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| Titel |
Hominin responses to environmental changes during the Middle Pleistocene in central and southern Italy |
| VerfasserIn |
R. Orain, V. Lebreton, E. Russo Ermolli, A.-M. Sémah, S. Nomade, Q. Shao, J.-J. Bahain, U. Thun Hohenstein, C. Peretto |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1814-9324
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Climate of the Past ; 9, no. 2 ; Nr. 9, no. 2 (2013-03-14), S.687-697 |
| Datensatznummer |
250018014
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/cp-9-687-2013.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
The palaeobotanical record of early Palaeolithic sites from Western Europe
indicates that hominins settled in different kinds of environments. During
the "mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT)", from about 1 to 0.6 Ma, the
transition from 41- to 100-ka dominant climatic oscillations, occurring
within a long-term cooling trend, was associated with an aridity crisis
which strongly modified the ecosystems.
Starting from the MPT the more favourable climate of central and southern
Italy provided propitious environmental conditions for long-term human
occupations even during the glacial times. In fact, the human strategy of
territory occupation was certainly driven by the availabilities of
resources. Prehistoric sites such as Notarchirico (ca. 680–600 ka), La
Pineta (ca. 600–620 ka), Guado San Nicola (ca. 380–350 ka) or Ceprano
(ca. 345–355 ka) testify to a preferential occupation of the central and southern
Apennines valleys during interglacial phases, while later interglacial
occupations were oriented towards the coastal plains, as attested by the
numerous settlements of the Roma Basin (ca. 300 ka). Faunal remains indicate
that human subsistence behaviours benefited from a diversity of exploitable
ecosystems, from semi-open to closed environments. In central and southern
Italy, several palynological records have already illustrated the regional-
and local-scale vegetation dynamic trends. During the Middle Pleistocene
climate cycles, mixed mesophytic forests developed during the interglacial
periods and withdrew in response to increasing aridity during the glacial
episodes. New pollen data from the Boiano Basin (Molise, Italy) attest to
the evolution of vegetation and climate between MIS 13 and 9 (ca. 500 to 300 ka).
In this basin the persistence of high edaphic humidity, even during
the glacial phases, could have favoured the establishment of a refuge area
for the arboreal flora and provided subsistence resources for the animal and
hominin communities during the Middle Pleistocene. This could have
constrained human groups to migrate into such a propitious area. Regarding the local climate evolution during the glacial episodes, the supposed
displacement from these sites could be linked to the environmental dynamics
solely due to the aridity increase, rather than directly to the global
climate changes. |
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