Short-term occupations at high elevation during the Middle Paleolithic at Kalavan 2 (Republic of Armenia).

The Armenian highlands encompasses rugged and environmentally diverse landscapes and is characterized by a mosaic of distinct ecological niches and large temperature gradients. Strong seasonal fluctuations in resource availability along topographic gradients likely prompted Pleistocene hominin groups to adapt by adjusting their mobility strategies. However, the role that elevated landscapes played in hunter-gatherer settlement systems during the Late Pleistocene (Middle Palaeolithic [MP]) remains poorly understood. At 1640 m above sea level, the MP site of Kalavan 2 (Armenia) is ideally positioned for testing hypotheses involving elevation-dependent seasonal mobility and subsistence strategies. Renewed excavations at Kalavan 2 exposed three main occupation horizons and ten additional low densities lithic and faunal assemblages. The results provide a new chronological, stratigraphical, and paleoenvironmental framework for hominin behaviors between ca. 60 to 45 ka. The evidence presented suggests that the stratified occupations at Kalavan 2 locale were repeated ephemerally most likely related to hunting in a high-elevation within the mountainous steppe landscape.

Human movement and gully erosion: Investigating feedback mechanisms using Frequency Ratio and Least Cost Path analysis in Tigray, Ethiopia.

The cost of human movement, whether expressed in time, effort, or distance, is a function of natural and human related variables. At the same time, human movement itself, whether on land, air or sea, causes environmental cost. We are looking into the long-term environmental relationship of this interplay. Gullies-linear landforms, which dissect the landscape-are considered to be a cost for human movement, as they can form unpassable barriers destroying present path networks. On the other hand, human movement creates pathways, which flatten the surface and decrease the water permeability potential. This process results in runoff generation and possibly gully erosion. Accordingly, the spatial relationship between pathways and gullies is investigated. In the Tigray region of the Northern Ethiopian Highlands, gullies and pathways were mapped using remote sensing data. Frequency Ratio was used for assessing pathways as a variable affecting the location of gullies while Least Cost Paths were tested to evaluate the possible constraining impact gullies have on mobility. Based on these results, it is concluded that a positive feedback exists between the cost of human movement and gully erosion. We further discuss possible effects gullies may have had on trade, territory, and political affairs in Tigray. Consequently, we suggest that movement cost and gullying may not only hold strictly environmental or movement-related implications, but also socio-cultural ones.

Persistent Neanderthal occupation of the open-air site of 'Ein Qashish, Israel.

Over the last two decades, much of the recent efforts dedicated to the Levantine Middle Paleolithic has concentrated on the role of open-air sites in the settlement system in the region. Here focus on the site of 'Ein Qashish as a cases study. Located in present-day northern Israel, the area of this site is estimated to have been >1300 m2, of which ca. 670 were excavated. The site is located at the confluence of the Qishon stream with a small tributary running off the eastern flanks of the Mt. Carmel. At the area of this confluence, water channels and alluvial deposits created a dynamic depositional environment. Four Archaeological Units were identified in a 4.5-m thick stratigraphic sequence were dated by Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) to between-71 and 54 ka, and probably shorter time span-~70-~60 ka. Here we present the diverse material culture remains from the site (lithics, including refitted sequences; modified limestone pieces; molluscs; faunal remains) against their changing paleogeographic backdrop. Skeletal evidence suggests that these remains were associated with Neanderthals. The large-scale repeated accumulation of late Middle Paleolithic remains in the same place on the landscape provides a unique opportunity to address questions of occupation duration and intensity in open-air sites. We find that each occupation was of ephemeral nature, yet presents a range of activities, suggesting that the locale has been used as a generalized residential site rather than specialized task-specific ones. This role of 'Ein Qashish did not change through time, suggesting that during the late Middle Paleolithic settlement system in this part of the southern Levant were stable.

The first Neanderthal remains from an open-air Middle Palaeolithic site in the Levant.

The late Middle Palaeolithic (MP) settlement patterns in the Levant included the repeated use of caves and open landscape sites. The fossil record shows that two types of hominins occupied the region during this period-Neandertals and Homo sapiens. Until recently, diagnostic fossil remains were found only at cave sites. Because the two populations in this region left similar material cultural remains, it was impossible to attribute any open-air site to either species. In this study, we present newly discovered fossil remains from intact archaeological layers of the open-air site 'Ein Qashish, in northern Israel. The hominin remains represent three individuals: EQH1, a nondiagnostic skull fragment; EQH2, an upper right third molar (RM3); and EQH3, lower limb bones of a young Neandertal male. EQH2 and EQH3 constitute the first diagnostic anatomical remains of Neandertals at an open-air site in the Levant. The optically stimulated luminescence ages suggest that Neandertals repeatedly visited 'Ein Qashish between 70 and 60 ka. The discovery of Neandertals at open-air sites during the late MP reinforces the view that Neandertals were a resilient population in the Levant shortly before Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens populated the region.