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Using leaf waxes and pollen from hominid Cave sediments to place the emergence of modern man in a paleoclimate context

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CaseHeader

Status: 

HeritageAuthority(s): 

Case Type: 

ProposalDescription: 

We will apply multi-proxy techniques from the emerging field of molecular paleohydrology and pollen analysis. Specifically, we seek to: I) infer vegetation shifts by quantifying the concentration of leaf waxes (n-alkanes) that belong to different types of plants (e.g. grasses, shrubs, trees) and measurement of their carbon isotopic (δ13C) composition, and conducting pollen assemblage counts II) infer shifts in moisture sourcing (precipitation) by measuring the hydrogen isotopic composition (δD) of specific compound. Sample analysis will be conducted at the different laboratories where samples will also, be stored prior to analysis: FARLAB, University of Bergen: in-house state-of-the-art national infrastructure for isotope analysis, leaf wax-derived δ13C and δD, BIO pollen laboratory, University of Bergen; BIOMARKER laboratory at LDEO. Sample measurements and sediment preparation for analysis cannot be carried out in South Africa, as this specific compound specific method is not offered by a lab in South Africa and funding for this project resides in Norway.

Expanded_Motivation: 

Assess interlinkages between the emergence of modern humans and environmental change by combining archaeological evidence and novel biomarker-based paleoclimate data. This project using soil sediment samples from Blombos Cave seeking to investigate the interlinkages between hydrological change and the emergence of behaviourally modern humans. To do so, we target a unique archive that yields information on archaeological as well as climate change: a 100-50 ka BP (Later Stone Age (LSA) assemblage, Klipdrift Cave (KDC), dating to 14-11ka) sequence of sediments from a southern South African cave, inhabited by early Homo sapiens throughout this period.

ApplicationDate: 

Thursday, May 23, 2019 - 13:59

CaseID: 

13864

OtherReferences: 

Heritage Reports: 

Blombos Cave 2013 Excavation Report
Blombos cave excavation report 2007-2010

ReferenceList: 

CitationReferenceType
Ziegler M, et al. (2013) Development of Middle Stone Age innovation linked to rapid climate change. Nature communications 4:1905.
Henshilwood CS, et al. (2011) A 100,000-year-old ochre-processing workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa. science 334(6053):219-222.
Castañeda IS & Schouten S (2011) A review of molecular organic proxies for examining modern and ancient lacustrine environments. Quaternary Science Reviews 30(21–22):2851-2891.
Sachse D, et al. (2012) Molecular paleohydrology: interpreting the hydrogen-isotopic composition of lipid biomarkers from photosynthesizing organisms. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 40:221-249.
Henshilwood CS, et al. (2018) An abstract drawing from the 73,000-year-old levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Nature 562(7725):115.
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AdditionalDocuments
  1. PDF icon CV_Margit Simon_March 2019.pdf
  2. PDF icon SAHRIS Excel Margit Simon 2019.pdf
  3. PDF icon Blombos Cave Excavation Permit 2018.pdf
 
 

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