Loess/paleosol sequences are most widespread geoarchives for the environmental context of early humans in Europe and Eurasia

Evidence of early modern humans and their technology in Europe were recovered from both loess/palaeosol sequences and – predominantly – caves. Both are valuable archaeological archives with often quite good organic preservation due to the naturally high carbonate content. While caves often contain high numbers of artefacts, their contextualization in terms of environmental conditions during the occupation phases is often difficult because of a general scarcity of proxies as well as palimpsest formation, bioturbation, and sometimes poor chronological resolution. Contrary, expanded loess/palaeosol sequences in south-astern Europe host archaeological sites to a lower extent, particularly those from before ca. 50 ka. Since such finds exist in Central and Eastern Asian loess/palaeosol sequences, a limited habitability of European loess areas seems unlikely. Instead, it seems that extensive loess covers negatively affects the detection and thus archaeological visibility of older sites. While the construction of roads, vineyards and brick making in more populated areas increased the number of archaeological finds, these constructions usually are in deposits from the last glacial cycle.

In any case, loess/palaeosol sequences can provide a rich paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic context for the time frame of human presence and absence. Therefore, where possible, archaeological sites in Europe are compared to relatively close-by long and extended loess/palaeosol geoarchives which are more suitable for paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions (‘onsite-offsite approach’).

In this contribution, we review our understanding of European loess/palaeosol sequences as direct and indirect archaeological archives, and point to knowledge gaps in European loess geoarchaeology.

 

Literature:

Boemke, B., Maier, A., Schmidt, I., Römer, W., and Lehmkuhl, F.: Testing the representativity of Palaeolithic site distribution: The role of sampling bias in the european upper and Final Palaeolithic record, Quat. Sci. Rev., 316, 108220, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108220, 2023.