The Southern Levant During the Last Glacial and Zooarchaeological Evidence for the Effects of Climate-Forcing on Hominin Population Dynamics
نویسنده
چکیده
Climate forcing has been suggested as a possible explanation for dispersal/extinction of hominins in the Southern Levant during the Middle Paleolithic (MP). Evidence from fauna has produced ambiguous results, suggesting that inter-site variation in Last Glacial faunas reflect spatial differences within the region. This study presents a multivariate approach to test the effect of climate change on mammalian communities during the Last Glacial in the Levant and analyzes the distribution of micro and macromammals from the site in the Levant spanning Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6-2 using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMMDS). Results indicate that inter-site differences in faunal composition of Middle Paleolithic sites in the Levant do not reflect an abrupt climate change but are consistent with a spatial environmental mosaic within the Levant. This suggests that although hominin taxa show evidence of turnover during the Late Pleistocene in the Levant, we need to be more cautious about the role of climate forcing in the process.
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