Palaeoecology and Subsistence Strategies in Belgium and Northwestern Europe during the MIS 3 through the Reassessment of Forgotten Collections: A Methodological Approach

Palaeoecological reconstructions are fundamental for the understanding of interactions between all the mammalian communities in a given environment and their choices in terms of habitat, diet and migrations. During the Late Pleistocene in north western Europe, hyenas and human groups shared essentia...

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Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University College London 2016-08-01
Series:Papers from the Institute of Archaeology
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Online Access:https://student-journals.ucl.ac.uk/pia/article/id/125/
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description Palaeoecological reconstructions are fundamental for the understanding of interactions between all the mammalian communities in a given environment and their choices in terms of habitat, diet and migrations. During the Late Pleistocene in north western Europe, hyenas and human groups shared essentially the same ecological niche. A comparison of their crossed relationships could therefore yield important data on the palaeoecological context. Unfortunately, numerous Palaeolithic sites in north western Europe were excavated well before modern archaeological techniques were devised. Thus the faunal assemblages collected during those early excavations do not have any stratigraphic context and the results extracted from these collections by classical approaches are therefore limited. However, in the karstic region of the Meuse Valley (southern Belgium), many sites have yielded massive amounts of archaeological and palaeontological material dated to the MIS 3. One of the challenges of this on-going doctoral research is to attempt to study this area by attempting an ecological reconstruction based on these old faunal collections in order to highlight settlements and dispersions of the MIS 3 key-species like ungulates, carnivores and humans.
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spelling doaj.art-c74614eef5df4f738bdff801a5c722ca2022-12-21T19:50:58ZengUniversity College LondonPapers from the Institute of Archaeology2041-90152016-08-0126110.5334/pia-486Palaeoecology and Subsistence Strategies in Belgium and Northwestern Europe during the MIS 3 through the Reassessment of Forgotten Collections: A Methodological ApproachPalaeoecological reconstructions are fundamental for the understanding of interactions between all the mammalian communities in a given environment and their choices in terms of habitat, diet and migrations. During the Late Pleistocene in north western Europe, hyenas and human groups shared essentially the same ecological niche. A comparison of their crossed relationships could therefore yield important data on the palaeoecological context. Unfortunately, numerous Palaeolithic sites in north western Europe were excavated well before modern archaeological techniques were devised. Thus the faunal assemblages collected during those early excavations do not have any stratigraphic context and the results extracted from these collections by classical approaches are therefore limited. However, in the karstic region of the Meuse Valley (southern Belgium), many sites have yielded massive amounts of archaeological and palaeontological material dated to the MIS 3. One of the challenges of this on-going doctoral research is to attempt to study this area by attempting an ecological reconstruction based on these old faunal collections in order to highlight settlements and dispersions of the MIS 3 key-species like ungulates, carnivores and humans.https://student-journals.ucl.ac.uk/pia/article/id/125/Museum studiesLate PleistocenePalaeoecology
spellingShingle Palaeoecology and Subsistence Strategies in Belgium and Northwestern Europe during the MIS 3 through the Reassessment of Forgotten Collections: A Methodological Approach
Papers from the Institute of Archaeology
Museum studies
Late Pleistocene
Palaeoecology
title Palaeoecology and Subsistence Strategies in Belgium and Northwestern Europe during the MIS 3 through the Reassessment of Forgotten Collections: A Methodological Approach
title_full Palaeoecology and Subsistence Strategies in Belgium and Northwestern Europe during the MIS 3 through the Reassessment of Forgotten Collections: A Methodological Approach
title_fullStr Palaeoecology and Subsistence Strategies in Belgium and Northwestern Europe during the MIS 3 through the Reassessment of Forgotten Collections: A Methodological Approach
title_full_unstemmed Palaeoecology and Subsistence Strategies in Belgium and Northwestern Europe during the MIS 3 through the Reassessment of Forgotten Collections: A Methodological Approach
title_short Palaeoecology and Subsistence Strategies in Belgium and Northwestern Europe during the MIS 3 through the Reassessment of Forgotten Collections: A Methodological Approach
title_sort palaeoecology and subsistence strategies in belgium and northwestern europe during the mis 3 through the reassessment of forgotten collections a methodological approach
topic Museum studies
Late Pleistocene
Palaeoecology
url https://student-journals.ucl.ac.uk/pia/article/id/125/