Project Database

Abstract:

Archaeological findings, numerical human dispersal models and genome analyses suggest several time windows in the past 200 kyr (thousands of years ago) when anatomically modern humans (AMH) dispersed out of Africa into the Levant and/or Arabia. From close to the key hominin site of Omo-Kibish, we provide near continuous proxy evidence for environmental changes in lake sediment cores from the Chew Bahir basin, south Ethiopia. The data show highly variable hydroclimate conditions from 116 to 66 kyr BP with rapid shifts from very wet to extreme aridity. The wet phases coincide with the timing of the North African Humid Periods during MIS5, as defined by Nile discharge records from the eastern Mediterranean. The subsequent record at Chew Bahir suggests stable regional hydrological setting between 58 and 32 kyr (MIS4 and 3), which facilitated the development of more habitable ecosystems, albeit in generally dry climatic conditions. This shift, from more to less variable hydroclimate, may help account for the timing of later dispersal events of AMH out of Africa.

Abstract:

This first survey of rock shelters and settlements in the Bale Mountains in Ethiopia is a baseline assessment for further research into the settlement history of Africa’s largest alpine highlands. Extensive GPS-based mapping and interviews resulted in two detailed maps, a catalogue of profiles, and complete photographic documentation. In total, 331 rock shelters (four permanently inhabited, 51 seasonally inhabited, and 276 currently uninhabited) and 870 settlements (207 permanently inhabited, 449 seasonally inhabited, 214 uninhabited) were recorded together with information about the activities and livelihoods of the inhabitants of the current settlements. This 2015 study was part of the Ethiopian-European research project “The mountain exile hypothesis – how humans benefited from and re-shaped African high-altitude ecosystems during Quaternary climate changes” (DFG FOR 2358). It was designed to support future management plans in this internationally important conservation area that has recently faced increasing land-use pressure and the threat of degradation.

Abstract:

The high-altitude regions of African tropical environments are among the least studied areas regarding the dispersal and colonization of anatomically modern humans across and out of Africa. Human colonization of high altitude regions is considered a relatively recent process, not least as high-altitude environments are usually perceived as unfavorable for human subsistence and are believed to have functioned as a migration barrier due to their physiological and ecological challenges, including high-altitude hypoxia, cold stress and lack of sufficient resources. Although it is not yet clear when and how human population dispersed into the high-altitude mountains of tropical Africa, our new findings suggest that specialized hunter-gatherer successfully colonized and exploited a wide range of ‘harsh’ landscapes of the Bale Mountains (>3800m asl) in the southeastern Ethiopian Highlands during the Late and Terminal Pleistocene up to Middle and Late Holocene. Moreover, ongoing archaeological research in the northwestern part of the Bale Mountains provides new perspectives on human colonization of high-altitude tropical environments and the relationship between human adaptation and climate changes at least during three separate time periods between 31,000 cal. BP and 4,000 cal BP.

Abstract:

Studies of early human settlement in alpine environments provide insights into human physiological, genetic, and cultural adaptation potentials. Although Late and even Middle Pleistocene human presence has been recently documented on the Tibetan Plateau, little is known regarding the nature and context of early persistent human settlement in high elevations. Here, we report the earliest evidence of a prehistoric high-altitude residential site. Located in Africa’s largest alpine ecosystem, the repeated occupation of Fincha Habera rock shelter is dated to 47 to 31 thousand years ago.The available resources in cold and glaciated environments included the exploitation of an endemic rodent as a key food source, and this played a pivotal role in facilitating the occupation of this site by Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers.