Modeling the Impacts of Mediterranean Island Colonization by Archaic Hominins: The Likelihood of an Insular Lower Palaeolithic
Issue: Vol 27 No. 2 (2014)
Journal: Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology
Subject Areas: Ancient History Archaeology
Abstract:
It has been suggested that the islands of the Mediterranean were first settled during the Pleistocene. Attention has in particular been paid to recent claims that the occupation of Crete by hominins dates to the Middle Pleistocene. This paper examines what—if Lower Palaeolithic pre-modern hominins did indeed colonize the Mediterranean islands—environmental and evolutionary impacts this would have had, what forms these impacts would have taken, and what traces these forms would leave. Such impacts are modeled using information derived from island biogeography, historical ecology, and evolutionary biology. Probable outcomes of colonization scenarios—including turnover in insular faunas, ecological cascade events, and morphological changes in isolated populations of Homo—are compared to the palaeontological and palaeoenvironmental record for the Mediterranean islands. The absence of any obvious correlation casts doubt on large-scale and sustained colonization of the more remote Mediterranean islands during the Lower Palaeolithic, although this does not preclude the possibility of chance and short lived colonizations by pre-modern hominins.
Author: Thomas Leppard
References :
Alcover, J.A. 2008 The first Mallorcans: prehistoric colonization in the western Mediterranean. Journal of World Prehistory 21: 19-84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10963-008-9010-2
Alcover, J.A., A. Sans and M. Palmer 1998 The extent of extinctions of mammals on islands. Journal of Biogeography 25: 913-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.1998.00246.x
Aiello, L.C. 2010 Five years of Homo floresiensis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 142: 167-79.
Ammerman, A.J., and J.S. Noller 2005 New light on Aetokremnos. World Archaeology 37: 533-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438240500404359
Bird, D.W., and J.F. O’Connell 2006 Behavioral ecology and archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 14: 143-88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10814-006-9003-6
Bottema, S., and A. Sarpaki 2003 Environmental change in Crete: a 9000-year record of Holocene vegetation history and the effect of the Santorini eruption. The Holocene 13: 733-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/0959683603hl659rp
Bover, P., and J.A. Alcover 2003 Understanding Late Quaternary extinctions: the case of Myotragus balearicus (Bate 1909). Journal of Biogeography 30: 771-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2003.00872.x
Brinkerink, H.P. 1996 Tortoises and turtles from the Pleistocene of Crete. In D.S. Reese (ed.), Pleistocene and Holocene Fauna of Crete and its First Settlers, 207-10. Madison, Wisconsin: Prehistory Press.
Bromham, L., and M. Cardillo 2007 Primates follow the ‘island rule’: implications for interpreting Homo floresiensis. Biology Letters 3: 398-400. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2007.0113
Broodbank, C. 2006 The origins and early development of Mediterranean maritime activity. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 19: 199-230. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558//jmea.2006.v19i2.199
Broodbank, C. 2013 The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World. London: Thames and Hudson.
Brumm, A., F. Aziz, G.D. van den Bergh, M.J. Morwood, M.W. Moore, I. Kurniawan, D.R. Hobbs and R. Fullager 2006 Early stone technology on Flores and its implications for Homo floresiensis. Nature 441: 624-28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature04618
Brumm, A., G.M. Jensen, G.D. van den Bergh, M.J. Morwood, I. Kurniawan, F. Aziz and M. Storey 2010 Hominins on Flores, Indonesia, by one million years ago. Nature 464: 748-52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature08844
Bunn, H.T., and A.N. Gurtov. 2014 Prey mortality profiles indicate that Early Pleistocene Homo at Olduvai was an ambush predator. Quaternary International 322/323: 44-53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.11.002
Chelidonio, G. 2001 Manufatti litici su ciottolo da Milos (isole Cicladi). Pegaso: Rivista di Cultura Mediterranea 1: 117-44.
Cherry, J.F. 1981 Pattern and process in the earliest colonization of the Mediterranean islands. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 47: 41-68.
Cherry, J.F. 1990 The first colonization of the Mediterranean islands: a review of recent research. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 3: 145-221.
Cherry, J.F. 1992 Palaeolithic Sardinians? Some questions of evidence and method. In R.H. Tykot and T.K. Andrewes (eds.), Sardinia in the Mediterranean: A Footprint in the Sea. Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology 3: 28-39. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Chilardi, S., D.W. Frayer, P. Gioia, R. Macchiarelli and M. Mussi 1996 Fontana Nuova di Ragusa (Sicily, Italy): southernmost Aurignacian site in Europe. Antiquity 70: 553-63.
Crooks, K.R. 2002 Relative sensitivities of mammalian carnivores to habitat fragmentation. Conservation Biology 16: 488-502. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.2002.00386.x
Dawson, H. 2011 Island colonization: settling the Neolithic question. In N. Phoca-Cosmetatou (ed.), The First Mediterranean Islanders: Initial Occupation and Survival Strategies. School of Archaeology Monograph 74: 31-54. Oxford: School of Archaeology.
Dawson, H. 2013 Mediterranean Voyages: The Archaeology of Island Colonisation and Abandonment. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press.
de Vos, J. 1996 Taxonomy, ancestry, and speciation in the endemic Pleistocene deer of Crete compared with the taxonomy, ancestry, and speciation of Darwin’s finches. In D.S. Reese (ed.), Pleistocene and Holocene Fauna of Crete and its First Settlers, 111-24. Madison, Wisconsin: Prehistory Press.
Demetrius, L., V.M. Gundlach and G. Ochs 2004 Complexity and demographic stability in population models. Theoretical Population Biology 65: 211-25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tpb.2003.12.002
Dennell, R.W., J. Louys, H.J. O’Regan and D.M. Wilkinson 2014 The origins and persistence of Homo floresiensis on Flores: biogeographical and ecological perspectives. Quaternary Science Reviews 96: 98-107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.06.031
Efstratiou, N., P. Biagi, P. Karkanas and E. Starnini 2013 A Late Palaeolithic site at Ouriakos (Limnos, Greece) in the north-eastern Aegean. Antiquity 87(335) (Project Gallery). Internet Edition: http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/efstratiou335/
Falk, D., C. Hildebolt, K. Smith, T. Sutikna, Jatmiko, W. Wayhu Saptomo, H. Imhof, H. Seidler and F. Prior 2007 Brain shape in human microcephalics and Homo floresiensis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104: 2513-18.
Ferentinos, G., M. Gkioni, M. Gerag and G. Papatheodorou 2012 Early seafaring activity in the southern Ionian islands, Mediterranean Sea. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 2167-76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.01.032
Ferraro, J.V., T.W Plummer, B.L. Pobiner, J.S. Oliver, L.C. Bishop, D.R. Braun, P.W. Ditchfield, J.W. Seaman, K.M. Binetti, J.W. Seaman Jr., F. Hertzel and R. Potts 2013 Earliest archaeological evidence of persistent hominin carnivory. PLoS One 8(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062174
Foster, J.B. 1964 Evolution of mammals on islands. Nature 202: 234-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/202234a0
Galanidou, N., J. Cole, G. Iliopoulos and J. McNabb 2013 East meets west: the Middle Pleistocene site of Rodafnidia on Lesvos, Greece. Antiquity 87(336) (Project Gallery). Internet Edition: http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/galanidou336
Gamble, C. 1996 Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Hantoro, W.S., H. Faure, R. Djuwansah, L. Faure-Denard and P.A. Pirazzoli 1995 The Sunda and Sahul continental platform: lost land of the Last Glacial continent in SE Asia. Quaternary International 29/30: 129-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1040-6182(95)00015-B
Heaney, L.R. 1986 Biogeography of mammals in SE Asia: estimates of rates of colonization, extinction and speciation. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 28: 127-65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.1986.tb01752.x
Henle, K., K.F. Davies, M. Kleyer, C. Margules and J. Settele 2004 Predictors of species sensitivity to habitat fragmentation. Biodiversity and Conservation 13: 207-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:BIOC.0000004319.91643.9e
Hofmeijer, G.K., and P.Y. Sondaar 1992 Pleistocene humans in the island environment of Sardinia. In R.H. Tykot and T.K. Andrewes (eds.), Sardinia in the Mediterranean: A Footprint in the Sea. Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology 3: 49-56. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Holt, R.D. 2002 Food webs in space: on the interplay of dynamic instability and spatial processes. Ecological Research 17: 261-73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1440-1703.2002.00485.x
Hunt, C.O., and P.J. Schembri 1999 Quaternary environments and biogeography of the Maltese Islands. In A. Mifsud and P.J. Schembri (eds.), Facets of Maltese Prehistory, 41-75. Malta: The Prehistoric Society of Malta.
Kirch, P.V. 2010 Peopling of the Pacific: a holistic anthropological perspective. Annual Review of Anthropology 39: 131-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.012809.104936
Knapp, A.B. 2010 Cyprus’s earliest prehistory: seafarers, foragers and settlers. Journal of World Prehistory 23: 79-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10963-010-9034-2
Kopaka, K., and C. Matzanas 2009 Palaeolithic industries from the island of Gavdos, near neighbor to Crete in Greece. Antiquity 83(321) (Project Gallery). Internet Edition: http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/kopaka321
Krijgsman, W., F.J. Hilgen, I. Raffi, F.J. Sierro and D.S. Wilson 1999 Chronology, causes, and progression of the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Nature 400: 652-55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/23231
Lalueza-Fox, C., B. Shapiro, P. Bover, J.A. Alcover and J. Bertranpetit 2002 Molecular phylogeny and evolution of the extinct bovid Myotragus Balearicus. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 25: 501-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1055-7903(02)00290-7
Lambeck, K. 2004 Sea-level change through the last glacial cycle: geophysical, glaciological, and palaeogeographic consequences. Geoscience 336: 677-89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.crte.2003.12.017
Lande, R. 1993 Risks of population extinction from demographic and environmental stochasticity and random catastrophe. The American Naturalist 142: 911-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/285580
Laurance, W.F. 2010 Beyond island biogeography theory: understanding habitat fragmentation in the real world. In J.B. Losos and R.E. Ricklefs (eds.), The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited, 214-36. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lax, E. 1996 A gazetteer of Cretan paleontological localities. In D.S. Reese (ed.), Pleistocene and Holocene Fauna of Crete and its First Settlers, 1-32. Madison, Wisconsin: Prehistory Press.
Lax, E., and T.F. Strasser 1992 Early Holocene extinctions on Crete: the search for the cause. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 5: 205-28.
Lomolino, M.V. 1985 Body size of mammals on islands: the island rule re-examined. American Naturalist 125: 310-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/284343
Lomolino, M.V., D.V. Sax, B.R. Riddle and J.H. Brown 2006 The island rule and a research agenda for studying ecogeographical patterns. Journal of Biogeography 33: 1503-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01593.x
Lykousis, V. 2009 Sea-level changes and shelf break prograding sequences during the last 400 ka in the Aegean margins: subsidence rates and palaeogeographic implications. Continental Shelf Research 29: 2037-44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2008.11.005
Marra, A.C. 2005 Pleistocene mammals on Mediterranean islands. Quaternary International 129: 5-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2004.04.002
Martin, R.D., A.M. MacLarnon, J.L. Philips, L. Dussubieux, P.R. Williams and W.B. Dobyns 2006 Comment on ‘The brain of LB1, Homo floresiensis’. Science 319: 999. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1121144
Meiri, S., T. Dayan and D. Simberloff 2006 The generality of the island rule reexamined. Journal of Biogeography 33: 1571-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01523.x
Morwood, M.J., and W.L. Jungers (eds.) 2009 Palaeoanthropological research at Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia. Special Issue, Journal of Human Evolution 57.
Morwood, M.J., R.P. Soejono, R.G. Roberts, T. Sutikna, C.S.M. Turney, K.E. Westaway, W.J. Rink, J. Zhao, G.D. van den Bergh, R. Awe Due, D.R. Hobbs, M.W. Moore, M.I. Bird and L.K. Fifield 2004 Archaeology and age of a new hominin from Flores in eastern Indonesia. Nature 431: 1087-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature02956
O’Dowd, D.J., P.T. Green and P.S. Lake 2003 Invasional ‘meltdown’ on an oceanic island. Ecology Letters 6: 812-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00512.x
Olson, S.L., and P.J. Hearty 2009 A sustained +21m sea-level highstand during MIS 11 (400 ka): direct fossil and sedimentary evidence from Bermuda. Quaternary Science Reviews 28: 271-85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.11.001
Palombo, M. 2008 Insularity and its effects. Quaternary International 182: 1-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2007.12.006
Palombo, M., P. Bover, A.M.F. Valli and J.A. Alcover 2006 The Plio-Pleistocene endemic bovids from the Western Mediterranean islands: knowledge, problems and perspectives. Hellenic Journal of Geosciences 41: 153-62.
Panagopoulou, E., and P. Karkanas 2014 The Palaeolithic of insular Greece. In K. Harvati and M. Roksandic (eds.), Paleoanthropology in the Balkans. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series. Dordrecht: Springer (in press).
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. (ed.) 2011 The First Mediterranean Islanders: Initial Occupation and Survival Strategies. School of Archaeology Monograph 74. Oxford: School of Archaeology.
Quammen, D. 1996 The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions. New York: Touchstone.
Raia, P., and S. Meiri. 2006 The island rule in large mammals: paleontology meets ecology. Evolution 60: 1731-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0014-3820.2006.tb00516.x
Reese, D.S. 1995 The Pleistocene vertebrate sites and fauna of Cyprus. Cyprus Geological Survey Department Bulletin 9. Nicosia: Geological Survey Department.
Robb, J. 2001 Island identities: ritual, travel, and the creation of difference in Neolithic Malta. European Journal of Archaeology 4: 175-202.
Roberts, R.G., K.E. Westaway, J.X. Zhao, C.S.M. Turney, M.I. Bird, W.J. Rink and L.K. Fifield 2009 Geochronology of cave deposits at Liang Bua and of adjacent rivers terraces in the Wae Racang valley, western Flores, Indonesia: a synthesis of age estimates for the type locality of Homo floresiensis. Journal of Human Evolution 57: 484-502. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.01.003
Sampson, A., M. Kaczanowska and J.K. Kozłowski 2010 The Prehistory of the Island of Kythnos (Cyclades, Greece) and the Mesolithic Settlement at Maroulas. Kraków: Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Shackleton, J.C., T.H. Van Andel and C. Runnels 1984 Coastal palaeogeography of the central and western Mediterranean during the last 125,000 years and its archaeological implications. Journal of Field Archaeology 11: 307-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/009346984791535476
Sondaar, P.Y. 1998 Palaeolithic Sardinians: palaeontological evidence and methods. In M.S. Balmuth and R.H. Tykot (eds.), Sardinian and Aegean Chronology: Towards a Resolution of Relative and Absolute Dating in the Mediterranean. Studies in Sardinian Archaeology 5: 45-51. Oxford: Oxbow.
Sondaar, P.Y., M.D. Dermitzakis and J. de Vos 1996 The palaeogeography and faunal evolution of the land mammals of Crete. In D.S. Reese (ed.), Pleistocene and Holocene Fauna of Crete and its First Settlers, 61-68. Madison, Wisconsin: Prehistory Press.
Sondaar, P.Y., M. Sanges, T. Kotsakis and P.L. de Boer 1986 The Pleistocene deer hunter of Sardinia. Geobios 19: 17-31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0016-6995(86)80033-X
Sondaar, P.Y., G.D. van den Bergh, B. Mubroto, F. Aziz, J. Devos and U.L. Batu 1994 Middle Pleistocene faunal turnover and colonization of Flores (Indonesia) by Homo erectus. Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, Série II fascicule A 319(10): 1255-62.
Storm, P. 2012 A carnivorous niche for Java man? A preliminary consideration of the abundance of fossils in Middle Pleistocene Java. Comptes Rendus Palévol 11: 191-202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.crpv.2011.04.002
Strasser, T.F., E. Panagopoulou, C. Runnels, P. Murray, N. Thompson, P. Karkanas, F. McCoy and K. Wegmann 2010 Stone Age seafaring in the Mediterranean: evidence from the Plakias region for Lower Palaeolithic and Mesolithic habitation of Crete. Hesperia 79: 145-90. http://dx.doi.org/10.2972/hesp.79.2.145
Strasser, T.F., C. Runnels, K. Wegman, E. Panagopoulou, F. McCoy, C. DiGregorio, P. Karkanas and N. Thompson 2011 Dating Palaeolithic sites in southwestern Crete, Greece. Journal of Quaternary Science 26: 553-60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1482
Terborgh, J. 2010 The trophic cascade on islands. In J.B. Losos and R.E. Ricklefs (eds.), The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited, 116-42. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Tourloukis, V., and P. Karkanas 2012 The Middle Pleistocene archaeological record of Greece and the role of the Aegean in hominin dispersals: new data and interpretations. Quaternary Science Reviews 43: 1-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.04.004
Trivedy, R.K., K.P. Sharma, P.G. Goel and B. Gopal 1978 Some ecological observations on floating islands. Hydrobiologia 60: 187-90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00163185
Van Andel, T.H., and J.C. Shackleton 1982 Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic coastlines of Greece and the Aegean. Journal of Field Archaeology 9: 445-54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/009346982791504454
van den Bergh, G.D., H.J.M. Meijer, R. Awe Due, M.J. Morwood, K. Szabó, L.W. Hoek Ostende, T. Sutikna, E.W. Saptomo, P.J. Piper and K.M. Dobney 2009 The Liang Bua faunal remains: a 95 k.yr. sequence from Flores, East Indonesia. Journal of Human Evolution 57: 527-37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.08.015
van Oosterzee, P. 1997 Where Worlds Collide: The Wallace Line. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
van Valen, L. 1973 Pattern and the balance of nature. Evolutionary Theory 1: 31-49.
Vigne, J.-D. 1992 Zooarchaeology and the biogeographical history of the mammals of Corsica and Sardinia since the last ice age. Mammal Review 22: 87-96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2907.1992.tb00124.x
Welch, J.J. 2009 Testing the island rule: primates as a case study. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276: 675-82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.1180