The depositional environments of Schöningen 13 II-4 and their archaeological implications

RIS ID

117973

Publication Details

Stahlschmidt, M. C., Miller, C. E., Ligouis, B., Goldberg, P., Berna, F., Urban, B. & Conard, N. J. (2015). The depositional environments of Schöningen 13 II-4 and their archaeological implications. Journal of Human Evolution, 89 71-91.

Abstract

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.

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.07.008