https://cir.cenieh.es/handle/20.500.12136/3387 Fri, 24 Jul 2026 22:46:06 GMT 2026-07-24T22:46:06Z https://cir.cenieh.es/handle/20.500.12136/3369 Title: Paleolithic occupations in the Lahn Valley of Central Germany: New dating and ZooMS results from Wildscheuer, Wildweiberlei, and Wildhaus Authors: Kitagawa, K.; Burger-Völlmecke, D.; Brown, Samantha; Olsen, J.; Riede, F. Abstract: There is limited evidence of repeated occupations by Neanderthals or modern humans in the part of Central Germany that roughly corresponds to the present-day Federal State of Hesse. The Lahn Valley located in the southwestern sector of this region is an exception. Based on early excavations of a series of now destroyed sites, the Lahn Valley has yielded sparse evidence of Neanderthal occupation from the Middle Paleolithic and has produced a more substantive Upper Paleolithic sequence including the Aurignacian, Gravettian, and Magdalenian, as reflected in the lithic and organic material culture. The present study attempted (i) to gain greater understanding of the chronology and use of animals by humans in the Wildscheuer cave, and (ii) to contextualize the Lahn Valley in the broader Paleolithic landscape of Central Europe. We targeted over a dozen samples consisting of faunal remains with fresh fractures, osseous artifacts, and human remains that derive from the cave site. The results confirm previous findings with the dates concentrated around the middle-to-late Aurignacian. These data suggest that, unlike cave-rich areas to the south (i.e. the Swabian Jura), the Wildscheuer was occupied neither immediately nor consistently when modern humans arrived in the region but also that multiple occupational events took place during the remainder of the Upper Paleolithic. This aligns with the ursid remains from the nearby Wildweiberlei, which predate the human occupation. Conversely, our dating efforts did not find evidence of substantial Gravettian or Magdalenian occupation in Wildscheuer, although this may also be a result of our modest sample size. In addition, ZooMS analysis revealed one of the first evidence of the use of wooly rhinoceros in the production of osseous artifacts such as smoothers. This study calls for renewed attention to the Lahn Valley as archaeometric methods that may be applied to legacy materials improve, and in tandem with our greater understanding of the early to late Upper Paleolithic in Central Europe on a regional to sub-regional scale. Description: Full ZooMS Data are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10839894 Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://cir.cenieh.es/handle/20.500.12136/3369 2025-02-01T00:00:00Z https://cir.cenieh.es/handle/20.500.12136/3407 Title: Characterizing pleistocene cave bear ursus spelaeus rosenmüller based on enamel proteomics Authors: Gutiérrez-Carbajal, A.; Santos-Ureta, E.; Lizano, E.; Marqués-Bonet, T.; Grandal-d’Anglade, A.; Martinón-Torres, María Abstract: This study presents the proteomic characterization of the cave bear species (Ursus spelaeus Rosenmüller, 1794) ,based on the dental enamel proteome From the upper Pleistocene period at Cova Eirós, an archaeological and palaeontological site, located in the Sierra de Ouribio, Lugo (Galicia, Spain). It is known For its significant cave bear population, representing the westernmost distribution of this species. Description: Ponencia presentada en: XXXIX Jornadas de la Sociedad Española de Paleontología, 2-5 octubre 2024, A Coruña, Spain Tue, 01 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://cir.cenieh.es/handle/20.500.12136/3407 2024-10-01T00:00:00Z https://cir.cenieh.es/handle/20.500.12136/3391 Title: Preserve and protect: non-destructive screening for protein preservation in ancient skeletal material Authors: Fewlass, H.; Presslee, S.; Mylopotamitaki, D.; Tait, F.; Williams, M.; Berto, C.; Kot, M.; Alhuraish, A.; Arzarello, M.; Ashton, N.; Barzilai, O.; Belmaker, M.; Britton, K.; Constantin, S.; Dalen, L.; Dickinson, M.; Oteo Garcia, G.; Hublin, J-J.; Jeffries, M.; Kitchener, A.; Knight, M. G.; Martin, L.; Masson-Maclean, E.; Matthews, R.; Matthews, W.; Maurer, G.; Cornel Mirea, I.; Nassr, A.; Parfitt, S.; Petculescu, A.; Rezek, Z.; Robu, M.; Sellers, W.; Sirakov, N.,; Smith, G.M.; Tsanova, T.; Wilczynski, J.; Flynn, H. R.; Skehel, J. M.; Welker, F.; Penkman, K.; Skoglund, P. Abstract: Protein preserved in ancient bone provides us with phylogenetic, chronological and behavioural insights that are crucial for understanding human prehistory. Yet given the destructive nature of these biomolecular analyses, it is beneficial to determine the likely protein preservation of ancient skeletal material prior to analysis, to limit destructive sampling where chances of successfully retrieving data are low. A range of methods are used to assess organic preservation in skeletal material prior to sampling for aDNA, proteomic, isotopic or radiocarbon dating [e.g. 1-2], but these methods generally require destructive sampling of small amounts of material (several milligrams) and exportation to a lab. Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been shown to be a useful method for assessing the bulk collagen content of bone before extraction for isotopic or radiocarbon analysis [3]. NIR pre-screening is fast, the instruments are transportable and, crucially, scanning is completely non-destructive. The approach has been successfully applied as a screening method for Pleistocene assemblages prior to dating [4]. As palaeoproteomic analysis using tandem mass spectrometry can be successfully carried out at much lower levels of protein preservation than radicoarbon dating, we tested the potential of NIR as a pre-screening method across a wide range of protein preservation levels. We analysed an extensive set of bones and teeth aged between ~100 to more than 1,000,000 years from >30 archaeological and palaeontological sites using NIR, chiral amino acid analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and used this data to develop predictive NIR models. We compare the accuracy of the different screening methods for predicting successful data retrieval with LC-MS/MS, using Middle Pleistocene skeletal material from Tunel Wielki Cave, Poland (MIS 14 – 12) as a case study [5], a key site in European prehistory which has yielded Lower Palaeolithic artefacts. The results confirm the potential of non-destructive NIR screening of ancient skeletal material prior to palaeoproteomics, radiocarbon dating or isotopic analysis across a diverse range of environments and time periods. Description: Ponencia presentada en: 14th Annual Meeting of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE 2024), Zagreb, Croatia Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://cir.cenieh.es/handle/20.500.12136/3391 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z