M Mentzer
Biographic Data
| ID | 29922 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Mentzer |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | Mentzer |
| SIGNATURE | MENTZER M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3117-8448 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 344 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Reconstructing human–animal interactions via multiproxy analysis of dog paleofeces from the medieval Central Balkans
Microstratigraphy and Site Formation Processes at Quebrada Jaguay 280 (Peru)
This study presents a microanalytical, geoarchaeological study of Quebrada Jaguay (QJ)‐280, a Terminal Pleistocene–Holocene coastal site in southern Peru. Combining micromorphology, μXRF and μFTIR, we develop a site formation model that also reassesses site use and forager behaviour. Micro‐contextual data provide new insights into sedimentation, taphonomy and human activity, revealing short‐term, seasonal occupations with evidence of spatial shif…
Los enterramientos en cal de la Edad del Hierro de Mallorca. Una propuesta interpretativa a partir del estudio interdisciplinar de la Cova des Robiols, Mallorca
Los enterramientos en cal del final de la prehistoria de Mallorca y Menorca han dado lugar a diversas teorías sobre cómo y dónde se producía la cremación, y si el aporte de cal era anterior o posterior a la misma. Este artículo propone un nuevo ritual a partir de la excavación de la Cova des Robiols, Mallorca y el análisis microestatigráfico de láminas delgadas -micromorfología, espectroscopía de microfluorescencia de rayos X y FTIR-. Los resulta…
Inner Asian Agropastoralism Within the Mongol Empire: Multi‐Proxy Investigations at Sel'Ungur Cave, Kyrgyzstan
Agropastoralism has been a widespread subsistence strategy in Central Asia from prehistory to the present. While significant research has aimed at understanding past agropastoral communities in the region, reconstructing a generalized economic model remains challenging due to the complex topographic and ecological conditions, as well as its social and political variability. It is likely that subsistence strategies were flexible and adapted to loc…
Burning, Cleaning, Dumping, and Dissolution: Site Formation Processes and Stratigraphy of Pre‐110,000‐Year‐Old MSA l Deposits in Cave 1, Klasies River Main Site, South Africa
Understanding the formation and stratigraphy of sequences in southern African Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites is vital for contextualizing evidence for the evolution of modern human behaviors and cognition. Deposits at these sites often have complex formation histories, typically involving a range of anthropogenic, geogenic, and biogenic depositional and post‐depositional processes, and micro‐laminated deposits are common. Consequently, archaeologic…
Reconstructing formation processes at the Canary Islands indigenous site of Belmaco Cave (La Palma, Spain) through a multiproxy geoarchaeological approach
The indigenous populations of La Palma (Canary Islands), who arrived on the island from Northwest Africa ca. 2000 years B.P., were predominantly pastoralists. Yet, many aspects of their subsistence economy such as the procurement, management, and use of wild plant resources remain largely unknown. To explore this, we studied the 600–1100‐year‐old archaeological site of Belmaco Cave, which comprises a stratified sedimentary deposit representative …
The stratigraphy and formation of Middle Stone Age deposits in Cave 1B, Klasies River Main site, South Africa, with implications for the context, age, and cultural association of the KRM 41815/SAM-AP …
Cave 1B, in the Klasies River Main site complex (KRM), is best known for the recovery of the KRM 41815/SAM-AP 6222 human mandible. After initial skepticism over the modernity of this specimen, it is accepted that the mix of archaic and modern traits it displays is characteristic of early Homo sapiens individuals. Different authors have associated this specimen with the Middle Stone Age (MSA) I and II/Mossel Bay cultural phases, but the published …
Impact of a recent wildfire on tortoises at Cape Point, South Africa, and implications for the interpretation of heated bones in the archaeological record
Heat-altered bones are a common occurrence in the archaeological record, and their analysis can provide detailed insights into past fire use behaviors and subsistence strategies. Heat-altered bones, however, may also result from natural fire events such as wildfires that are unrelated to human activity. We currently lack robust reference materials from natural fire events, analyzed using the same methodological approaches as we apply them to arch…
Kerpiç production and environmental dynamics in an early sedentary community: Micromorphological evidence from Aşıklı Höyük, Central Anatolia (Turkey)
A Critical Review of the Stratigraphic Context of the MSA I and II at Klasies River Main Site, South Africa
Investigations at Goodson Shelter, Oklahoma
Goodson Shelter is a small sandstone rockshelter site located in Craig County, Oklahoma, situated alongside a minor tributary stream. Excavations at Goodson Shelter yielded over 2 m of largely intact deposits, which, based on radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating, along with a substantial record of temporally diagnostic projectile points, indicate the site was periodically occupied from the Archaic through the Woodland period. …
Geoarchaeological investigation of occupation deposits in Blombos Cave in South Africa indicate changes in site use and settlement dynamics in the southern Cape during MIS 5b-4
The archaeological assemblage recovered from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) levels in Blombos Cave, South Africa, is central to our understanding of the development of early modern humans. Here, we demonstrate that the cultural and technological innovations inferred from the Blombos Cave MSA record also correlate with significant shifts in site use and occupational intensity. Through a comprehensive geoarchaeological investigation of three MSA occupa…
Neanderthal settlement of the Central Balkans during MIS 5: Evidence from Pešturina Cave, Serbia
Hidden in plain sight: A microanalytical study of a Middle Stone Age ochre piece trapped inside a micromorphological block sample
A complete Middle Stone Age ochre piece was unintentionally collected and fully preserved within a micromorphological block sample intended to characterise a 74 ± 3 ka occupation horizon at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Previously recovered ochre pieces from the same stratigraphic context (Still Bay) have displayed intricate modification patterns with significant behavioural implications. Yet, in the case of the trapped ochre, a direct visual asses…
Cooked starchy food in hearths ca. 120 kya and 65 kya (MIS 5e and MIS 4) from Klasies River Cave, South Africa
Portable FTIR for on-site screening of archaeological bone intended for ZooMS collagen fingerprint analysis
Geoarchaeology of the Water Canyon Paleoindian site, west‐central New Mexico
Water Canyon is a rare buried, multicomponent, stratified Paleoindian site in west‐central New Mexico. This paper presents a geoarchaeological assessment of the site as part of a broader interdisciplinary investigation of its paleoenvironmental history and archaeology. The archaeology is associated with ancient wetland deposits (Stratum 6) within an alluvial fan. The fan formed initially through the late Pleistocene. Formation of the fan stopped …
Connections, culture and environments around 100 000 years ago at Klasies River main site
A multi-proxy study of anthropogenic sedimentation and human occupation of Gledswood Shelter 1: Exploring an interior sandstone rockshelter in Northern Australia
Contacts under the lens: Perspectives on the role of microstratigraphy in archaeological research
Micromorphological contributions to the study of ritual behavior at the ash altar to Zeus on Mt. Lykaion, Greece
Recognizing Fire in the Paleolithic Archaeological Record
Everyone agrees that fire has played an important part in the history of the genus Homo. However, because of the sometimes ephemeral and ambiguous nature of the evidence for fire in the Paleolithic record, establishing when and how hominins actively interacted with fire has been difficult. Over the past several decades, multiple techniques have been developed and employed in the search for the origins of human use of fire. Because fire is a natur…
Approaches to Middle Stone Age landscape archaeology in tropical Africa
The Southern Montane Forest-Grassland mosaic ecosystem in the humid subtropics southern Rift Valley of Africa comprised the environmental context for a large area in which modern human evolution and dispersal occurred. Variable climatic conditions during the Late Pleistocene have ranged between humid and hyperarid, changing the character of the ecosystem and transforming it at different points in time into a barrier, a refuge, and a corridor betw…
The Middle Paleolithic occupations of Üçağızlı II Cave (Hatay, Turkey): Geoarcheological and archeological perspectives
A forager–herder trade-off, from broad-spectrum hunting to sheep management at Aşıklı Höyük, Turkey
Significance This article provides original results on the formative conditions of sheep domestication in the Near East. To our knowledge, none of the results has been published before, and the results are expected to be of wide interest to archaeologists, biologists, and other professionals interested in evolutionary and cultural processes of animal domestication.
Microarchaeological Approaches to the Identification and Interpretation of Combustion Features in Prehistoric Archaeological Sites
Recognizing Fire in the Paleolithic Archaeological Record
Everyone agrees that fire has played an important part in the history of the genus Homo. However, because of the sometimes ephemeral and ambiguous nature of the evidence for fire in the Paleolithic record, establishing when and how hominins actively interacted with fire has been difficult. Over the past several decades, multiple techniques have been developed and employed in the search for the origins of human use of fire. Because fire is a natur…
Contacts under the lens: Perspectives on the role of microstratigraphy in archaeological research
Approaches to Middle Stone Age landscape archaeology in tropical Africa
The Southern Montane Forest-Grassland mosaic ecosystem in the humid subtropics southern Rift Valley of Africa comprised the environmental context for a large area in which modern human evolution and dispersal occurred. Variable climatic conditions during the Late Pleistocene have ranged between humid and hyperarid, changing the character of the ecosystem and transforming it at different points in time into a barrier, a refuge, and a corridor betw…
A micromorphological and mineralogical study of site formation processes at the late Pleistocene site of Obi‐Rakhmat, Uzbekistan
Site formation processes at the Late Pleistocene rockshelter deposit of Obi‐Rakhmat were reconstructed through soil micromorphology and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The entire sequence has undergone limited diagenesis and is well preserved. The base of the stratified sequence represents a karstic setting with intermittent, low‐energy deposition of autochthonous gravitational debris and anthropogenic material in a wet, muddy env…
A multi-proxy study of anthropogenic sedimentation and human occupation of Gledswood Shelter 1: Exploring an interior sandstone rockshelter in Northern Australia
Compositional and Isotopic Analytical Methods in Archaeological Micromorphology
Resin‐impregnated sediment blocks are a by‐product of micromorphological sample processing. These blocks can be further studied using a variety of destructive, nondestructive, and minimally destructive geochemical techniques. X ‐ray fluorescence microanalyses conducted on sediment blocks yield semiquantitative major and trace elemental abundances that can be used to generate compositional maps, and to illustrate compositional change within or bet…
Micromorphological contributions to the study of ritual behavior at the ash altar to Zeus on Mt. Lykaion, Greece
The Middle Paleolithic occupations of Üçağızlı II Cave (Hatay, Turkey): Geoarcheological and archeological perspectives
Reconstructing formation processes at the Canary Islands indigenous site of Belmaco Cave (La Palma, Spain) through a multiproxy geoarchaeological approach
The indigenous populations of La Palma (Canary Islands), who arrived on the island from Northwest Africa ca. 2000 years B.P., were predominantly pastoralists. Yet, many aspects of their subsistence economy such as the procurement, management, and use of wild plant resources remain largely unknown. To explore this, we studied the 600–1100‐year‐old archaeological site of Belmaco Cave, which comprises a stratified sedimentary deposit representative …
Impact of a recent wildfire on tortoises at Cape Point, South Africa, and implications for the interpretation of heated bones in the archaeological record
Heat-altered bones are a common occurrence in the archaeological record, and their analysis can provide detailed insights into past fire use behaviors and subsistence strategies. Heat-altered bones, however, may also result from natural fire events such as wildfires that are unrelated to human activity. We currently lack robust reference materials from natural fire events, analyzed using the same methodological approaches as we apply them to arch…
Portable FTIR for on-site screening of archaeological bone intended for ZooMS collagen fingerprint analysis
Neanderthal settlement of the Central Balkans during MIS 5: Evidence from Pešturina Cave, Serbia
Hidden in plain sight: A microanalytical study of a Middle Stone Age ochre piece trapped inside a micromorphological block sample
A complete Middle Stone Age ochre piece was unintentionally collected and fully preserved within a micromorphological block sample intended to characterise a 74 ± 3 ka occupation horizon at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Previously recovered ochre pieces from the same stratigraphic context (Still Bay) have displayed intricate modification patterns with significant behavioural implications. Yet, in the case of the trapped ochre, a direct visual asses…
Inner Asian Agropastoralism Within the Mongol Empire: Multi‐Proxy Investigations at Sel'Ungur Cave, Kyrgyzstan
Agropastoralism has been a widespread subsistence strategy in Central Asia from prehistory to the present. While significant research has aimed at understanding past agropastoral communities in the region, reconstructing a generalized economic model remains challenging due to the complex topographic and ecological conditions, as well as its social and political variability. It is likely that subsistence strategies were flexible and adapted to loc…
The stratigraphy and formation of Middle Stone Age deposits in Cave 1B, Klasies River Main site, South Africa, with implications for the context, age, and cultural association of the KRM 41815/SAM-AP …
Cave 1B, in the Klasies River Main site complex (KRM), is best known for the recovery of the KRM 41815/SAM-AP 6222 human mandible. After initial skepticism over the modernity of this specimen, it is accepted that the mix of archaic and modern traits it displays is characteristic of early Homo sapiens individuals. Different authors have associated this specimen with the Middle Stone Age (MSA) I and II/Mossel Bay cultural phases, but the published …
Kerpiç production and environmental dynamics in an early sedentary community: Micromorphological evidence from Aşıklı Höyük, Central Anatolia (Turkey)
A micromorphological and mineralogical study of site formation processes at the late Pleistocene site of Obi‐Rakhmat, Uzbekistan
Site formation processes at the Late Pleistocene rockshelter deposit of Obi‐Rakhmat were reconstructed through soil micromorphology and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The entire sequence has undergone limited diagenesis and is well preserved. The base of the stratified sequence represents a karstic setting with intermittent, low‐energy deposition of autochthonous gravitational debris and anthropogenic material in a wet, muddy env…
Compositional and Isotopic Analytical Methods in Archaeological Micromorphology
Resin‐impregnated sediment blocks are a by‐product of micromorphological sample processing. These blocks can be further studied using a variety of destructive, nondestructive, and minimally destructive geochemical techniques. X ‐ray fluorescence microanalyses conducted on sediment blocks yield semiquantitative major and trace elemental abundances that can be used to generate compositional maps, and to illustrate compositional change within or bet…
Microarchaeological Approaches to the Identification and Interpretation of Combustion Features in Prehistoric Archaeological Sites
A forager–herder trade-off, from broad-spectrum hunting to sheep management at Aşıklı Höyük, Turkey
Significance This article provides original results on the formative conditions of sheep domestication in the Near East. To our knowledge, none of the results has been published before, and the results are expected to be of wide interest to archaeologists, biologists, and other professionals interested in evolutionary and cultural processes of animal domestication.
Human (Clovis)–gomphothere ( Cuvieronius sp.) association ∼13,390 calibrated yBP in Sonora, Mexico
Significance Archaeological evidence from Sonora, Mexico, indicates that the earliest widespread and recognizable group of hunter-gatherers (“Clovis”) were in place ∼13,390 y ago in southwestern North America. This is the earliest well-documented population on the continent and suggests that the unique Clovis artifact style originated in the southwest or south central part of the continent, well south of the Arctic gateways into the continent. Th…
The Middle Paleolithic occupations of Üçağızlı II Cave (Hatay, Turkey): Geoarcheological and archeological perspectives
Approaches to Middle Stone Age landscape archaeology in tropical Africa
The Southern Montane Forest-Grassland mosaic ecosystem in the humid subtropics southern Rift Valley of Africa comprised the environmental context for a large area in which modern human evolution and dispersal occurred. Variable climatic conditions during the Late Pleistocene have ranged between humid and hyperarid, changing the character of the ecosystem and transforming it at different points in time into a barrier, a refuge, and a corridor betw…
Contacts under the lens: Perspectives on the role of microstratigraphy in archaeological research
Micromorphological contributions to the study of ritual behavior at the ash altar to Zeus on Mt. Lykaion, Greece
Recognizing Fire in the Paleolithic Archaeological Record
Everyone agrees that fire has played an important part in the history of the genus Homo. However, because of the sometimes ephemeral and ambiguous nature of the evidence for fire in the Paleolithic record, establishing when and how hominins actively interacted with fire has been difficult. Over the past several decades, multiple techniques have been developed and employed in the search for the origins of human use of fire. Because fire is a natur…
Connections, culture and environments around 100 000 years ago at Klasies River main site
A multi-proxy study of anthropogenic sedimentation and human occupation of Gledswood Shelter 1: Exploring an interior sandstone rockshelter in Northern Australia
Cooked starchy food in hearths ca. 120 kya and 65 kya (MIS 5e and MIS 4) from Klasies River Cave, South Africa
Portable FTIR for on-site screening of archaeological bone intended for ZooMS collagen fingerprint analysis
Geoarchaeology of the Water Canyon Paleoindian site, west‐central New Mexico
Water Canyon is a rare buried, multicomponent, stratified Paleoindian site in west‐central New Mexico. This paper presents a geoarchaeological assessment of the site as part of a broader interdisciplinary investigation of its paleoenvironmental history and archaeology. The archaeology is associated with ancient wetland deposits (Stratum 6) within an alluvial fan. The fan formed initially through the late Pleistocene. Formation of the fan stopped …
Hidden in plain sight: A microanalytical study of a Middle Stone Age ochre piece trapped inside a micromorphological block sample
A complete Middle Stone Age ochre piece was unintentionally collected and fully preserved within a micromorphological block sample intended to characterise a 74 ± 3 ka occupation horizon at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Previously recovered ochre pieces from the same stratigraphic context (Still Bay) have displayed intricate modification patterns with significant behavioural implications. Yet, in the case of the trapped ochre, a direct visual asses…
Geoarchaeological investigation of occupation deposits in Blombos Cave in South Africa indicate changes in site use and settlement dynamics in the southern Cape during MIS 5b-4
The archaeological assemblage recovered from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) levels in Blombos Cave, South Africa, is central to our understanding of the development of early modern humans. Here, we demonstrate that the cultural and technological innovations inferred from the Blombos Cave MSA record also correlate with significant shifts in site use and occupational intensity. Through a comprehensive geoarchaeological investigation of three MSA occupa…
Neanderthal settlement of the Central Balkans during MIS 5: Evidence from Pešturina Cave, Serbia
A Critical Review of the Stratigraphic Context of the MSA I and II at Klasies River Main Site, South Africa
Investigations at Goodson Shelter, Oklahoma
Goodson Shelter is a small sandstone rockshelter site located in Craig County, Oklahoma, situated alongside a minor tributary stream. Excavations at Goodson Shelter yielded over 2 m of largely intact deposits, which, based on radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating, along with a substantial record of temporally diagnostic projectile points, indicate the site was periodically occupied from the Archaic through the Woodland period. …
Reconstructing formation processes at the Canary Islands indigenous site of Belmaco Cave (La Palma, Spain) through a multiproxy geoarchaeological approach
The indigenous populations of La Palma (Canary Islands), who arrived on the island from Northwest Africa ca. 2000 years B.P., were predominantly pastoralists. Yet, many aspects of their subsistence economy such as the procurement, management, and use of wild plant resources remain largely unknown. To explore this, we studied the 600–1100‐year‐old archaeological site of Belmaco Cave, which comprises a stratified sedimentary deposit representative …
The stratigraphy and formation of Middle Stone Age deposits in Cave 1B, Klasies River Main site, South Africa, with implications for the context, age, and cultural association of the KRM 41815/SAM-AP …
Cave 1B, in the Klasies River Main site complex (KRM), is best known for the recovery of the KRM 41815/SAM-AP 6222 human mandible. After initial skepticism over the modernity of this specimen, it is accepted that the mix of archaic and modern traits it displays is characteristic of early Homo sapiens individuals. Different authors have associated this specimen with the Middle Stone Age (MSA) I and II/Mossel Bay cultural phases, but the published …
Impact of a recent wildfire on tortoises at Cape Point, South Africa, and implications for the interpretation of heated bones in the archaeological record
Heat-altered bones are a common occurrence in the archaeological record, and their analysis can provide detailed insights into past fire use behaviors and subsistence strategies. Heat-altered bones, however, may also result from natural fire events such as wildfires that are unrelated to human activity. We currently lack robust reference materials from natural fire events, analyzed using the same methodological approaches as we apply them to arch…
Kerpiç production and environmental dynamics in an early sedentary community: Micromorphological evidence from Aşıklı Höyük, Central Anatolia (Turkey)
Los enterramientos en cal de la Edad del Hierro de Mallorca. Una propuesta interpretativa a partir del estudio interdisciplinar de la Cova des Robiols, Mallorca
Los enterramientos en cal del final de la prehistoria de Mallorca y Menorca han dado lugar a diversas teorías sobre cómo y dónde se producía la cremación, y si el aporte de cal era anterior o posterior a la misma. Este artículo propone un nuevo ritual a partir de la excavación de la Cova des Robiols, Mallorca y el análisis microestatigráfico de láminas delgadas -micromorfología, espectroscopía de microfluorescencia de rayos X y FTIR-. Los resulta…
Archaeology (22 works) · Geography (22 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (21 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (20 works) · Geology (17 works) · Paleontology (16 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (12 works) · Cave (9 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (9 works) · Pleistocene (9 works)