Abstract
The Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov (GBY) in the Upper Jordan Valley revealed important data on environment and material culture, as well as evidence for hominin behavioural and cognitive patterns documented at the margins of the Hula Palaeo-lake. A 50 m long core (GBY#2) drilled at the archaeological site has provided a long Pleistocene geological, environmental and climatological record, which expands the existing knowledge of hominin-habitat relationships. Bracketed by two basalt flows dated by 40Ar/39Ar and based on the identification of the Matuyama-Brunhes Boundary (MBB) and correlation with the GBY excavation site, the sedimentary sequence provides the climatic history around the MBB. Multi-proxy data including pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs, macro-botanical remains, molluscs and ostracods provide evidence for lake and lake-margin environments during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 20 and 19. Semi-moist conditions were followed by a pronounced dry phase during MIS 20, and warm and moist conditions with Quercus-Pistacia woodlands prevailed during MIS 19. In contrast to the reconstructed climate change from relatively dry to moister conditions, the depositional environment developed from an open-water lake during MIS 20 to a lake margin environment in MIS 19. Generally shallower conditions at the core site in MIS 19 resulted from the progradation of the lake shore due to the filling of the basin. Micro-charcoal analysis suggests a likelihood of human-induced fire in some parts of the core, which can be correlated with artefact-containing layers of the GBY excavation site. The Hula Palaeo-lake region provided an ideal niche for hominins and other vertebrates during global glacial-interglacial climate fluctuations at the end of the Early Pleistocene.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 166-185 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |
| Volume | 489 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Jan 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors thank the Israel Antiquities Authority for financing and supervising the drilling of GBY#2 and, in particular, Ofer Marder and Chamoudi Khalaily. Gonen Sharon handled the maintenance and storage of the core and participated in its initial description and sampling. Some of the research aspects were conducted thanks to a grant awarded to N.G.-I. by the Israel Science Foundation [Grant No. 300/06] for the Center of Excellence Project entitled ‘The Effect of Climate Change on the Environment and Hominins of the Upper Jordan Valley between ca. 800Ka and 700Ka ago as a Basis for Prediction of Future Scenarios’. Baruch Spiro was nominated by N.G.-I. to be in charge of describing the core, cutting it into two halves for archiving and sampling. He was also the sole person responsible for sampling and distributing the samples among the multidisciplinary researchers. Thanks go to Mara Goldstein for her study of the malacology, to Irit Zohar for the ichthyological analysis, to Rebecca Biton for the macro-mammal analysis and to Alexandra Sumner for the illustration of the GBY#2 core. Thanks are due also to the directors of the Institute of Archaeology, Benny Sekay and Smadar Pustilnik, for their continuous support and understanding. Abraham Starinsky of the Institute of Earth Sciences coordinated some of the administrative aspects and we thank him for his academic and psychological support. M.S.P. and B.U. wish to thank the Directorate General of Indonesian Higher Education (Dikti) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for the scholarship to support this research, Mario Tucci and Sabine Hansen for their help and discussion concerning laboratory treatments and pollen diagram preparation and Peter Kershaw for his constructive and valuable advice. G.D.-N. acknowledges funding from EU Career Integration Grant ‘HIRESDAT’ [Project No. 294282 ]. Finally, the authors would like to thank Jean-Pierre Suc and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments on the manuscript.
Funding Information:
The authors thank the Israel Antiquities Authority for financing and supervising the drilling of GBY#2 and, in particular, Ofer Marder and Chamoudi Khalaily. Gonen Sharon handled the maintenance and storage of the core and participated in its initial description and sampling. Some of the research aspects were conducted thanks to a grant awarded to N.G.-I. by the Israel Science Foundation [Grant No. 300/06] for the Center of Excellence Project entitled ?The Effect of Climate Change on the Environment and Hominins of the Upper Jordan Valley between ca. 800Ka and 700Ka ago as a Basis for Prediction of Future Scenarios?. Baruch Spiro was nominated by N.G.-I. to be in charge of describing the core, cutting it into two halves for archiving and sampling. He was also the sole person responsible for sampling and distributing the samples among the multidisciplinary researchers. Thanks go to Mara Goldstein for her study of the malacology, to Irit Zohar for the ichthyological analysis, to Rebecca Biton for the macro-mammal analysis and to Alexandra Sumner for the illustration of the GBY#2 core. Thanks are due also to the directors of the Institute of Archaeology, Benny Sekay and Smadar Pustilnik, for their continuous support and understanding. Abraham Starinsky of the Institute of Earth Sciences coordinated some of the administrative aspects and we thank him for his academic and psychological support. M.S.P. and B.U. wish to thank the Directorate General of Indonesian Higher Education (Dikti) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for the scholarship to support this research, Mario Tucci and Sabine Hansen for their help and discussion concerning laboratory treatments and pollen diagram preparation and Peter Kershaw for his constructive and valuable advice. G.D.-N. acknowledges funding from EU Career Integration Grant ?HIRESDAT? [Project No. 294282]. Finally, the authors would like to thank Jean-Pierre Suc and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments on the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
Keywords
- Hominins
- Hula Basin
- Levant
- Plant macro-remains
- Pollen record
