The depositional environments of Schöningen 13 II-4 and their archaeological implications.
Geoarchaeological research at the Middle Pleistocene site of Schöningen 13 II-4, often referred to as the Speerhorizont, has focused on describing and evaluating the depositional contexts of the well-known wooden spears, butchered horses, and stone tools. These finds were recovered from the transitional contact between a lacustrine marl and an overlying organic mud, originally thought to be a peat that accumulated in place under variable moisture conditions. The original excavators proposed that hominin activity, including hunting and butchery, occurred on a dry lake shore and was followed by a rapid sedimentation of organic deposits that embedded and preserved the artifacts. Our geoarchaeological analysis challenges this model. Here, we present evidence that the sediments of Schöningen 13 II-4 were deposited in a constantly submerged area of a paleolake. Although we cannot exclude the possibility that the artifacts were deposited during a short, extreme drying event, there are no sedimentary features indicative of surface exposure in the sediments. Accordingly, this paper explores three main alternative models of site formation: anthropogenic disposal of materials into the lake, a geological relocation of the artifacts, and hunting or caching on lake-ice. These models have different behavioral ramifications concerning hominin knowledge and exploitation of the landscape and their subsistence strategies.
Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany. Electronic address: mareike.stahlschmidt@ucd.ie.
Mareike C
MC
Stahlschmidt
Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany; Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoecology, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.
Christopher E
CE
Miller
Laboratories for Applied Organic Petrology (LAOP), Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.
Bertrand
B
Ligouis
Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany; Department of Archaeology, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Paul
P
Goldberg
Department of Archaeology, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Simon Fraser University, Department of Archaeology, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada.
Francesco
F
Berna
Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Institut für Ökologie, Scharnhorststr. 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany; Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Institute for Pre- and Protohistory and Archaeology of the Middle Ages, University of Tübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.
Brigitte
B
Urban
Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoecology, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany; Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.
Nicholas J
NJ
Conard
D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D060106:Lakes; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
Geoarchaeology; Lake sites; Lower Paleolithic; Site formation