Bones of recent mammals in the Amboseli Basin, southern Kenya, exhibit distinctive weathering characteristics that can be related to the time since death and to the local conditions of temperature, humidity and soil chemistry. A categorization of weathering characteristics into six stages, recognizable on descriptive criteria, provides a basis for investigation of weathering rates and processes. The time necessary to achieve each successive weathering stage has been calibrated using known-age carcasses. Most bones decompose beyond recognition in 10 to 15 yr. Bones of animals under 100 kg and juveniles appear to weather more rapidly than bones of large animals or adults. Small-scale rather than widespread environmental factors seem to have greatest influence on weathering characteristics and rates. Bone weathering is potentially valuable as evidence for the period of time represented in recent or fossil bone assemblages, in- cluding those on archeological sites, and may also be an important tool in censusing populations of animals in modern ecosystems.

Taphonomic and Ecologic Information Form Bone Weathering

The early Pleistocene colonization of temperate Eurasia by Homo erectus was not only a significant biogeographic event but also a major evolutionary threshold. Dmanisi's rich collection of hominin fossils, revealing a population that was small-brained with both primitive and derived skeletal traits, has been dated to the earliest Upper Matuyama chron (ca. 1.77 Ma). Here we present archaeological and geologic evidence that push back Dmanisi's first occupations to shortly after 1.85 Ma and document repeated use of the site over the last half of the Olduvai subchron, 1.85–1.78 Ma. These discoveries show that the southern Caucasus was occupied repeatedly before Dmanisi's hominin fossil assemblage accumulated, strengthening the probability that this was part of a core area for the colonization of Eurasia. The secure age for Dmanisi's first occupations reveals that Eurasia was probably occupied before Homo erectus appears in the East African fossil record.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/108/26/10432.full.pdf

Earliest human occupations at Dmanisi (Georgian Caucasus) dated to 1.85-1.78 Ma.

https://cir.cenieh.es/bitstream/20.500.12136/461/1/The%20oldest%20human%20fossil%20in%20Europe%2c%20from%20Orce%20%28Spain%29_Toro-Moyano_et_al_2013.pdf

The oldest human fossil in Europe, from Orce (Spain).

https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/248737/1/Head%20and%20Gibbard%202015%20Quaternary%20International.pdf

Early–Middle Pleistocene transitions: Linking terrestrial and marine realms

http://www2.kobe-u.ac.jp/~tnonaka/pdf/NonakaEtal_Prediction_2010.pdf

How do stone knappers predict and control the outcome of flaking? Implications for understanding early stone tool technology.

Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic proxies to the Early Pleistocene hominids of Barranco León D and Fuente Nueva 3 (Granada, Spain) by means of their amphibian and reptile assemblages

New magnetostratigraphic and numerical age of the Fuente Nueva-3 site (Guadix-Baza basin, Spain)

The earliest European badger ( Meles meles ), from the Late Villafranchian site of Fuente Nueva 3 (Orce, Granada, SE Iberian Peninsula)

The Quaternary of southern Spain: A bridge between Africa and the Alpine domain

The Early Pleistocene locality at Venta Micena (Orce, Guadix-Baza basin, province of Granada, Spain) has provided four fossil remains – skull fragment VM-0, and long bone diaphyses VM-1960, VM-3691, and VM-12000 – which have been tentatively attributed to the hominids. Although several methodologies have been used to ascertain the human affinities of these specimens – including anatomical, morphometric and immunological analyses – the results obtained have not been conclusive, instigating a persistent debate. A taphonomic approach is used here for estimating the probability that a taxon the size of Homo sp. (~ 50 kg) could be represented in the fossil assemblage by four bone fragments and no tooth remain. A least-squares regression analysis between the percentage of teeth and the body mass estimated for each taxon of large mammals (N = 20) predicts a raw abundance of six teeth for Homo sp. in the assemblage. Given that up to the present moment no tooth remains attributable to the hominids has been unearthed during systematic excavations in the Venta Micena quarry, which has provided more than 15,000 fossils of large mammals, this argues strongly against the possibility that the three bone specimens could belong to Homo sp. The phalanx CV-0 from the Early Pleistocene site of Cueva Victoria (Cartagena, Spain) has also been attributed to the genus Homo. The taxonomic assignment of this specimen is biased, however, because it was not compared with Theropithecus oswaldi, the only primate species actually recorded from this karstic locality. A comparative anatomical and morphometric analysis of fossil and modern specimens of Theropithecus suggests that CV-0 can be attributed to T. oswaldi. As a result, Cueva Victoria does not contribute additional information concerning the first human settlements in Europe. By these reasons, apart from the paleoanthropological and archaeological findings from Atapuerca (TD lower levels and Sima del Elefante), the rich archaeological assemblages from Barranco Leon and Fuente Nueva-3 in Orce, dated 1.3-1.2 Myrs, which include fourteen hundred stone tools of Oldowan technology, constitute at present the only unequivocal evidence of human presence in Southeast Spain during Early Pleistocene times. © 2005 Elsevier SAS. Tous droits reserves. Mots cles : Premiere dispersion humaine en Europe ; Venta Micena ; Fuente Nueva ; Barranco Leon ; Fragment crânien VM-0 ; Diaphyse humerale VM-1960 ; Cueva Victoria ; Phalange CV-0 ; Outils lithiques de culture Olduvaienne ; Taphonomie ; Morphometrie ; Pleistocene inferieur

Réévaluation de la présence humaine au Pléistocène inférieur dans le Sud de l'Espagne A re-evaluation of the evidence of human presence during Early Pleistocene times in southeastern Spain

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