The past in dust: current trends and future directions in Pleistocene geoarcheology of European loess

Literature
Maintained by Stephan Pötter
Created at 6.12.2021

Abstract

Loess is a main archive of Pleistocene landscapes and environments and therefore has an important connection to the preservation and interpretation of Paleolithic sites. In Europe, anthropogenic sites have been found in loess because of past local occupation. At one extreme, sites are well preserved with minimal disturbance often accompanied by embedded proxies to estimate ecological parameters. On the other hand, loess deposits have undergone post-depositional alterations such as weathering, pedogenesis or bioturbation due to changing environmental conditions or other disturbances that obscure anthropogenic sites. We outline the current state of research and connections between Paleolithic archeology and loess research while introducing a series of subsequent regional case studies as part of a special issue. We also make recommendations for future work to incorporate a wider variety of methods to create more robust inferences on hominin and environmental evolution and their connections.

Bibliography

Nett, J., Chu, W. (2021): The past in dust: current trends and future directions in Pleistocene geoarcheology of European loess. Wiley – In: Journal of Quaternary Science, Vol. 36(8), p: 1279-1292, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3388

authorNett, Janina J. and Chu, Wei
doihttps://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3388
journalJournal of Quaternary Science
keyJaninaJ.Nett2021
number8
pages1279-1292
publisherWiley
typearticle
urlhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jqs.3388
volume36
year2021
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