Environmental reconstruction and biostratigraphy of late Middle Pleistocene lakeshore deposits at Schöningen

Brigitte Urban; Gerlinde Bigga

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.10.002

Environmental reconstruction and biostratigraphy of late Middle Pleistocene lakeshore deposits at Schöningen

J Hum Evol. 2015 Dec:89:57-70. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.10.002. Epub 2015 Nov 27.

Authors

Brigitte Urban¹, Gerlinde Bigga²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Ecology, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany. Electronic address: b.urban@leuphana.de.
² Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany; Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoecology, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.

PMID: 26638875
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.10.002

Abstract

The Pleistocene sequence of Schöningen provides a key link between unglaciated and glaciated areas in western Central Europe and is an important point of reference for the subdivision of the glaciated late Middle Pleistocene. This locality yields paleoecological and geological evidence of at least four interglacial periods prior to the Holocene and younger than the Elsterian glaciation. The Pleistocene deposits at Schöningen are valuable archives of climate, landscape, and human evolution, containing outstanding information on past environmental changes and human adaptation. This paper presents paleoenvironmental and biostratigraphical results from the Middle Pleistocene archaeological lakeshore site of Schöningen, focusing on the so-called reference profile Schöningen 13 II of 2003. We discuss the lithological, palynological, and macrobotanical evidence and present a revised subdivision and reinterpretation of late phases of the Reinsdorf Interglacial.

Keywords: Archaeological horizons; Environmental change; Middle Pleistocene interglacial; Palynology; Plant macro-remains.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Geologic Sediments*
Germany
Ice Cover*
Lakes*