Siberian Archaeology 4: Karama

Stone tools found in the Russian Altai confirm a human presence in central Asia at ca. 800,000BP. Who were these hominins and what is the evidence?  Perhaps it was Homo antecessor (pictured below from Wikimedia commons (2018))?

Karama is an open-air site in southern Siberia. It lies approximately 400km SSE of the city of Novosibirsk on the banks of the Anui River in the northwest of the Altai.

Sites in the region were first noted when 1959 with the discovery of a few flint flakes, followed by petrified bones of large animals in the Iskra Cave in the vicinity of the settlement of the same name.

It took another twenty years, for a systematic, series of excavations to begin under the direction of the Siberian archaeologist A. P. Okladnikov. In total, more than 30 caves and some open-air, sites  have now shown evidence of Palaeolithic occupation in the Anui Valley. This unique series of sites includes, Denisova Cave, Okladnikov Cave, Strashnaya Cave, Chagyrskaya Cave, Razboinichya Cave and Karama. The Karama site was discovered in 2001. Presumably this was excavation no.1, on which I have been unable to find any information. The details below refer to excavation no. 2.

The Karama site. Above: View of the site from across the valley, Shunkov (2018) and below initial stages of the excavation from Earth Chronicles (2017).

The dig in progress from Bolikhovskaya and Shunkov (2014).

Second view of the excavation progress, clearly showing the Lower Palaeolithic levels from Shunkov (2018).

On the likely hominins occupying the site and lithics discovered, Zwyns (2014) helpfully translates and summarises papers originally, in Russian: “According to Derevianko, the Altai was first colonized by small populations of Homo erectus/ergaster starting from c. 800 ka, that subsequently disappeared from the region c. 500 ka.

The site that would best represent this first wave of human occupation is Karama, along the Anuy River. The diversity of the exotic flora is said to fit with a Middle Pleistocene attribution and the RTL dates of 643 +/- 130 ka and 542 +/-  110 ka have

been obtained on the lower portion of the sequence (layers 8–14). Although the identifiable artifacts do not include handaxes, Derevianko and Shunkov tend to emphasize elements that would fit with an Acheulean attribution. The technology is described as cores on pebble blanks and flakes with subparallel dorsal pattern. The tool-kit includes various kinds of scrapers (including naturally backed examples), Clactonian notches, and choppers. More surprising is the reported presence of core-like endscrapers with abrupt retouch. Derevianko acknowledged that the first Lower Paleolithic occupation of the Altai is elusive and likely represents a short-term event.”

Lithics from the Karama site placed in the context of the recoded stratigraphy from Derevianko and Shun’kov (2008).

Lithics unearthed at Karama from Shunkov (2018). The slightly confusing, original caption reads: Hunting equipment of primitive inhabitants of the Anui Valley (left). Photo by V. Kavelin. Archaic pebble tool from the site Karama (center). A very ancient point from Karama (right). Photo by V. Kavelin.

Primitive pebble stone tool excavated at Karama from Derevyanko (2019).

On the possible assignment of the early Acheulian tools found to a Clactonian facies it is interesting to look at Stringer (2006), italics mine: “..there are further clues to the nature of the Clactonian from a site.. at Ebbsfleet. Large-scale excavations there for the Channal Tunnel Rail Link and associated engineering works since 1997 have been accompanied by archaeological investigations and, in 2003.. the skeleton of a straight-tusked elephant was found surrounded by about 100 stone tools – Clactonian tools. As at Swanscombe, pollen and other evidence suggested that this Clactonian occupation was early in the warm part of the same interglacial period (about 400,000BP). But the the association of Clactonian tools and a large mammal skeleton was very significant because it had previously been suggested that handaxes were the preferred tools for butchery at this time, yet there are none at Ebbsfleet..”

Therefore there is some precedent for lithic assemblages lacking handaxes, however the dates for the Ebbsfleet lithics are far later than those from Karama. On the other hand, the assumed habitats, climate and, faunal composition of the areas may be broadly similar. Thus an occupation resulting from an early species migration out of Africa, such as that postulated for Homo ergaster/antecessor is not out of the question. It also fits with Stringer’s idea that the hominins that made the Happisburgh footprints 850,000 years ago were Homo antecessor.

However, it was a close analysis of the palynology of the sediments that confirmed the extremely advanced age of the Karama site. Bolikhovskaya and Shunkov (2014) summarised the evidence thus:

“The composition of the autochthonous palynoflora from Karama’s three units comprises over 130 taxa of various tiers. Pollen of 45 genera and species of trees and shrubs as well as 56 species, genera, and families of herbaceous plants and subshrubs have been identified. Thirty taxa represent the spore-bearing plant group (mosses, ferns, lycopods, horsetail, and others).The palynoflora of the lower (strata 13–9) and medial (strata 8 and 7) Karama units is substantially richer than that of the earlier examined synchronous sediments at Cherny Anui and Nizhny Karakol that contained only 25 genera and species of arboreal and shrub taxa. However, according to the taxonomic composition of the dendroflora and the structure of paleophytocenoses, the periods of accumulation of these sediments were relatively close to the interglacial periods reconstructed for Karama. The pollen spectra from Karama strata 7, 8 and 10–13 contain a considerable number of elements that are non-typical of modern boreal flora (Picea sect. Omorica, Pinus sect. Strobus, Pinus cf. koraiensis, Betula sect. Costatae) and nemoral European, Far Eastern and other taxa (Juglans mandshurica, Carpinus betulus, C. cordata, C. orientalis, Ostrya sp., Quercus robur, Tilia cordata, T. amurensis, T. mandshurica, Ulmus pumila, Corylus avellana, Alnus glutinosa, A. incana, Morus sp.). Many were first recorded in the pollen spectra of the Middle Pleistocene deposits of the Anui valley. The presence of Pinus sect. Strobus, Carpinus cordata, C. orientalis, Ostrya sp., Quercus robur, Tilia cordata, T. amurensis, T. mandshurica, Alnus glutinosa, A. incana, Corylus avellana, Juglans mandshurica Carpinus betulus, Ulmus pumila, Morus  sp., etc. in strata 7, 8 and 10–13 as well as eco-coenotic features of the exotic taxa found, results of the analysis of the geographical groups of dendroflora, and other data suggest the Middle Pleistocene age of the sediments. For instance, hop hornbeam Ostrya sp. and mulberry Morus sp., belonging to the group of American-Mediterranean-Asian genera, indicate the Middle Pleistocene age of sediments in the southern Cis-Baikal and Upper Amur regions (Makhova, 1978; Grichuk, 1982). The interglacial palynofloras of Karama differ considerably from the Early Pleistocene floras of the eastern Altai, southern part of Western Siberia, and other mountainous and plain regions of Siberia and the Far East. They lack pollen grains of subtropical, broad-leaved species such as Pterocarya, Carya, Zelkova, Celtis, Ilex, Tsuga , and other exotic taxa of the pine family that are characteristic of the warm-loving Early Pleistocene floras of the named regions. This contradicts the idea that Karama dates back to the Early Pleistocene. However, some researchers argue that the Early Pleistocene age of the Karama lower unit cannot be ruled out (Zykin et al., 2005). This assumption is based on paleomagnetic testing of the entire section that yielded evidence of normal polarity as well as on the presence of two vertisols in the lower portion of the section. Previously, such soils were recorded only in Pliocene sediments of Western and Middle Siberia. This allowed V.S. Zykin and his colleagues to correlate the lower Karama strata with the Barnaul Lower Pleistocene layers, and, correspondingly, with the Olduvai subchron. However, we can hardly agree with this assumption, since the Middle Pleistocene interglacals reconstructed on the basis of the Karama pollen data differ considerably from the period of formation of the Barnaul strata in southern Western Siberia in floral, phytocenosis, and paleoclimatic characteristics. The sediments bearing the Barnaul floral remains were formed in forest-steppe and steppe zones and in a climate similar to the modern climate, while the Karama interglacial floras existed under warmer and less continental climatic conditions than today. The spore and pollen spectra of Karama indicate considerable faunal changes mirroring numerous fluctuations of plant biomes caused by climatic fluctuations over four reconstructed stages of the Brunhes event. The first interglacial recorded in the section corresponds to the accumulation period of strata 13–10 that can be correlated with MIS 19, or the Gremyachie interglacial of the Russian Plain dated to 790–760 ka BP. This period was characterized by a climate warmer than it is now and a dominance of forest-steppe and forest landscapes.”

Other commentators, also concur with this dating: from Kuzmin and Kazansky (2019): “Factual information and its interpretation regarding the geological age of the Lower Palaeolithic site of Karama (Altai Mountains, Siberia) are considered. It is demonstrated that palynological data do not allow to date this site to earlier than ca. 800 kya; archaeological data are consistent with this estimate. The viewpoint of V. S. Zykin with coauthors, according to which the age of Karama is ca. 1.95-1.77 mya, finds no support in the light of the available geological and paleomagnetic evidence. The so-called “Karama suite” of the Upper Pliocene of Altai Mountains in reality does not exist. For the time being there are no reliable data indicating than the initial peopling of Siberia took place prior to ca. 1 mya.”

References

Bolikhovskaya, N.S. and Shunkov, M.V., 2014. Pleistocene environments of northwestern Altai: Vegetation and climate. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, 42(2), pp.2-17.

Derevianko, A. P. and M. V. Shun’kov (2008) Early Paleolithic of Altai in Early Paleolithic Of Eurasia: New Discoveries, International Conference Program and Abstracts Krasnodar – Temriuk, 1–6 September 2008 S. A. Vasil’ev, A. P. Derevianko, G. G. Matishov, Kh. A. Amirkhanov, V. E. Shchelinsky, A. A. Velichko, G. I. Medvedev, L. B. Vishnyatsky, S. A. Kulakov, V. V. Titov eds.

Derevyanko A.P. (2019). Science First Hand “Where has Homo sapiens come from” from: https://scfh.ru/en/papers/where-has-homo-sapiens-come-from/ accessed 17.08.19

Earth Chronicles (2017) “There are confirmations that people appeared in Siberia 800 thousand years ago” at: http://earth-chronicles.com/science/there-are-confirmations-that-people-appeared-in-siberia-800-thousand-years-ago.html accessed 14.08.19

Kuzmin, V. and Y. Kazansky (2019). Chronology of the Lower Palaeolithic Site of Karama (Gorny Altai): Facts and Problems. Stratum plus. 2019. No1 online at

https://www.e-anthropology.com/English/Catalog/Archaeology/STM_DWL_coSJ_lBu5LSrAZyBs.aspx accessed 14.08.19

Shunkov, M.V. (2018). Science First Hand, “The Golden Section of the Anui” from https://scfh.ru/en/papers/the-golden-section-of-anui/ accessed 14.08.19

Stringer, C., 2007. Homo Britannicus: The incredible story of human life in Britain. Penguin UK.

Wikipedia commons (2018) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Homo-Antecessor.jpeg accessed 17.08.19

The Peopling of the British Isles I - The Happisburgh Footprints

Homo antecessor family picnic at Happisburgh Beach 1 million BC. Image credit: Daily Mail

The peopling of the British Isles can be divided into two eras: post and pre the last glaciation. Whilst the evidence for the latter is fragmentary and somewhat sparse, sometimes wondrous things come to light.

The footprints in the Pleistocene laminated silt beds on the foreshore at Happisburgh Beach uncovered by the sea in 2013 are one such marvel. As the authors point out preserved footprints pre-dating 40Ky are extremely rare. The location of the Happisburgh and other sites with human footprints of this age is shown below:

 

 

Location of Happisburgh and other sites with human footprints from Ashton 2014 (1). Original caption read: Figure 1. Map of Pleistocene footprint sites dating from prior to 40 ky in Africa and Eurasia.

Once the site’s importance was realised archaeologists moved quickly to record them before further erosion, inevitably, destroyed them forever. The abstract of resultant paper (open access and pdf download - yay!) by Ashton et. al. 2014 (1) is shown below:

Abstract

Investigations at Happisburgh, UK, have revealed the oldest known hominin footprint surface outside Africa at between ca. 1 million and 0.78 million years ago. The site has long been recognised for the preservation of sediments containing Early

Pleistocene fauna and flora, but since 2005 has also yielded humanly made flint artefacts, extending the record of human occupation of northern Europe by at least 350,000 years. The sediments consist of sands, gravels and laminated silts laid down by a large river within the upper reaches of its estuary. In May 2013 extensive areas of the laminated sediments were exposed on the foreshore. On the surface of one of the laminated silt horizons a series of hollows was revealed in an area of

ca. 12m². The surface was recorded using multi-image photogrammetry which showed that the hollows are distinctly elongated and the majority fall within the range of juvenile to adult hominin foot sizes. In many cases the arch and front/back of the foot can be identified and in one case the impression of toes can be seen. Using foot length to stature ratios, the hominins are estimated to have been between ca. 0.93 and 1.73 m in height, suggestive of a group of mixed ages. The orientation of the prints indicates movement in a southerly direction on mud-flats along the river edge. Early Pleistocene human fossils are extremely rare in Europe, with no evidence from the UK. The only known species in western Europe of a similar age is Homo antecessor, whose fossil remains have been found at Atapuerca, Spain. The foot sizes and estimated stature of the hominins from Happisburgh fall within the range derived from the fossil evidence of Homo antecessor.

Based on previous research, on the sedimentary sequence of the region, the team assigned the age of the deposits to between ca. 1 million and 0.78 million years ago. They did so by noting that the bounding layers were the Happisburgh Formation of date ca. 450ky. These overlay the estuarine sediments of the Hill House Formation (HHF) of Early Pleistocene in age, dating to between 1 and 0.78 My. This in turn overlies the Norwich Crag formation of earlier Pliocene-Pleistocene date.

Next the authors considered what natural processes could have caused the extensive area of foot-shaped depressions. They concluded, by reference to published literature that the depressions were in fact fossil footprints made by mid-Pleistocene hominins.

 

So let’s look at these at these ancient footprints!

 

Close-up of a single footprint at Happisburgh, adapted from Ashton 2014 (1). Original caption reads: Figure 5b. Detail of footprint surface. Photo: Martin Bates.

 

Of all the footprints uncovered only one showed toes properly and that isn’t shown with any clarity in the paper!

However as the team used the laser-scanning technique multi-image photogrammetry (MIP) to record the surface over the two weeks before it eroded. Dr Sarah Duffy of York University part of the team that carried out the 3D image analysis, has provided some of the images to Simon Parfitt of UCL (2), who was also part of the team that studied the site. I have adjusted the contrast to show the toes:

 

At first I found it hard to figure out what was going on.. the shape of the foot was just.. well.. wrong! Then I recalled that I, and every other person in the western world have “wrong feet”. It’s the wearing of shoes from an extremely early age that does it. A study from the American Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery from 1905 show what our feet should look like. The upper photographs show native barefoot populations from the Philippines and Central Africa whilst the lower ones show a U.S. businessman.

 

 

In the two photographs above, the big and little toes spread naturally and fan out to provide a wide, stable base for walking or standing. A line can be drawn that runs through the heel, ball, and big toe of a habitually bare foot.

Below the habitually shod feet of the businessman, also from 1905 show that no such line can be drawn, and the big and little toes crowd to a point.

 

Comparing the Happisburgh photo to the habitually unshod feet shows that the ancient footprint is a right foot with wide spread big and little toes and a well-defined arch at the bottom of the picture and big toe bottom left. I think the second and third toes left the ill-defined wider mark next to the big toe in the photo of the ancient footprint as these two tend to be slightly closer together in habitually unshod humans as evidenced by top 1905 photos.

As depth of prints was unavailable the authors chose to concentrate on the length and width of the prints in their analysis. The foot lengths ranged from 50mm to ca. 325mm and widths from ca. 50mm to ca. 150mm.

Using the multi-image photogrammetry (MIP) data, the authors were able to deduce a number of interesting facts from the 155 footprints on the surface. They were able to infer routes of individuals across the area, the number of individuals as being a minimum of 5, that male and female adults were present and that children were amongst the group. Therefore they surmised that it was a family group and not a hunting party.

Part of the authors’ quantitative analysis looked at the 12 most clearly defined prints. These they plotted on a length verses age graph, thus proving that at least 5 individuals of different ages were present. See below:

 

Diagrams showing image of 12 clearest prints and the resultant length to age conversion from Ashton 2014 (1). Original caption reads:

Figure 8. Vertical image of Area A at Happisburgh. a. Model of footprint surface generated from photogrammetric survey showing the 12 prints used in the metrical analyses of footprint size; b. Plot of length and width measurements of 12 prints showing possible individuals. Means and standard deviations for foot length and age for modern populations are also shown. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088329.g008

 

Based on a large body of research that links foot length to height (the authors cited 7 papers from which they drew their inferences), the authors were able to calculate the that the hominins that made the footprints were between 0.93m and 1.73m tall, therefore further confirming the presence of adults and children in the group.

Using both footprint area and footprint length the authors were able to estimate the body mass of the adults in the group. These ranged from as ca. 48-52kg using footprint area and 48-52kg using footprint length.

By comparing such metric details as staure, foot index and body mass available for the fossils from Sima de los Huesos (the site of the type specimen of H. antecessor), Neanderthal fossils from around European and anatomically modern humans, the authors conclude that the closest match to species level was Homo antecessor.

The data on the foot index is most instructive. According to Klenerman and Wood (3), the foot of H. antecessor is quite narrow and gracile with longer toe phalanges than later hominins such as H. heidelburgensis, H.neanderthalensis and some modern H. sapiens populations. This could account for some of the longer narrower footprints observed at Happisburgh. It is particularly pleasing that this feature is accurately shown in the recreation of H. antecessor created by a Spanish museum.

 

 

H. antecessor showing gracile foot. Image Credit: Ibeas Museum, Burgos, Spain.

I expect you’ve noticed the other notably feature of the picture.. that would be the cannibalism.

 

A 2010 study of the massive array of bones from Atapuerca found indisputable evidence of H. antecessor eating it’s own kind:

“Human cannibalism is currently recorded in abundant archaeological assemblages of different chronologies. The TD6 level of Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos), at more than 800 ka, is the oldest case known at present. The analysis of cranial and postcranial remains of Homo antecessor has established the presence of various alterations of anthropic origin (cut marks and bone breakage) related with exploitation of carcasses. The human remains do not show a specific distribution, and they appeared mixed with lithic tools and bones of other taxa. Both nonhuman and human remains show similar evidence of butchering processes. The stratigraphic evidence and the new increment of the collection of remains of Homo antecessor have led us to identify a succession of cannibalism events in a dilated temporal sequence. These data suggest that hunting strategies and human meat consumption were frequent and habitual actions. The numerous evidences of cannibalism, the number of individuals, their age profile, and the archaeostratigraphic distribution suggest that cannibalism in TD6 was nutritional.”

It therefore seems that the rosy picture painted by the artist of the picture at the top of this post, may not have been a reflection of the true nature of Homo antecessor.

Yes it seems the British Press (the source from which the artist’s impression is drawn) would have British Homo antecessor was a kinder, more family orientated species than elsewhere in Europe.

A good short video about the discovery can be found here.