithoscape of the given region in which foragers resided. In this paper, we characterise the lithoscape, the distribution and availability of archaeologically relevant raw materials (e.g., silcrete, ochre) within designated foraging ranges with Blombos Cave as the epicentre. Foraging sectors where multiple lithologies cooccur are highlighted as offering more favourable opportunities for resource extraction and revisitation. This study provides a comprehensive foundation for developing provenance analyses that will reveal key elements of the lithic economies and mobility patterns associated with occupation at Blombos Cave.
In this paper, we present new research results from the Bayuda Desert (Sudan) based on 2021–2022 surveys and excavations at two localities (BP424 and BP1316), complemented by sedimentological and luminescence dating results. At BP 424, a small lithic assemblage comprising 28 artefacts was discovered within a ceiling unit of disorganised gravel and sand. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) Dating results indicate that the layer is older than 59 ka. So far, this is only the second stratified site in the Bayuda Desert that dates back to the Pleistocene. This assemblage can be associated with the Middle Stone Age based on the presence of Levallois technology. The second site, BP 1316, located on the summit of the caldera known as Jebel Gheinab, is an example of a surface site heavily disturbed by aeolian processes, where numerous archaeological materials are scattered across the surface. What is more characteristic of these surface sites in the Sahara is that the phenomenon of cumulative palimpsest causes the mixing of technologically distinct elements that may relate to different episodes of settlement of the area. Technological analysis has shown that the material found here is primarily associated with the Middle Stone Age. The MSA sites discovered in the studied area are usually located directly on or in the immediate vicinity of the highest hills and high-quality raw material outcrops.
North Pacific cultures are considered a product of their history. Tattooing, which is practiced today, provides insight into social behavior and rituals, as well as individual and group identity. Different elements of tattooing – tools, symbolism, social functions, cultural significance, aesthetic preferences, foreign influences – can be important indicators of the cultural complexity of a community. In this study, we analyze the history of tattooing among indigenous peoples of the Far North of Asia and North America. The research focuses on materials and techniques of tattooing through examination of pigments, tattooing tools and methods of application. We synthesize archaeological materials studies, including use-wear analysis and pigment analysis, ethno-comparative analysis, and historical and cultural studies. Specifically, this study examines how tattooing developed as a significant sociocultural phenomenon among the indigenous cultures of the Far North Pacific, Yakutia, Chukotka, Kamchatka, and the Kolyma River Basin from the late Pleistocene through the 20th century. The article considers the emergence of prestige technologies, religious rituals and art in prehistoric society, all centered around tattooing. Archaeological finds of the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic eras include unworked flakes with signs of leather processing with traces of several types of pigment, and ritual arrowheads with possible evidence of body tattooing. Later, organic needles used in the 18th century, were replaced by metal needles in the 19th century. Composite pigments were noted in the Stone Age, later pigments were mostly monocomponent, based on charcoal, ash, or other natural substance. Tattoos in the North Pacific remained archaic, probably because of geographical isolation and the preservation of customs.
The dispersal of Upper Palaeolithic groups after 45 ka bp into Mongolia and Inner Mongolia was remarkable because it was one of the most challenging environments of the Palaeolithic, principally because of its bitterly cold winters and unpredictable rainfall but also because of the difficulties of successful ambush hunting, of maintaining effective mating and information networks over large distances, and of obtaining sufficient animal fat. Here, we show the difficulties faced by human groups and their prey in these steppe environments. We propose that upper palaeolithic occupation in the forest steppe of northern Mongolia and southern Siberia would have been year-round because of the abundance of wood for fuel and shelter for over-wintering. In contrast, the occupation of the grassland and semi-desert steppe of southern and Inner Mongolia was likely confined to the summer months because of the scarcity of wood for fuel and shelter. Fat depletion would also have been a hazard in these regions because the flesh of the main prey animals was lean, with little fat. Occupation of the steppe was also likely intermittent because of the frequent occurrence of drought and unusually severe winters known as dzuds. Heinrich Events H5-H3 between 45 and 30 ka bp would have increased the frequency and severity of these extreme climatic conditions. We propose also that there would have been a contact zone at the edge of the forest and grassland steppe where groups in the forest steppe could have met groups moving north from Inner Mongolia.
Loess–paleosol sequences in southern Tajikistan offer a valuable yet underexplored archive for reconstructing early human–environment interactions across Central Asia. Building on our previous investigations of geochemical and sedimentary proxies, here we make an overview based on lipid biomarkers, bulk stable carbon isotopes, and archaeological data from multiple localities of the Khovaling Loess Plateau on understanding ecological and anthropogenic signals spanning the Early Paleolithic. Our combined geochemical and archaeological data reveal repeated fire use, vegetation modification, and strategic occupation of ecotonal river valley environments by early humans dating back more than 500 ka. Notably, variations in lipid biomarkers and bulk carbon isotopic signatures across the studied loess sites in the vicinity of Obi-Mazar River underscore the spatial complexity of land-use strategies and highlight the ecological flexibility of Early Paleolithic populations. These findings position the Khovaling Loess Plateau as a key region for understanding long-term human adaptability and environmental shaping during early human dispersal through Central Asia.
As proxies for the emergence of "modern human behavior," archaeologists typically rely on changes in technological complexity and/or the first appearance of symbolic items or practices. In this paper, I examine both approaches and conclude that neither, as currently envisioned, is likely to provide the answers archaeologists seek. Technological complexity is always a work in progress, and deciding where to place the boundary between "pre-modern" and "modern" is arbitrary. The symbolic approach is better suited to the task but problematic nonetheless, because archaeologists focus only on objects or practices that had no evident utilitarian function. That assumption flies in the face of ethnographic reality. Traditional Indigenous peoples see symbolic meanings in almost everything in their world, whether utilitarian or not, mundane or special, animate or inanimate, natural or supernatural. The hearth, smoke, cardinal directions, colors, plants, animals, water, wind, clouds, rain, thunder, lightning, minerals, even toolstone, all are viewed as sentient, volitional spirit-beings with human-like temperaments, needs, and expectations. Importantly, this worldview introduces spiritually motivated behaviors and constraints that have real world causal agency. Why should we assume that the first time a few peoples scattered across Eurasia or Africa decided to wear ornaments or paint cave walls conveniently coincided with the first time human beings possessed the cognitive capacity for symbolic behavior? A deeply spiritual worldview could have emerged millennia earlier, but saw its expression in other domains of material culture or phenomena, including those that archaeologists routinely dismiss as utterly mundane and utilitarian. I suggest that technological complexity cannot resolve the modernity issue, and that the current focus on symbolism expressed exclusively in non-utilitarian objects and practices is far too narrow and fails to recognize the pervasive nature of spiritualism in traditional societies. I offer what I believe is a more anthropologically sound research paradigm for exploring the origins of modern human behavior, and some admittedly very preliminary suggestions for a way forward.
The early dispersal of Sino-Tibetan language family has been proposed to be promoted by millet domestication and cultivation, and ultimately agricultural development in the Yellow River Valley. However, the spread of Sino-Tibetan onto the Tibetan Plateau was a more complex picture showing interactions between the agriculturalists from the Yellow River region and the local hunter-gatherers. This article investigates exchange and contact dynamics of different populations in prehistoric eastern Tibetan Plateau, combining data from archaeology and linguistics in the setting of climatic environment of the Holocene. We observe diversification in both archaeological and linguistic evidence following the 4.2 kya event, suggesting a potential human response to the climate change. Our results also illustrate acceptance and resistance of the populations on the Tibetan Plateau to different degrees in terms of agriculturalist economy and diversification of subsistence strategies in order to avoid risks.
The Iranian Plateau is a vast geological feature that connects western Asia (including the Caucasus) to the south (India) and east (including Central Asia). This Plateau consists of different biogeographical units, making it attractive to a high variety of fauna, flora and hominin taxa. This geographic location puts the Iranian Plateau at the centre of important evolutionary changes during the late Pleistocene. Sporadic Palaeolithic research in Iran confirms its high potential in answering important questions regarding late Pleistocene hominins and the diversity of culture. One of these questions is the transition from Middle to Upper Palaeolithic and the generation of new lithic techno-complexes and cultural units. The newly discovered site of Sorheh Rockshelter, located on the southern piedmonts of the Alborz Mountains at the northern Iranian Plateau, revealed a novel behavioural trait known as the Initial Upper Palaeolithic techno-complex. Sorheh Rockshelter, located at a high elevation of 1903 m asl., is one in a complex of 6 caves and rockshelters in the region. During two seasons of excavation in 2019 and 2022, numerous lithics and fauna have been recovered, indicating a single cultural occupation in a long chronological frame of ∼50–35 ka cal. BP. Despite Sorheh Initial Upper Palaeolithic shares techno-typological features with known counterparts in the Levant, Eastern Europe and East Asia, it reveals strong local characteristics. These characteristics indicate diversity of hominin behaviours during the late Pleistocene. The temporal window exposed in Sorheh suggests that the Initial Upper Palaeolithic occupation in this site lasted a long time, hypothesising this part of the Iranian Plateau as a potential core area for this techno-complex. Meanwhile, regardless of this hypothesis, Sorheh fills the gap in the diffusion of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic towards Central and East Asia, uncovers the important role of this plateau in the cultural evolution of our lineage and its expansion.
This article explores the unique linguistic features of early Egyptian, arguing that these characteristics are best explained by a period of intense and unusual linguistic contact in the prehistory of the language. Drawing on both linguistic and archaeological data, the study examines the socio-historical context of these contacts, linking them to the spread of pastoralism and the desertification of the Sahara during the 4th millennium BCE, and the unification of Egypt at the end of that period.
The acceleration of climate change over recent decades threatens consequences so wide-ranging that they extend across the human sciences, and call for perspectives from all disciplines. Notwithstanding various attempts to integrate the humanities into climate research, linguistics has been slow to engage with the topic. This special issue aspires to remedy this, by setting out basic principles for exploring how language dynamics have related to ecology, and in particular to climate change, over the last 10,000 years, drawing examples from various language families worldwide. We investigate how language distributions can pattern by ecology, how climate change can thus drive language mobility, and look into cases where languages have even been argued to show certain characteristics associated with the ecologies in which they are (or were) spoken. We summarize quantitative, qualitative and multi-disciplinary methodology that can help us explore this ecology-language interface, and introduce various overarching models that have been proposed for ecology-language relationships at the global scale. What emerges from these analyses and worldwide case-studies is that relationships between climate/ecology and language are essentially indirect, but nonetheless far-reaching, mediated as they are through crucial aspects of human culture and social structures, not least subsistence modes. And through time, over the human trajectory from Holocene into the emerging Anthropocene, the relationship largely inverts, shifting from environmental determinism upon humans and their languages towards increasing anthropogenic impacts on ecology and language dynamics.
Sediment cores obtained from the Jaga-ike mire, located in the inland mountainous area of the Kinki region in western Japan, date back to 28,000 cal BP. The vegetation history around the Jaga-ike mire since the Last Glacial period was reconstructed using multiproxy analyses (pollen, macrofossils, and charcoal). From 28,000 to 20,000 cal BP, forests were dominated by pinaceous conifers such as Abies, Tsuga, Picea, and Pinus as well as Betula trees. The genus Picea included Picea jezoensis var. hondoensis based on macrofossil analysis. Pinaceous conifer forests were most developed between 26,000 and 20,000 cal BP. Between 20,000 and 15,000 cal BP, the population of deciduous broad-leaved trees gradually increased. During the Late Glacial period, from 15,000 to 12,000 cal BP, broad-leaved forests mainly comprising Fagus crenata, deciduous Quercus, and Carpinus/Ostrya species developed. Between 10,000 and 7000 cal BP, forests dominated by Castanea crenata expanded likely in response to frequent fire events. During this period, the forests included Carpinus, Fagus japonica, Q. subgen. Lepidobalanus, and Cryptomeria japonica. Immediately after 7000 cal BP, Quercus dentata, which is tolerant to fire, temporarily increased in deciduous forests in relation to severe fire events. Between 7000 and 6000 cal BP, Cryptomeria japonica mixed with deciduous broad-leaved trees such as Carpinus/Ostrya and Q. subgen. Lepidobalanus. After 6000 cal BP, C. japonica formed forests together with cool temperate deciduous broad-leaved forests such as F. crenata and warm temperate evergreen broad-leaved forests mainly composed of evergreen Quercus formed adjacent to them. The vegetation records at the Jaga-ike mire show intermediate characteristics between the development of C. japonica on the Sea of Japan side caused by the Tsushima Warm Current and the development of evergreen broad-leaved forests on the Pacific side influenced by the Kuroshio Warm Current.
Pollen analytical studies of Holocene lake and mire sediments provide valuable information on past forest cover changes and help us resolving the long-debated origin of temperate forest steppes in Europe. In this paper we contribute to this debate via the pollen and multi-proxy palaeoecological (macrofossil, charcoal, major and trace element) analyses of a paleolake (Kokad Mire) situated in the temperate deciduous forest steppe zone of the Great Hungarian Plain (GHP). Diverse soil types and microhabitats in this area attracted arable farming communities since the Neolithic. By comparing the local archaeological record with the pollen-based land cover, vegetation composition and fire history changes, and invoking other pollen-based Holocene land cover records from the GHP, we analyze the climatic versus anthropogenic origin of the forest steppe vegetation, determine the ages of significant forest clearance episodes, and examine the relationship between paleo-proxy inferred land use and prehistoric/historic settlement density. Our results suggest that the current potential forest steppe vegetation of the eastern GHP had natural climatic and edaphic origin in the Early and Mid-Holocene, which was maintained by anthropogenic deforestation in the Late Holocene. Without human impact, forest cover must have increased during the last 3000 years, and likely even earlier, since the Early Bronze Age. We found evidence for episodic land use during the Neolithic: Middle and early Late Neolithic (7600–7400 cal BP) coppice management and pastoral farming. Deforestation intensified from 3900 cal BP (during the Bronze Age). We demonstrated very early hemp (Cannabis sativa) cultivation between 5970–5450 cal BP (Middle Copper Age) likely attributable to eastern nomadic pastoral groups (pre-Yamnaya) who left behind several burial mounds in the region. We also showed that the lake was used for hemp retting between 2450–2000 cal BP by the local Celtic groups. The analysis of three pollen records from the GHP furthermore revealed that prehistoric cultures had different occupation intensities until the Late Bronze Age with localized forest clearances followed by afforestation.
This article examines how the archaeometric and archaeological analysis of funerary assemblages in Roman tombs reveals gender inequality in Ancient Rome. Through modern scientific methodologies based on techniques coupled with mass spectrometry, differentiated patterns in funerary offerings according to the sex of the deceased are identified. The role of wine is analyzed as a symbolic marker of male power, linking its production, consumption, and representation to gender and the patriarchal structures of Roman society. Through the study of literary sources, archaeological evidence, and chemical analyses, it is demonstrated that wine was not merely an economic or ritual good, but a socially codified and widespread expression of power. Emphasis is placed on the discovery of liquid wine in a Roman mausoleum unearthed in Carmona (Spain), dated to the first half of the 1st century CE, and its exclusive association with male remains, which reinforces the symbolic dimension of wine as a masculine attribute, even in death. The article combines arqueometry, funerary archaeology, written sources, and gender studies, demonstrating how gender inequalities were reproduced even in mortuary practices.
The Late Quaternary Megafaunal Extinction (LQME) represents one of the most significant ecological transformations of the Pleistocene, occurring between 50 and 12 thousand years ago and coinciding temporally with remarkable cultural innovations during the Upper Paleolithic period. Many researchers have identified the human contribution to the LQME, but no attention was directed at the potential influence of the LQME on humans. We propose a hypothesis linking these phenomena through bioenergetic constraints, specifically the human requirement for dietary fat due to protein metabolism limitations. The LQME's systematic reduction in megafauna (over 100 lbs) availability, animals that provided optimal fat content and energetic returns, may have created selective pressures favoring cultural and behavioral innovations. We suggest that Upper Paleolithic developments including complex projectile technology, dog domestication, geographic expansion, accelerated cultural change, Neanderthal extinction, increased symbolic and ritualistic expression and agricultural origins represent adaptive responses to declining prey size driven by the need to maintain adequate energetic returns and fat intake. This hypothesis builds on the well-established principle that predator-prey relationships drive evolutionary adaptations, applying it to human cultural evolution during a period of systematic change in prey composition due to size decline. While requiring extensive testing, this framework offers a potentially unifying explanation for investigating the relationship between environmental change and human cultural evolution. We emphasize the critical need for fine-scale temporal analyses correlating regional prey decline with specific cultural innovations, comprehensive review of alternative explanatory models, and rigorous testing of proposed causal mechanisms before this hypothesis can be validated.
