Search results for "language use"
showing 10 items of 5440 documents
Micro-lithic production at Abric Romaní levels L and Ob: Exploring economic and evolutionary implications for Neanderthal societies
2020
Abstract The phenomenon of microlithism continues to be one of the most interesting topics in the prehistoric archaeology of the Middle Palaeolithic period because it is key to understanding the technology and cultural and economic organisation of Neanderthal societies. The aim of this research is to characterise small-flake industries based on two archaeological levels from the Abric Romani which present different occupation patterns. Level L is characterised by a shorter and more opportunistic occupational pattern, while the occupations found at archaeolevel Ob were longer and more complex, indicating a greater degree of planning involved in subsistence activities. The analysis was conduc…
Community replacement of neritic carbonate organisms during the late Valanginian platform demise: a new record from the Provence Platform.
2012
24 pages; International audience; The Valanginian is marked by amajor platform demise inducing a hiatus in the northern Tethyan neritic carbonate record from the top of the lower Valanginian to the lower Hauterivian. New biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic data from the Ollioules section (Provence Platform, southern France) are presented here, demonstrating that a large part of the upper Valanginian is preserved in an inner platform environment. The thick, upper Valanginian, aggrading carbonate succession is observed in an aborted rift domain, implying relatively low subsidence. In this context, a relatively long-term sea-level rise was required to sustain a keep-up style of carbonate p…
Bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr in different environmental samples — Effects of anthropogenic contamination and implications for isoscapes in past migration s…
2012
(87)Sr/(86)Sr reference maps (isoscapes) are a key tool for investigating past human and animal migrations. However, there is little understanding of which biosphere samples are best proxies for local bioavailable Sr when dealing with movements of past populations. In this study, biological and geological samples (ground vegetation, tree leaves, rock leachates, water, soil extracts, as well as modern and archeological animal teeth and snail shells) were collected in the vicinity of two early medieval cemeteries ("Thuringians", 5-6th century AD) in central Germany, in order to characterize (87)Sr/(86)Sr of the local biosphere. Animal tooth enamel is not appropriate in this specific context t…
Biometric and morphometric approaches on Lower Hettangian dinosaur footprints from the Rodez Strait (Aveyron, France).
2012
9 pages; International audience; Along the southern crystalline border of the Rouergue, the detrital Sandstones-variegated Mudstones Formation and the Dolomitic Formation yields numerous dinosaur footprints from the Earliest Hettangian. Among the 25 sites distributed along the 40 km-long transect between Marcillac-Vallon and Saint-Geniez-d'Olt, two of them, Puech de Castres and Le Bouyssou, have yielded abundant ichnites in various well-defined stratigraphic units. The combined analysis of these footprints with biometric and morphometric methods (Fourier analysis) warrants their identification to Grallator, Eubrontes and Dilophosauripus. The dual methodological approach also reveals two new…
Discovery of an Autunian macroflora and lithostratigraphic re-investigation on the western border of the Lodève Permian basin (Mont Sénégra, Hérault,…
2013
11 pages; International audience; Re-investigation of the western edge of the Lodève basin allows reassignment of one sandstone-conglomerate formation previously identified as "terminal Stephanian" to Early Autunian. The existence of two unconformable (Stephanian and Autunian) megasequences, separated by a sedimentary gap, which had been rejected, is thus re-affirmed. The authors also found, less than 20 m above the basal Autunian conglomerate, a macroflora with taxa characteristic of the famous Tuilières flora from a site, located in the eastern part of the basin near Lodève, in the Grey Autunian group. This confirms that the new Mont Sénégra fossiliferous beds belong to the Lower Autunian…
Terrestrial plants and marine algae from the Late Jurassic lithographic limestone of the Causse Méjean (Lozère, southern France)
2016
International audience; A new Late Jurassic flora was discovered in the fossiliferous lithographic limestone of the Causse Méjean, Lozère (southern France). It consists of the first Kimmeridgian/Tithonian plants from this area. Fossil plants are represented by megaremains preserved as impressions. This flora shows a co-occurrence of terrestrial plants and marine algae. The land plants include vegetative remains ascribed to bennettitaleans (Zamites Brongniart, 1828), conifers (Brachyphyllum Brongniart, 1828), and pteridosperms (Cycadopteris Zigno, 1853). Marine algae were ascribed to dasyclads (Goniolina D’Orbigny, 1850). Lithological and palaeontological features suggest preservation in a f…
Five centuries of Central European temperature extremes reconstructed from tree-ring density and documentary evidence
2010
Future climate change will likely influence the frequency and intensity of weather extremes. As such events are by definition rare, long records are required to understand their characteristics, drivers, and consequences on ecology and society. Herein we provide a unique perspective on regional-scale temperature extremes over the past millennium, using three tree-ring maximum latewood density (MXD) chronologies from higher elevations in the European Alps. We verify the tree-ring-based extremes using documentary evidences from Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Central Europe that allowed the identification of 44 summer extremes over the 1550-2003 period. These events include cold temperat…
Un disco-coraza de hierro de la Bastida de les Alcusses (moixent, valencia)
2017
Se presenta un disco-coraza de hierro procedente del oppidum ibérico de la Bastida de les Alcusses documentado con motivo de la revisión completa de los hallazgos de las excavaciones realizadas entre 1928 y 1931. La pieza es una lámina seudocircular en cuyo perímetro se distribuyen unos pequeños remaches para suspender el disco a las correas de sujeción, realizadas probablemente en cuero. Después de presentar el disco y los resultados de las analíticas EDXRF que permiten identificar los metales utilizados en la producción del disco (hierro) y los remaches (plata y cobre), se analiza su contexto de hallazgo, se encuadra históricamente esta categoría de armamento defensivo. Finalmente, se int…
Pseudoskirroceras, a remarkable but poorly known Early Pliensbachian Tethyan ammonite genus: New data from the High Atlas (Morocco).
2007
13 pages; International audience; The discovery of new Early Pliensbachian ammonite faunas in Central High Atlas (Morocco) allows the re-examination of the taxonomic, stratigraphical and palaeogeographical framework of the genus Pseudoskirroceras, an intriguing but until now poorly known Tethyan taxon. For the first time, several specimens of Pseudoskirroceras mastodon (Fucini, 1935) the type species of the genus, have been collected in a well-known stratigraphical context. This material allows the evaluation of intra-specific variability and consequently the assessment of the taxonomical relevance of various geometrical and ornamental features. The best diagnostic features are the clearly …
Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)
2020
The site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal), with evidence of human occupancy dating to ca. 400 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 11), is one of the very few Middle Pleistocene localities to have provided a fossil hominin cranium associated with Acheulean bifaces in a cave context. The multi-analytic study reported here of the by-products of burning recorded in layer X suggests the presence of anthropogenic fires at the site, among the oldest such evidence in south-western Europe. The burnt material consists of bone, charcoal and, possibly, quartzite cobbles. These finds were made in a small area of the cave and in two separate occupation horizons. Our results add to our still-limited know…