showing 4 related works from this author
Fires at Neumark-Nord 2, Germany: An analysis of fire proxies from a Last Interglacial Middle Palaeolithic basin site
2016
Few sites with evidence for fire use are known from the Last Interglacial in Europe. Hearth features are rarely preserved, probably as a result of post-depositional processes. The small postglacial basins (
A Neandertal dietary conundrum: Insights provided by tooth enamel Zn isotopes from Gabasa, Spain
2022
The characterization of Neandertals’ diets has mostly relied on nitrogen isotope analyses of bone and tooth collagen. However, few nitrogen isotope data have been recovered from bones or teeth from Iberia due to poor collagen preservation at Paleolithic sites in the region. Zinc isotopes have been shown to be a reliable method for reconstructing trophic levels in the absence of organic matter preservation. Here, we present the results of zinc (Zn), strontium (Sr), carbon (C), and oxygen (O) isotope and trace element ratio analysis measured in dental enamel on a Pleistocene food web in Gabasa, Spain, to characterize the diet and ecology of a Middle Paleolithic Neandertal individual. Based on…
Reply to Ben-Dor and Barkai: A low Zn isotope ratio is not equal to a low Zn content
2023
However, we are afraid that there was a misunderstanding in the interpretation of our data. Ben-Dor and Barkai (2) wrote that "One explanation presented in the [our] paper was that Neandertals may have consumed body parts and animals that were relatively poor in zinc, like the liver or deer." This sentence is not reflecting our conclusions: We discussed Zn isotope ratios (i.e., 66Zn/64Zn ratio expressed as a δ66Zn value) and not Zn concentrations. To explain low δ66Zn values of the Neandertal tooth, we propose that Neandertals ate food items depleted in heavy Zn isotopes (and therefore enriched in light Zn isotopes), but those foods can have variable Zn contents, independent of the Zn isoto…
Subsistence strategies throughout the African Middle Pleistocene: Faunal evidence for behavioral change and continuity across the Earlier to Middle S…
2018
Abstract The African Middle Pleistocene (781–126 ka) is a key period for human evolution, witnessing both the origin of the modern human lineage and the lithic turnover from Earlier Stone Age (ESA) Acheulean bifacial tools to Middle Stone Age (MSA) prepared core and point technologies. This ESA/MSA transition is interpreted as representing changing landscape use with greater foraging distances and more active hunting strategies. So far, these behavioral inferences are mainly based on the extensive stone tool record, with only a minor role for site-based and regional faunal studies. To provide additional insights into these behavioral changes, this paper details a pan-African metastudy of 63…