Greening a lost world

The scarcity of pictorial reconstructions focusing on Quaternary flora and vegetation prompts a reevaluation of traditional zoocentrism in future paleoartistic research. Here we present paleoartistic renderings depicting vegetation landscapes around the Orce Archaeological Zone (OAZ), encompassing sites dating from 1.6 to 1.2 million years ago during the Early Pleistocene of the Guadix-Baza Basin in southern Spain. Four pieces are based on fossil pollen data from Venta Micena 1 (VM1), Barranco León (BL), and Fuente Nueva 3 (FN3). The artwork considers altitudinal belt distribution, taxonomic and structural diversity, extinct taxa in the Iberian Peninsula post-Early Pleistocene, and those previously extinct at higher latitudes in Europe. This essay visually represents the coexistence of mesophytic, thermophytic, and xerophytic plant communities within a glacial refugium of woody species. Lastly, employing a non-conventional iconographic approach, we portray a female Homo individual in the forest refugium to draw up on possible adaptive traits of these early Europeans

Archaeology · Biology · Early Pleistocene · Geography · Glacial period · Habitat · Homeland · Peninsula · Pleistocene · Quaternary · Refugium (fishkeeping · Vegetation (pathology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Evolution and Paleontology Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Ecology · Geology · Paleontology

• On the limits of using combined U-series/ESR method to date fossil teeth from two Early Pleistocene archaeological sites of the Orce area (Guadix-Baza basin, Spain)

  Open Access•M Duval, Christophe Falguères et al.•Quaternary Research•2012

  Incluir item

• A coastal reservoir of biodiversity for Upper Pleistocene human populations

  Open Access•José S Carrión, J Carrión et al.•Quaternary Science Reviews•2008

  Incluir item

• Quaternary Refugia of North European Trees

  K D Bennett, Polychronis C Tzedakis et al.•Journal of Biogeography•1991

  Incluir item

• Earliest human occupations at Dmanisi (Georgian Caucasus) dated to 1.85–1.78 Ma

  Open Access•Reid Ferring, Oriol Oms et al.•Proceedings of the National…•2011

  Incluir item

• Vegetation context and climatic limits of the Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal in Europe

  Open Access•Suzanne A G Leroy, K Arpe et al.•Quaternary Science Reviews•2011

  Incluir item

• Atypical Combinations and Scientific Impact

  Open Access•Brian Uzzi, Mukherjee et al.•Science•2013

  Incluir item

• Patterns and processes of Late Quaternary environmental change in a montane region of southwestern Europe

  Open Access•José S Carrión•Quaternary Science Reviews•2002

  Incluir item

• Taphonomy and palaeoecology of an assemblage of large mammals

  Open Access•A Arribas, Paul Palmqvist•Geobios•1998

  Incluir item

• Oldowan stone knapping and percussive activities on a raw material reservoir deposit 1.4 million years ago at Barranco León (Orce, Spain)

  Open Access•Stefania Titton, Oriol Oms et al.•Archaeological and Anthropological…•2021

  Incluir item

• Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic proxies to the Early Pleistocene hominids of Barranco León D and Fuente Nueva 3 (Granada, Spain) by means of their amphibian and reptile assemblages

  Open Access•Hugues-Alexandre Blain, Salvador Bailon et al.•Quaternary International•2011

  Incluir item

• Neanderthals and modern humans

  Open Access•Ted Steegmann•American Journal of Human Biology•2004

  Incluir item

• Pollen taphonomy of cave sediments

  Open Access•Chris O Hunt, Marta Fiacconi•Quaternary International•2018

  Incluir item

• Quaternary pollen analysis in the Iberian Peninsula

  Open Access•José S Carrión, Sara Fernández et al.•Internet Archaeology•2009

  Incluir item

• The Late Quaternary pollen sequence of Toll Cave, a palaeontological site with evidence of human activities in northeastern Spain

  Open Access•Juan Ochando, José S Carrión et al.•Quaternary International•2020

  Incluir item

• The archaic stone tool industry from Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3, (Orce, Spain)

  Open Access•Isidro Toro Moyano, Deborah Barsky et al.•Quaternary International•2010

  Incluir item

• Homo vs. Pachycrocuta

  Open Access•María Patrocinio Espigares Ortiz, Ma Patrocinio Espigares et al.•Quaternary International•2012

  Incluir item

• The early Pleistocene small vertebrate succession from the Orce region (Guadix-Baza Basin, SE Spain) and its bearing on the first human occupation of Europe

  Open Access•Jordi Agustí, Hugues-Alexandre Blain et al.•Quaternary International•2009

  Incluir item

• The giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris

  Open Access•Paul Palmqvist, Bienvenido Martinez-Navarro et al.•Quaternary International•2011

  Incluir item

• The oldest human fossil in Europe, from Orce (Spain)

  Isidro Toro-Moyano, Bienvenido Martinez-Navarro et al.•Journal of Human Evolution•2013

  Incluir item

• Climate forcing of first hominid dispersal in Western Europe

  Open Access•Jordi Agustí, Hugues-Alexandre Blain et al.•Journal of Human Evolution•2009

  Incluir item

• Mapping Early Pleistocene environments and the availability of plant food as a potential driver of early Homo presence in the Guadix-Baza Basin (Spain)

  Open Access•Yul Altolaguirre, Meike Schulz et al.•Journal of Human Evolution•2021

  Incluir item

• Skull 5 from Dmanisi

  Open Access•G P Rightmire, Marcia S Ponce De León et al.•Journal of Human Evolution•2017

  Incluir item