#	Pagina
attuale pagina	/open-h2020/projects/195230/results.html

Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CLIMAPROX (Hunter-Gatherer adaptations in northern Iberian Refugia from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Mesolithic: a multi-proxy climatic investigation.)

Teaser

Summary

Environmental and climatic changes are a key challenge facing modern populations. Environmental change was a main driving factor behind several key developments in humanity, impacting on economic, social, technological behaviour and ultimately the survival of the human species. Characterising past human responses to past environmental change is crucial in understanding the challenges facing modern human populations.

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), approximately 21ka years ago, populations across Europe faced challenging environmental conditions. Ice sheets covered much of Northern and Central Europe, and during these harsh, cold conditions the Iberian Peninsula acted as a refuge for plant, animal and human populations until the end of the Pleistocene. The Cantabrian region is an archaeologically important region for understanding the impact of the LGM on human populations.

During Upper Palaeolithic in the Cantabrian Region of Northern Spain several intriguing phenomena appear in the archaeological record. Firstly, a population expansion during the LGM, with a dramatic increase in the number of archaeological sites is seen, with people drawn to the region to escape the ice-covered landscapes found in Northern and Central Europe at this time. Secondly, a cultural explosion is seen, exhibited in the form of rich cave art assemblages, and portable art present in the region. The World Heritage listed caves within the Cantabrian region host archaeological sites exhibiting key artistic and technological complexities within the Europe Upper Palaeolithic including the caves of Altamira, and El Castillo, and Covalanas amongst others and contain some of the earliest of cave art in Europe. Finally, at the end of the Pleistocene we also see shifts in dietary trends with a tendency towards consuming younger animals, and a greater diversity of species, in addition to the accumulation of large shell middens. This eventually leads to the adoption of farming in the region during the Neolithic period. These clear cultural and economic changes during the LGM make the Cantabrian region is an ideal location to understanding the complex and dynamic relationship between humans and their environment time.

Until now climatic changes between the LGM and Mesolithic period and how it was expressed on a regional level was little understood. Climatic evidence from deep sea off-shore cores have provided ideas of long term climate change in the Iberian Peninsula throughout the Palaeolithic, providing an understanding of broad trends in climate, but are removed from the specific environmental conditions directly experienced by the hunter-gatherers subsisting in the landscapes. Stable isotope analysis of ungulate bone collagen from hunted animals found on archaeological sites can be a valuable way of accessing information about the environments within the localities and hunting ranges of archaeological sites that can be directly linked to human activity. When used in combination with other palaeoenvironmental proxies this technique enables powerful reconstructions of past environments to be created.

The key objectives of the project were to characterise the environmental conditions experienced by populations inhabiting the Cantabrian Region during the LGM to the Mesolithic (21-7ka BP) using a multi-proxy approach, including a large newly generated stable isotope analysis from animal bone collagen, in correlation with more traditional environmental proxies (including pollen, fauna, microfauna, sediments). This was then compared to the dietary profiles in the region to explore how the environment affected hunting strategies of hunter gather groups during this period.

The key research questions being addressed were:

How did the migration of people into the Cantabrian Region during the LGM affect hunting strategies?

Did changes in environment associated with the LGM cause the subsequent flourishing of Upper Palaeolithic societies?

What caused

Work performed

The project has achieved an extensive database of important Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Cantabrian Region, and is the largest dataset for the region at this time. This information were combined with data collated relating to wider climatic evidence from ice cores, and marine cores, and more localised continental records, including speleothem isotope records, lake temperatures, and site specific environmental proxies such as pollen, and micro- and macro- faunal remains. This enabled insights into how major climatic events were being expressed locally on different scales within the Cantabrian Region.

Results showed that during the harsher, cooler conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum, a very different suite of vegetation surrounded the archaeological sites, which affected the habitats of animals living in the region. Despite this, ungulates successfully adapted their niches and were still heavily exploited by humans. The environmental opportunities to adapt offered in the Cantabrian region may help to explain why there was a movement of people to southern Europe at this time. During the Magdalenian the climate improved, becoming more stable. This environmental predictability may have been one of the reasons why populations flourished in this period, and humans were then able to return to Northern Europe. The Holocene in the Cantabrian Region was characterised by a warmer, and wetter environment, and animals occupied more diverse habitats, and humans show greater dietary diversification, possibly linked to a combination of population pressure and climatic amelioration. Crucially, even during times of extreme climatic and environmental change in Europe the Cantabrian refugium provided humans, and the animals they hunted the opportunity to adapt, and even thrive.

Final results

Results from the project have been presented at 7 different international conferences including Japan, Canada, America, Lithuania and the UK, and 3 invited seminars were delivered at universities in the UK, Canada and Denmark. A conference session based on the project was also organised at the European Archaeology Association Annual conference in 2016, and is being published as a special issue of Journal or Archaeological Science: Reports.

The project has regularly organised and participated in public outreach events to engage children and adults in themes related to the research including European Researcherâ€™s Night in 2015 and 2016, in addition to running 3 workshops at the Government of Cantabria open days, in addition to running activities for the University of Cantabriaâ€™s Science week and Summer Campus events.

Further dissemination of project progress via twitter (@jennifer_bones) was undertaken, and on the IIIPC Bioarchaeology lab facebook page, in addition to the project wordpress blog.