Late Glacial Archaeology

In the history of research into the Hamburgian in Poland two periods can be distinguished. The first, longer period, began in the 1930s with the discovery at Rogów Opolski of the first Hamburgian campsite on the territory of Poland (Rothert 1936). At about the same time, a local teacher O. Dobrint registered another site at Liny, excavated in the 1970s by M. Kobusiewicz (Kobusiewicz 1975). Since then until the 1990s a few more Hamburgian sites were recorded and excavated. Olbrachcice 8, Siedlnica 17 and 17a, and Łęgoń were investigated by M. Burdukiewicz (Burdukiewicz 1987; Burdukiewicz et al. 1998; Burdukiewicz, Szynkiewicz 2002). Until the end of the 1990s, site 33 at Mirkowice was considered to have been the easternmost and northernmost site of the Hamburgian (Chłodnicki, Kabaciński 1997; Kabaciński et al. 1999; Kabaciński et al. 2002; Kabaciński, Schild 2005). Another large excavated site was situated at Krągola (Kabaciński, Kobusiewicz 2008).
11 campsites of varying size related to the settlement of the Hamburgian culture (including sites at Myszęcin and Ośno Lubuskie) have been so far recognised on the territory of Poland. In addition, there are remains of the generally undetermined penetration of the area by the Hamburgian societies, mainly in western Poland. Single finds of the Hamburgian settlement were registered at Wojnowo 2 (Kobusiewicz 1999), Tanowo 2 (Galinski 1987), Nowy Młyn (Kozłowski, Kozłowski 1977), Trzebicz Młyn (Bagniewski 2001, 2002), Rzuchów (Kabaciński, Sobkowiak-Tabaka 2009a), Cichmiana 2 (Kabaciński, Sobkowiak-Tabaka 2009a), Łozina 17 (Wiśniewski et al. 2010) and perhaps at Wąsowo 29 (Jankowska et al. 2006).
Sites at Myszęcin and Ośno Lubuskie belong to the group of sites that confirm the exploitation of the young glacial zone by the Hamburgian communities, which once again belies the hypothesis of B. Bratlund (1994), supported by G. Tromnau (2006), that these communities could have functioned only in old glacial areas.
Recent discoveries at Ośno Lubuskie indicate that the absence of remains of the Hamburgian settlement in the region of the so-called spatial gap in the settlement pattern results only from the state of research (Kabaciński, Sobkowiak-Tabaka 2010). Recently published stray finds from the area of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg seem to confirm this idea (Terberger, Lübke 2007).
The site at Myszęcin stands out among other campsites of the Hamburgian in terms of the quantity of recorded artefacts and the number of registered concentrations of flint material. It is now the richest site of the Hamburgian culture over the entire European Plain. The number of registered flint artefacts at sites from western Poland ranges from 473 pieces in Łęgoń, the commune of Wschowa (Burdukiewicz et al. 2003), to 6145 flint artefacts in Siedlnica, the commune of Wschowa, site 17a (Burdukiewicz 1987), usually registered in one to three concentrations. In case of the analysed site, approximately 1200 flint artefacts were registered, both within 13 functionally diverse concentrations and beyond them.
Analyses reveal that the raw material economy of the Hamburgian hunter-gatherers was typically based on exploitation of the erratic Cretaceous Baltic material, probably procured from the local cracks resulting from weathering or fluvioglacial sediments. Such strategy has been well documented at sites at Olbrachcice, Siedlnica or Mirkowice (Czerwińska, Burdukiewicz 1983; Kabaciński et al. 1999).
The flint inventory registered at Myszęcin is not significantly different from other assemblages recorded at the Hamburgian sites in Poland, and the frequency of particular types of tools is the result of the functional differentiation of individual concentrations and the number of the flint artefacts in the concentration. However, we should emphasise the presence of two backed blades, previously considered a younger addition and now believed a statistically non-significant, albeit a permanent part of the Hamburgian inventories (Kobusiewicz 1999). Similar artefacts were recorded at Olbrachcice or Mirkowice (Burdukiewicz 1987; Kabaciński et al. 1999), as well as in Hamburgian assemblages in northern Germany and Denmark (Grimm, Weber 2008).
What is particularly interesting, however, is the presence of a very slender, c. 10cm long point, for which at present there are no known parallels in the assemblages from the Polish Lowlands.
A major drawback of the discussed complex is the lack of any artefacts allowing the study on the subsistence, social organisation or art of the community occupying the campsite at Myszęcin. But for the flint artefacts, there were no other materials or features that could allow the reconstruction of the spatial organisation of the campsite. Given the very large number of flint artefacts, we believe that the site at Myszęcin was used for a long time. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that it was a multi-seasonal campsite. These types of considerations may ultimately be resolved only following the so-called refits of materials that would indicate the existence or absence of links between individual artefacts located in a given concentration, or the links between the concentrations.

The papers in this volume provide a variety of perspectives on Rangifer (caribou/reindeer) and its use by prehistoric peoples in the northern latitudes of both Old and New Worlds. Since the early work of Lartet and Christy in the late 1800s and their recognition of "L' Age du Renne, use of Rangifer (reindeer) by prehistoric Europeans has been well known.  Less understood has been the actual economic significance of Rangifer, as compared with other food sources, and its relationship to human ranging and social behavior during the Upper Paleolithic.

Clovis-era subsistence varied from site to site and region to region, but large mammals numerically dominate at archaeological sites with food remains. Plant remains are extremely scarce in Clovis sites. The lack of specialized processing and storage technology suggests seeds and nuts were not prominent in the diet, as they became in later times. Sites dated to a possible proto-Clovis phase, 1,000–3,000 years older than the generally accepted age of Clovis, also contain mostly or exclusively large mammal remains. Many (perhaps most or all) of the largest animals were probably killed and butchered by Late Glacial foragers; they were not found dead and scavenged by people. Proboscidean carcass utilization by Clovis butchers was often
incomplete, because Clovis foraging bands were small in number, very mobile, and most likely could predict where to find vulnerable prey.

Abstract: The Federmesser-Gruppen (FMG) (12,000–10,800 calBC;  Riede et al. 2010, 298) is a less well-understood period of the Late Glacial. Few stratified sites are known, and surface finds constitute the
largest contribution to the available material. As is highlighted by recent research, the predominant impression of the FMG thus far is that it represents a sharp contrast to the Hamburgian in terms of raw material acquisition, transport and the general neatness of lithic products (Barton 2010; Jacobi/Higham 2011, 226). For the purpose of increasing the state of knowledge concerning FMG lithic technology, a prominent example of an extant FMG lithic assemblage was consulted.
The present study presents the results following a technological re-analysis of the Lateglacial extant collection from Borneck-Ost, Ahrensburg tunnel valley, Germany. The site is typologically attributed to the FMG, and was excavated by Alfred Rust in the 1940s (Rust 1958). A source-critical perspective on the re-analysis of extant collections is imperative, since these were excavated and studied according to a different analytical paradigm. Prior to detailed study, the interpretation of Borneck-Ost as FMG was found to be reliable according to modern archaeological practice. Following the steps of a traditional chaîne opératoire (Eriksen 2000), the lithic assemblage was technologically re-analysed. Since no detailed description of FMG knapping methods previously exists for Northern Germany, a material study guide was developed (Kotthaus 2013) and adapted from Madsen (1992) and Sørensen (2006). Refitting has supplied additional information.

New information on FMG knapping methods is presented.

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This paper focuses initially on the 2005 discovery of a small Early Palaeo-Indian site along the Otonabee River in the northeast part of the city of Peterborough and broadens to discuss the regional context of occupation in the south Kawartha Lakes/Otonabee River and Rice Lake watersheds based on 40 years of intermittent survey and excavations. The Waverly Heights site (BcGn-13) was found during a shovel test survey with a single positive shovel test leading to a full Stage 4 excavation. The site is on the gentle north slope of a small glacial drumlin between two branches of the Otonabee River. Assigned to time period on the basis of distinctive channel flakes from the manufacture of fluted points, the site had a small hearth with bifacial debitage, a projectile point basal ear and calcined mammal bone. The calcined bone from the site indicates not just the hunting of large cervids but also consumption of fish. Proximity to a possible caribou water crossing of the glacial Otonabee River is raised. Channel flake width measurements suggest a Parkhill or later phase Palaeo-Indian occupation, perhaps Holcombe at the end of the Early Palaeo-Indian fluting tradition.
Waverly Heights provides new information on small resource extraction sites and indicates there may be much larger regional networks of small Early Palaeo-Indian site types, originally predicted from comprehensive survey work in the Rice Lake region 20 km to the south (Jackson1990). More than a dozen Early Palaeo-Indian sites in the western Rice Lake area include logistical game processing, hunting ambush, and multi-purpose residential camps. Significantly, reconstruction of palaeogeographic landscapes indicates that the entire western lake bed of Rice Lake would have been a mosaic of small wetlands and dry land in the late glacial period circa 12,000 to 10,000 years B.P. Multiple discoveries of fossil caribou remains from later Holocene contexts at Rice Lake, circa 6,000 to 3,000 years B.P. strongly indicate that caribou was a persistent resource for human occupants of the area. It is highly likely that many early Palaeo-Indian sites are currently inaccessible below the now flooded western Rice Lake basin because of the Holocene effects of isostatic rebound.

Die letzten Jahrtausende der vergangenen Eiszeit waren von großen Umwelt- und Landschaftsveränderungen geprägt. Der skandinavische Eisschild, der zuvor große Teile von Dänemark, Norddeutschland und
Polen bedeckte hatte, schmolz, und die weiten offenen, tundrenartigen Steppen Zentraleuropas wurden nach und nach von Wald eingenommen. Dies führte zu grundlegenden Veränderungen der Lebensbedingungen
für Mensch und Tier.

The Havelte point is the first implement to develop and spread genuinely across Northern Europe during the Late Glacial. Despite its interesting geographical, chronological as well as morphological position, this type has rarely been the focus of archaeological studies. In fact, since its defi nition in the 1930s and 1940s this point had hardly been considered as a significant type in Late Glacial literature until Dick Stapert published the Lateglacial material from the Dutch site Oldeholtwolde in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s, assemblages yielding Havelte points (usually attributed to the Havelte Group) are frequently
presented from NW Europe creating a small corpus of data connected with this point type. Reviewed information based on this corpus is assembled in the present paper to consider the development of this type of points in the context of their distinction from other Late Glacial points, their possible use, and their occurrence in the Late Glacial environment.

Based on the evidence of a recently excavated, sealed site, situated at Ruien “Rosalinde” in the Belgian
Scheldt valley, the response of hunter-gatherers to changing climate at the transition from the temperate
Allerød to the cold Younger Dryas is discussed. Radiocarbon dated to the end of the Allerød or the very
beginning of the Younger Dryas, the site of Ruien provides the earliest evidence of a refined lithic
technology characterized by the use of a soft stone hammer and the production of straight and regular
blade(let)s from intensively prepared cores with two opposite platforms and sharp striking angles. In the
course of the Younger Dryas and Early Pre-boreal this knapping method will become standard all over
Europe, from the Tanged Point Technocomplex in the North to the (Epi)Laborian in the South. It contrasts
sharply with the knapping style of previous lithic traditions, such as the late Federmesser/Azilian and
Bromme Technocomplexes, which was much less elaborated and mainly oriented towards the knapping
of short irregular blades with a hard stone hammer. This apparently abrupt technological change was
also accompanied by increased raw material procurement networks, extending over up to 250 km, and a
marked microlithisation of the hunting equipment. Finally, the site of Ruien is also important as it
demonstrates the limited archaeological visibility of Younger Dryas sites, explaining the scarcity of such
sites within western Europe.

"New paleoclimatic data for the Lateglacial clarify climatic phases during the Lateglacial. Cold climate played a key role in limiting Magdalenian expansion from southwest and central Europe This paper presents chronological and geographic data for the different climatic phases to map the expansion of the
Magdalenian into northwest Europe. Specifically, it can be seen that initial expansion follows a southwest-northeast trajectory into southern Germany, followed by northern expansion into Belgium, central Germany and the Paris Basin at the end of the Oldest Dryas. During the Bølling and Allerød phases, human occupation intensified in the Paris Basin and contacts and/or territorial exploitation between both the Paris Basin and the Rhineland region with Belgian territory is demonstrated."

In south-western France, between 18,000 and 14,000 calBP, socio-economic changes are evident in several spheres of Magdalenian hunter-gatherer activities which brought with them an array of transformations in osseous and lithic tools. Targeted prey species, although still dominated by ungulates, also show an evolution during a period that was marked by significant climatic and environmental changes that can be correlated with cultural developments. Changes in procurement strategies and new patterns in osseous and lithic ...

Around 13,000 years ago, the Laacher See volcano (East Eifel volcanic field, Rhenish Shield) erupted cataclysmically. The thick tephra blanket in the eruption's near field covered and thereby preserved a large number of archaeological sites, ranging from very small to some of the largest and richest sites known from the Late Glacial. In this proximal region, there is a striking contrast in the number of sites prior to the eruption and the almost complete lack of sites dating to the period after the event, i.e. to Greenland Interstadial 1a. The preservative function of the tephra cover itself may explain this near-field pattern, but it is shown here that similar stratigraphic observations can also be made in the Laacher See eruption's mid field towards the west and, in particular, to the north-east. The aim of this paper is to review the stratigraphic relations of known archaeological sites outside the near field of the Laacher See event with a particular focus on the German Federal State of Hesse and adjacent areas of Lower Saxony and the Thuringian Basin. Here, a number of archaeological sites are known, where strata of Laacher See tephra cap human occupation. Most often, these sites are not reoccupied until much later in prehistory, suggesting that the eruption may have led either to a complete or a near-complete abandonment of the affected regions or, at the very least, to a major reorganisation of landscape-use.

Reconstructions of the vegetation of Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are an enigma. Pollen-based analyses have suggested that Europe was largely covered by steppe and tundra, and forests persisted only in small refugia. Climate-vegetation model simulations on the other hand have consistently suggested that broad areas of Europe would have been suitable for forest, even in the depths of the last glaciation. Here we reconcile models with data by demonstrating that the highly mobile groups of hunter-gatherers that inhabited Europe at the LGM could have substantially reduced forest cover through the ignition of wildfires. Similar to hunter-gatherers of the more recent past, Upper Paleolithic humans were masters of the use of fire, and preferred inhabiting semi-open landscapes to facilitate foraging, hunting and travel. Incorporating human agency into a dynamic vegetation-fire model and simulating forest cover shows that even small increases in wildfire frequency over natural background levels resulted in large changes in the forested area of Europe, in part because trees were already stressed by low atmospheric CO 2 concentrations and the cold, dry, and highly variable climate. Our results suggest that the impact of humans on the glacial landscape of Europe may be one of the earliest large-scale anthropogenic modifications of the earth system.

The Swiderian is part of Tanged Point Technocomplex, the Late Glacial cultural unit of North European Plains. It is dated between middle part of the Younger Dryas and early Preboreal (12.7–11.4 kyr BP). Raw material economy of the Swiderian communities is one of the most discussed issues. Researchers present a dynamic system based on local or semi local resources (provinces), on one hand, on the other – supplemented with extralocal materials. Chocolate flint, spread up to 700 km from its outcrops, was the most desired raw material. Long-distance circulation of raw materials supports the idea of great mobility in that period, as well as an existence of interregional exchange
systems. This paper deals with new data brought to light by extensive rescue excavations carried out in the Kraków region in southern Poland. The most popular resource in the western part of Little Poland was a local Jurassic flint of high quality. A small number of extralocal raw materials were also recognized. The research objective was to analyze their role in lithic production and utilization amongst the local Swiderian communities. Special attention was paid to chocolate flint and radiolarite, for which comprehensive studies were undertaken. Analyzed artefacts were classified into groups following guidelines of "dynamic classification", which allowed us to investigate process of their use in lithic production. Our analysis showed that either finished products were manufactured elsewhere and subsequently
were brought to the site or cores were exploited on site, while their initial preparation was carried out outside the site. This research was also carried out in respect to functional differentiation of the researched area which revealed some interrelation between spatial organization and use of extralocal raw materials. Relevant models were presented as an explanation of the results. Presented data displayed additional vectors of Swiderian migrations in the region."

Between 1984 and the early 1990s the remains of a man were recovered from the edge of the Upper Theodul Glacier. The man died around AD 1600 while crossing the Theodul Pass (3301 m.a.s.l.) near Zermatt, one of the most important trade routes in the Pennine Alps at the time. He was called the “mercenary from the Theodul Pass” because of the weapons found alongside him. In 2006 his remains and the associated artifacts were incorporated into the collection of the Valais History Museum and specialists from various disciplines examined the collection for several years. The examination results give an unexpected glimpse into the life of a well-to-do traveller in early postmedieval period revealing rare preserved objects from this time.

Toward the end of the last ice age, comet strikes terminated three Baltic lakes and afterward generated three new lakes, all associated with floods. A curve of relative sea level at Perniö in Finland revealed a number of new freshwater lakes in the Baltic Basin plus six catastrophic floods that either terminated a lake formed behind an ice lobe or initiated a new lake when the outlet sill rose a few meters. To clearly distinguish freshwater lakes in the Baltic Basin, I used a sample of sites by Matti Eronen to construct a curve of Relative Sea Level at Perniö, then subtracted Absolute Sea Level and Glacial Rebound (Figure 1). In this figure, three ice-age lakes are Baltic Ice Lake 1, Baltic Ice Lake 2 and Ancylus Lake. All resulted from ponding behind melting of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet at the end of the last ice age, when lobes of ice blocked outlets in Sweden and Russia. Each lake ended abruptly, when a comet struck nearby and caused a sudden jump in lake level that eroded an outlet through the ice lobe, which then drained the lake in a matter of months. Multiple outwashes carved a deep channel, the Norwegian Trench. These three comets deposited peaks of ammonium (NH4) in Greenland ice core GISP2 in 9742 BC, 8365 BC and 6405 BC. The strike of 8365 BC ended the Middle Stone Age in northern Europe by incinerating nearly all life as measured in pollen cores, whose carbon content spiked, then dropped to zero. Subsequent lakes were created by a different mechanism, the uplift of an outlet sill in Denmark or Sweden. Three of these lakes, Ymir, Noah and Dardanus, resulted from massive tsunamis that crossed the Atlantic after comet strikes triggered mile-high turbidites, which slipped off the continental shelf of Texas and fell three miles down to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The same strikes caused a sudden jump in elevation of the outlet sill that trapped flood waters from leaving the Baltic: the flood of Ymir in 5608 BC, the flood of Noah in March of 3161 BC and the flood of Dardanus in March of 1445 BC. A Frisian written record of a similar tsunami in October of 2194 BC, said that Atland, an island the size of Ireland beneath the Faroe Islands, sank beneath the waves. Archaeologists studying Bell Beaker people in Ireland and Britain found all burials ceased at this time. Thus, these waves from across the Atlantic were far beyond anything experienced today. Figure 1: Height of Baltic lakes above sea level at Perniö.

The transition from hunting to herding transformed the cold, arid steppes of Mongolia and Eastern Eurasia into a key social and economic center of the ancient world, but a fragmentary archaeological record limits our understanding of the subsistence base for early pastoral societies in this key region. Organic material preserved in high mountain ice provides rare snapshots into the use of alpine and high altitude zones, which played a central role in the emergence of East Asian pastoralism. Here, we present the results of the first archaeological survey of melting ice margins in the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia, revealing a near-continuous record of more than 3500 years of human activity. Osteology, radiocarbon dating, and collagen fingerprinting analysis of wooden projectiles, animal bone, and other artifacts indicate that big-game hunting and exploitation of alpine ice played a significant role during the emergence of mobile pastoralism in the Altai, and remained a core ele...

Die gute Konservierung von organischen Materialien in Gletschern sowie Eis-und Schnee-feldern und den darunter befindlichen dauerhaft gefrorenen Böden hat den Wissenschaftszweig der Gletscherarchäologie ins Leben gerufen. Aufgrund der immer stärkeren Auswirkungen der globalen Klimaerwärmung gehen die Gletscher-stände weltweit und somit auch in den Alpen rapide zurück. Damit einhergehend apern immer mehr teils seit Jahrtausenden im Eis konservierte Artefakte aus. Vor allem organische Objekte, die sonst nur selten im archäologischen Fundgut erhalten sind, finden in Eis und Schnee wesentlich bessere Erhaltungsbedingungen vor.
The good conservation of organic materials in glaciers and ice and snow fields and the underlying permafrost soils has created the scientific branch of glacial archaeology (also known as snow patch or ice patch archaeology). Due to an increasing impact of global warming, glaciers rapidly decrease worldwide. With this glacial retreat artefacts , preserved for millennia in the ice, emerge. Especially organic obje_yts that are otherwise rarely preserved , find significantly better preservation conditions in ice and snow.

We present radiometric, palaeoclimatological, palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data for the period 40 000-8000 cal BP in the Jura Mountains (eastern France). These medium-sized mountains culminate at ca 1700 m a.s.l. and are today characterised by a semi-continental climate. During the Last Glacial Maximum, the range supported a local ice cap. While recent data suggest a possible early ice-cap development during MIS 4, the chronology of the regional LGM and following deglaciation has still to be refined. The complete disappearance of the local ice cap at ca 17000-16600 cal BP marked the starting accumulation of sediment archives in the Jurassian lakes and mires, which favoured the reconstruction of past changes in climatic and environmental conditions, in addition to faunal remains found in caves and in archaeological sites. Three main successive stages may be distinguished regarding the history of societies. The first stage at ca 40000-18700 cal BP was characterized by very few archaeological sites with only discontinuous intermittent occupations always located outside the Jura range. The second stage around 18700-11700 cal BP corresponded to an increase in the population density as suggested by an increasing number of archaeological sites and a progressive colonisation of elevated areas of the Jura Mountains. The third stage at ca 11700-8000 cal BP coincided with a reinforcement of settlement in the lowland areas as well as a development of long-term occupations in elevated areas. The millennial-scale GS-1 cold event had a more long-lasting and stronger impact on societies than the 200 year-long 8.2 ka cold event.

In recent years airborne and spaceborne remote sensing have developed into a widely applied tool for archaeologists. In glacial archaeology, it has been employed successfully, but could see a wider application among practitioners. This article summarizes common remote sensing approaches useful to archaeologists in cryogenic environments. It covers simple applications using easily accessible data in order to enable the practitioner to monitor melt and contextualize archaeological sites within a larger landscape setting. The improved resolution and availability of remote sensing data enhances its usefulness with regards to identifying, documenting and monitoring sites in frozen environments and is a valuable addition to most field research pertaining to glacial archaeology.

The Late Glacial was a slow gradual warming associated with short, cold events that occurred between 18.0 and 11.7 ka cal. BP. Pollen analyses from deep-sea and lacustrine cores have well documented the evolution of floral communities in western Europe and suggest that climatic fluctuations influenced the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems. However, the exact impact of these climate changes on small faunal communities in southwest France is still poorly documented. Peyrazet Cave is an archaeological site located in the Lot (France) that has been excavated since 2008 and has yielded a Late Glacial sequence dated between 15.5 and 11.1 ka cal. BP. Thousands of small faunal remains resulting from a natural accumulation have been recovered. Investigation of this material has surprisingly revealed remains of two rodents that currently inhabit Central and Eastern Europe, the northern birch mouse (Sicista betu-lina) and the European hamster (Cricetus cricetus). The presence of these two taxa, which had migrated from the east and had been never documented in this region before the Late Glacial, is most likely related to short climatic fluctuations in the Late Glacial, suggesting more complex scenarios than traditionally accepted to explain the evolution of small faunal communities between the Last Glacial Maximum and the Holocene.