Taphonomic studies at Treugol'naya Cave.

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Given the dearth of postings on this Board, I have decided to mention this here, instead of in the Bookyard.

In the last (March Issue of Quaternary Science Reviews, those of you who are lucky (wealthy!) enough to subscribe (remember, it is an Elsevier Journal) you can read the following article:

John F. Hoffecker, G. F. Baryshnikov and V. B. Doronichev. 2003. Large mammal taphonomy of the Middle Pleistocene hominid occupation at Treugol'naya Cave (Northern Caucasus). "Quaternary Science Reviews" 22(5-7):595-607.

Abstract:

A taphonomic study was conducted of large mammal remains from the Middle Pleistocene site of Treugol'naya Cave. The site is located at an elevation of 1500 m above sea level near the town of Pregradnaya in the northwestern Caucasus region of Russia, and was excavated by Doronichev (Doronichev, V.B., 2000. Lower paleolithic occupation of the northern Caucasus. ERAUL 92, 67–77.) between 1986 and 2000. Large mammal remains were identified by Baryshnikov (Baryshnikov, G.F., 1993. Krupnye mlekopitayushchie ashelskoi stoyanki v peshchere Treugol'naya na Severnom Kavkaze. Trudy Zoologicheskogo instituta RAN 249, 3–47), and reflect predominance of red deer (Cervus elaphus), bison (Bison schoetensacki), and cave bear (Spelaearctos deningeri). ess common taxa include goat (Capra sp.), wolf (Canis mosbachensis), rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis) and horse (Equus altidens). Data were collected on weathering, breakage, surficial damage, skeletal-part frequencies, and age and season of death from the these remains, which are stored at the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Analysis of the data revealed little evidence for accumulation of the large mammal remains by the hominid occupants of the cave. The carnivore remains probably represent natural mortality, while some of the ungulate remains were apparently accumulated by stream action. Most of the remaining ungulate remains were probably collected by carnivores.

Copyright © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

I certainly hope that the actual article – wich I have not had a chance to read, yet – will be a bit more explicit about what is meant by "little evidence for accumulation of the large mammal remains by the hominid occupants of the cave."

Jacques Cinq-Mars

[Daryl Habel]

Jacques,

Here's more on Treugol'naya Cave from an abstract of a presentation given yesterday (apparently) at the Geological Society of America 2003 Annual Meetings in Seattle:
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Paper No. 36-5
Presentation Time: 2:15 PM-2:30 PM
 
ESR DATING FOR TREUGOL'NAYA CAVE, NORTHERN CAUCASUS MT., RUSSIA: RUSSIA'S OLDEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE AND A THICK OXYGEN ISOTOPE STAGE 11 STRATIGRAPHIC SECTION
 
LIANG, Sisi1, LEI, Chelsea Y.Q.Q.1, BLICKSTEIN, Joel I.B.1, BLACKWELL, Bonnie A.B.2, SKINNER, Anne R.2, GOLOVANOVA, L.V.3, and DORONICHEV, V.B.3, (1) RFK Science Research Institute, 7540 Parsons Bvd, Flushing, NY 11366, blueice236@yahoo.com, (2) Dept. of Chemistry, Williams College, Williamstown, MA 01267, (3) Lab of Prehistory, St. Petersburg, Russia
*****************************************

Read the full abstract, which indicates dating of initial Lower Paleolithic occupation by 400 ka:

CLICK HERE FOR THE URL

Dar

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Jacques,

Here's more on Treugol'naya Cave from an abstract of a presentation given yesterday (apparently) at the Geological Society of America 2003 Annual Meetings in Seattle:
<snip>

Dar,

Thanks for passing this on. I just contacted one of the authors to see whether or not a real paper is available. I'll let you know if something comes in.

Jacques

[Daryl Habel]

Apparently, the ESR dating of Treugol'naya Cave layers 4-5 (35 independent subsamples from 9 ungulate teeth), showing human occupation during OIS 11, which was reported to the 2003 Geological Society of America meetings (see my earlier post made Nov. 3, 2003), was not the first ESR determinations made at the site.

While googling in my spare time this week, I found the home page of Dr Anatoly Molodkov, which has a selection of recent publications, including some downloadable in pdf form; see:

CLICK HERE FOR THE URL

Of particular interest is a paper:

Molodkov, A. (2001). ESR dating evidence for early man at a Lower Palaeolithic cave-site in the Northern Caucasus as derived from terrestrial mollusc shells. Quaternary Science Reviews 20: 1051-1055.

Abstract:

Eight terrestrial shell samples from recent excavations at Treugolnaya (Triangular) Cave (Northern Caucasus) were analysed by electron spin resonance (ESR) to produce a chronology for the most ancient Acheulian-bearing layers of the cave-site.  The lifetime of the 2.0012 centre used for dating is about 3 X 10 [to the eighth] at 5 [degrees] C that allows to date the multi-level sequence of the cave site at least in the range of the last million years.  The dating results obtained suggest that the first (from the bottom) archaeological layer, 7a, is likely to be about 583,000a old, and the next, 5b, is some 393,000a old.  These layers can be correlated with oxygen isotope stages 15 and 11, respectively.  The estimates obtained imply that man presumably reached the northern Caucasus at least as early as the beginning of stage 15, i.e. much earlier than generally recognised.  The leaving of the cave by ancient man due to development of glacial environment during the subsequent stage(s) can probably be linked with the penetration of man to the southern areas of the East European Plain.

copyright 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

the pdf is downloadable from:

CLICK HERE

The author stresses the elevation of Treugolnaya Cave (1510 m ASL).  Molodkov suggests the cave was occupied during the warm stages OIS 15 and 11, "coeval with global amelioration of the climate" (p. 1053) and was not occupied during cooler stages possibly because of "unfavorable living conditions due to a cooling of the climate in stages 14-12" (p. 1054).

"The archaeological sterile layer 6 sandwiched between cultural layers 7a and 5b (Fig. 4) may be indicative of the time when man left the cave shelter.  In the beginning, it might have been due to a remarkable cooling of the climate during which the mountain glaciation developed and the altitude of the snow line fell well below the cave bottom.  Probably, this made man to move down to valleys and foothills (Lyubin, 1984).  Subsequent climatic amelioration during the interglacial promoted the further penetration of man deep into the plain" (Molodkov 2001:1053).

The "Lower Acheulian assemblages" from units 5b and 7a are not described.

Dar