Abstract
The Paleolithic record of the Levant encompasses several key changes in human population dynamics and human biological and cultural evolution. These processes are frequently linked to climatic shifts, but high-resolution and long-term paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic records often come from off-site sources, hindering the correlation with human developments observed in the archaeological sites. This paper aims to reconstruct the long-term paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic records of the Middle and Late Pleistocene Nahal Me'arot, Mount Carmel, Israel, using the archaeological herpetofauna assemblages from the Middle Paleolithic (MP) of Tabun Cave (layers C and B; using 18 stratigraphically ordered beds in total) and the Early Natufian of el-Wad Terrace (EWT), and employing the habitat weighting and mutual climate range methods. To strengthen our control of the correlation between the observed variation and the changing environment we also add a modern sample from the same location. We provide a systematic description of the finds and employ taphonomic and taxonomic analyses, which enabled us to identify three major accumulation agents that differentially affected the various samples: raptor predation predominantly in Tabun C, natural entrapment and death in Tabun B, and human consumption in Natufian EWT. The studied Tabun sequence exhibits changes in temperature and humidity. These are more apparent in the lower part (Tabun C), where the driest spell of our sequence also occurred, than in its upper part (Tabun B), and potentially coincide with the succession of two different hominin populations in the site. The correlation with regional off-site records remains challenging. Yet, given the available dates for the layers immediately underlying our driest sample, this dry fluctuation can be cautiously correlated with one of the dry phases apparent in the isotope records at the end of MIS 6. In the Terminal Pleistocene, the Early Natufian EWT reconstruction shows a wetter and cooler climate than the present day, with favorable Eastern Mediterranean vegetation, possibly enabling the long-term sedentary habitation that is suggested for this phase. Finally, our results testify to the general resilience of amphibian and reptile communities through the sequence but also to the rising impact of human activities on the reptile community during the Natufian.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 108060 |
| Journal | Quaternary Science Reviews |
| Volume | 307 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 May 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This paper is part of M.L.‘s doctoral research at the University of Haifa , funded by the University President's Scholarship for direct-track PhD students, the Nathan Rotenstreich Scholarship for outstanding PhD students, and the Israel Science Foundation (grant 511/22 to R.Y.). The Tabun excavations were funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation (grant AZ35/F/16 to M.W.-E and R.S) and the Dan David Foundation. The analysis of the former excavation of the Middle Paleolithic of Tabun by A. Jelinek was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant 1955/16 to M.W.-E, R.S., and L. Weissbrod). The EWT excavations were sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation , the Care Foundation, the Carmel Drainage Authority, and the Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa . Tabun Cave and the el-Wad Terrace are located in the Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve, managed by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. We wish to thank Roee Shafir for photography, Sapir Haad for graphic design, and Israel Hershkovitz, Lior Weissbrod, and Ram Reshef for their assistance. Thanks are due to Rivka Rabinovich and Shai Meiri for enabling us to use the Natural National History Collections at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History collection, Tel Aviv University, respectively, and the members of the zooarchaeology lab at the University of Haifa for their advice and assistance in this research. We thank Hugues-Alexandre Blain for helpful discussions and for providing extremely valuable feedback on the manuscript.
Funding Information:
This paper is part of M.L.‘s doctoral research at the University of Haifa, funded by the University President's Scholarship for direct-track PhD students, the Nathan Rotenstreich Scholarship for outstanding PhD students, and the Israel Science Foundation (grant 511/22 to R.Y.). The Tabun excavations were funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation (grant AZ35/F/16 to M.W.-E and R.S) and the Dan David Foundation. The analysis of the former excavation of the Middle Paleolithic of Tabun by A. Jelinek was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant 1955/16 to M.W.-E, R.S. and L. Weissbrod). The EWT excavations were sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Care Foundation, the Carmel Drainage Authority, and the Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa. Tabun Cave and the el-Wad Terrace are located in the Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve, managed by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. We wish to thank Roee Shafir for photography, Sapir Haad for graphic design, and Israel Hershkovitz, Lior Weissbrod, and Ram Reshef for their assistance. Thanks are due to Rivka Rabinovich and Shai Meiri for enabling us to use the Natural National History Collections at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History collection, Tel Aviv University, respectively, and the members of the zooarchaeology lab at the University of Haifa for their advice and assistance in this research. We thank Hugues-Alexandre Blain for helpful discussions and for providing extremely valuable feedback on the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- Herpetofauna
- Middle East
- Middle Paleolithic
- Natufian
- Paleoclimate modeling
- Pleistocene
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Global and Planetary Change
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Archaeology
- Archaeology
- Geology
