HUMANARIDADAPT

HUMAN ADAPTATIONAL PATTERNS TO ARID ENVIRONMENTS IN NORTH AFRICA

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The relationship between climate and culture is one of the most important areas of debate in the case of the Late Pleistocene, c.60,000-10,000 BP (years ago), when profound and frequently abrupt climatic changes coincided with significant human migrations and shifts in behavioural complexity. A major weakness in past research is that models of climate:people interactions in the Late Pleistocene have been based on regional data sets of very variable quality, so it is impossible to move beyond broad generalisations about how humans did or did not respond to climatic change. This is particularly the case in North Africa, the focus of the proposed project. There were certainly climate shifts, but they did not result in uniform environmental change: the peak of cold conditions c.18,000 BP was characterized by considerable aridity and steppe-like vegetation, but certain locations may have remained better-watered ‘rifugia’. Cultural shifts were also profound but not uniform: in the Maghreb, for example, ‘Iberomaurusian’ stone technologies continued to be used from c.24,000 BP right up to the end of the Pleistocene c.10,000 BP, whereas in Libya a distinctive Late Stone Age industry (‘Dabban’) was replaced by an ‘Oranian’ industry in some respects similar to the Maghreb Iberomaurusian c.15,000 BP. The relationships between shifts in climate, environment, and human behaviour therefore remain obscure. The proposed project will examine the stone industries of two contrasting case study regions in Libya where the results can be compared with high quality palaeoenvironmental and palaeoeconomic data. It will apply innovative methodologies to determine the likely significance of technological change in terms of cultural (social networks) and behavioural (subsistence) shifts. Integrating the various data sets will yield a nuanced perspective on human responses to climate change in North Africa in the Late Pleistocene, of wide relevance for Palaeolithic studies generally.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Eating locally might seem trendy; eating a well-balanced diet is perennial good advice. EU-funded palaeontologists discovered dining habits are key to how Stone-Age Libyans adapted to prehistoric climate change.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Modern society could benefit from understanding how prehistoric humans adapted diets and food-related tools to respond to severe climate shifts.

However, there are serious gaps in what we know about how humans in the Late Pleistocene actually dealt with climate change.

In particular, climate-related environmental changes may vary regionally, causing localised challenges requiring localised solutions.

Such variability limits researchers to generalisations about our predecessors? ability to adapt.

An EU-funded researcher approached this problem proactively by studying in the 'Human adaptational patterns to arid environments in North Africa' (HUMANARIDADAPT) project.

Humans have inhabited the Haua Fteah cave in Cyrenaica (north-eastern Libya) for tens of thousands of years.

The HUMANARIDADAPT project, analysed artefacts found there and compared them with artefacts from Libya?s Maghreb region.

Specifically, the researchers analysed Stone Age tools according to visual characteristics (e.g., size and shape), source material, organic residues, and damage due to use.

HUMANARIDADAPT determined Haua Fteah artefacts from the Oranian era (17 000-11 500 years ago) were considerably smaller than those from the Dabban era (42 000-17 000 years ago).

Impacts as a result of local climate change include Oranian 'microlithic' innovations that were localised and abrupt.

In contrast, Iberomaurusian tools from the Maghreb remained relatively unchanged from 24 000 years ago to around 10 000 years ago.

Notably, Oranians made more task-specific tools.

Dr Mutri found that Oranian tools both developed from, and enabled these hunter-gatherers to transition to, a more diverse diet.

Oranians produced certain tools customised for hunting game animals, some unique to plant gathering, and yet others designed for working specific materials such as bone, shell, and wood.

Together, these adaptations enabled Oranian-era tool users to subsist in a smaller foodshed than was likely necessary for their predecessors.

HUMANARIDADAPT researchers now plan to compare the artefacts from Cyrenaica and the Magreb with robust palaeoenvirontmental and palaeoeconomic data from these regions.

Doing so could result in the first accurate descriptions of the interplay of changing climate, social and subsistence patterns, and technology of prehistoric Libyans.