Refuting Creationism - Ritual Gatherings in a Cave in Israel - 25,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Reconstruction of a ritual gathering in Manot Cave

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Manot Cave, Israel

Earliest deep-cave ritual compound in Southwest Asia discovered The Daily The Daily

Clearly, the authors of the creation myths in Genesis had no knowledge of their own history let alone the history of the rest of the world, as 25,000 years before the time in which they set their 'creation week', there were people holding ritual gatherings in a cave in what is now Israel.

Before the mythical 'creation week' there was supposedly no Earth, no Universe, no living beings and only a god made of nothing which had self-assembled out of nothing according to a design it made before it existed.

Creationists reason that the Universe and life on Earth is too complex to have arisen spontaneously, and it couldn't have all come from nothing, so an even more complex god must have arisen spontaneously out of nothing first then created everything else out of nothing by magic. To a child-like creationists there is no possible flaw in that reasoning.

Prehistoric history of humans in the Levant. The Levant, a region in the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing modern-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and parts of Turkey, has a rich prehistoric history central to the story of human evolution and early civilization. Key aspects of its prehistoric human history include:

Early Human Occupation

1. Homo erectus and Neanderthals:
   • Homo erectus, an early human ancestor, is believed to have migrated through the Levant around 1.5 million years ago, as evidenced by tools and fossil finds in sites like Ubeidiya in Israel.
   • Neanderthals occupied the Levant intermittently, with significant remains found in caves like Amud and Kebara in Israel. These populations were adapted to cooler climates and coexisted with anatomically modern humans for some time.
2. Anatomically Modern Humans (Homo sapiens):
   • Fossil evidence from Skhul and Qafzeh Caves (dating to approximately 120,000–90,000 years ago) shows some of the earliest presence of Homo sapiens outside Africa. These individuals displayed both modern and archaic traits, suggesting a transitional phase of human evolution.

Cultural and Technological Advances

1. Middle Palaeolithic Period (250,000–50,000 years ago):
   • The Levant was part of a crucial migratory corridor for early humans. Stone tools from this period, associated with both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, include Levallois technology, a distinctive method of producing flint tools.
   • Evidence suggests cultural exchange and possibly interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans during this period.
2. Upper Palaeolithic Period (50,000–20,000 years ago):
   • This era saw the dominance of Homo sapiens and the decline of Neanderthals in the region.
   • Innovations included more sophisticated tools, personal ornaments, and symbolic art, indicating cognitive and cultural advancements.

Agricultural Revolution

1. Epipaleolithic Period (20,000–10,000 years ago):
   • Cultures like the Natufians (circa 15,000–11,500 years ago) in the Levant were among the first to transition from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles.
   • They constructed semi-permanent settlements and began cultivating wild cereals and domesticating animals, setting the stage for the Agricultural Revolution.
2. Neolithic Revolution (10,000–6,000 years ago):
   • The Levant became a cradle of agriculture during this period. Sites such as Jericho and Ain Ghazal reveal early examples of farming communities with permanent dwellings, pottery, and advanced social structures.
   • Domestication of plants like wheat and barley and animals like goats and sheep transformed human societies.

Archaeological Highlights

1. Jericho:
   • One of the oldest known towns in the world, with settlement layers dating back to around 10,000 BCE, including early fortifications and a stone tower.
2. Göbekli Tepe (though geographically in Turkey, close to the Levant):
   • This site, dating to around 9600 BCE, features monumental stone structures and carvings, suggesting complex social and spiritual activities among hunter-gatherers.

Significance

The Levant's geographical location made it a crucial crossroads for human migrations between Africa, Europe, and Asia. It played a pivotal role in the spread of Homo sapiens, cultural innovations, and the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies. This region's archaeological record continues to provide critical insights into human evolution and the development of early civilizations.

Evidence for these ritual gatherings has just been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) by a team led by three Israeli archaeologists and including researchers from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and described in a Case Western Reserve University news release:

Earliest deep-cave ritual compound in Southwest Asia discovered

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Case Western Reserve University researchers helped unearth evidence for ritualistic gathering in upper Palaeolithic

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A cave in Galilee, Israel, has yielded evidence for ritualistic gathering 35,000 years ago, the earliest on the Asian continent. Three Israeli researchers led the team that published its results today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

And researchers from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Dental Medicine helped unearth the cave’s secrets over more than a decade of excavation.

Manot Cave was used for thousands of years as a living space for both Neanderthals and humans at different times. In 2015, researchers from Case Western Reserve helped identify a 55,000-year-old skull that provided physical evidence of interbreeding between Neanderthal and homo sapiens, with characteristics of each clearly visible in the skull fragment.

The cave’s living space was near the entrance, but in the deepest, darkest part of the cave, eight stories below, the new paper describes a large cavern with evidence it was used as a gathering space, possibly for rituals that enhanced social cohesion.

“Turtle rock” was focal point


The cavern’s touchstone is an engraved rock, deliberately placed in a niche in the cavern, with a turtle-shell design carved into its surface. The three-dimensional turtle is contemporaneous with some of the oldest cave paintings in France.

An engraved rock with a carved symbolic turtle was placed in a niche in the ritual space.

It may have represented a totem or spiritual figure. Its special location, far from the daily activities near the cave entrance, suggests that it was an object of worship.

Omry Barzilai, lead author
The Leon Recannati Institute of Maritime Studies
School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures
University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel.

The cavern has natural acoustics favorable for large gatherings, and evidence of wood ash on nearby stalagmites suggests prehistoric humans carried torches to light the chamber.

Manot Cave was discovered in 2008 by workers building condominiums in a mountain resort close to Israel’s border with Lebanon. Case Western Reserve’s School of Dental Medicine got involved in the excavation in 2012. The dean at the time, Jerold Goldberg, committed $20,000 annually for 10 years to CWRU’s Institute for the Science of Origins; the money was used to fund dental students’ summer research in Israel.

Dental students dug ancient bones

I’m an oral and maxillofacial surgeon by training. I provided the commitment and the money because I wanted people to understand the breadth and intellectual interest that dental schools have.

Jerold Goldberg, co-author
Departments of Orthodontics and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
School of Dental Medicine
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.

And although not trained in archaeology, dental students can quickly identify bone fragments from rock, which makes them invaluable at excavations like Manot Cave.

Most people would not suspect that a dental school would be involved in an archaeological excavation, but one of the things that are preserved very well in ancient skeletons are teeth, because they are harder than bone. There is a whole field of dental anthropology. As an orthodontist, I am interested in human facial growth and development, which, it turns out, is exactly what is needed to identify anthropological specimens.

Professor Mark Hans, co-author
Departments of Orthodontics and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
School of Dental Medicine
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.

For 10 years, Case Western Reserve sent 10 to 20 dental students every summer to help with the Manot Cave excavation. The summer research became so popular that students from other dental and medical schools began applying to visit Israel with the CWRU team, according to Yvonne McDermott, the project coordinator.

Case Western Reserve also collaborated closely with Linda Spurlock, a physical anthropologist at Kent State University, whose expertise is putting a face on a skull using clay to build out the tissues that would have covered the bone when the person was alive.

One of the things I liked most about working on this excavation was how much we learned from the other researchers. Everyone has a narrow focus, like mammals, uranium-dating, hearths; and we all came together and shared our knowledge. We learned a lot over 10 years.

>Professor Mark Hans.

The Manot Cave project is supported by the Dan David Foundation, the Israel Science Foundation, the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation, the Irene Levi Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation and the Leakey Foundation. The research also involved experts from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Cleveland State University, the Geological Survey of Israel, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University, the University of Vienna, the University of Barcelona, the University of Siena and Simon Fraser University.

Significance
This study presents evidence from the Levant of communal rituals centered around a carved boulder within a distinct hall in the deepest and darkest part of Manot Cave. It expands our understanding of the Upper Paleolithic period beyond material culture and subsistence, delving into the more ephemeral realm of the ritual lives of the people.

Abstract
Identifying communal rituals in the Paleolithic is of scientific importance, as it reflects the expression of collective identity and the maintenance of group cohesion. This study provides evidence indicating the practice of deep cave collective rituals in the Levant during the Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) period. It is demonstrated that these gatherings occurred within a distinct ritual compound and were centered around an engraved object in the deepest part of Manot Cave, a pivotal EUP site in southwest Asia. The ritual compound, segregated from the living areas, encompasses a large gallery partitioned by a cluster of remarkable speleothems. Within this gallery, an engraved boulder stands out, displaying geometric signs suggesting a unique representation of a tortoise. Isotopic analysis of calcite crusts on the boulder’s grooves revealed alignment with values found in speleothems from the cave dated to ~37 to 35 ka BP. Additionally, meticulous shape analysis of the grooves’ cross-section and the discernible presence of microlinear scratches on the grooves’ walls confirmed their anthropogenic origin. Examination of stalagmite laminae (36 ka BP) near the engraved boulder revealed a significant presence of wood ash particles within. This finding provides evidence for using fire to illuminate the dark, deep part of the cave during rituals. Acoustic tests conducted in various cave areas indicate that the ritual compound was well suited for communal gatherings, facilitating conversations, speeches, and hearing. Our results underscore the critical role of collective practices centered around a symbolic object in fostering a functional social network within the regional EUP communities.

When and where initial forms of collective ritual practices first appeared is still an enigma. The study of Paleolithic prehistoric art provides an important insight into past human cultures. Remarkable examples of artistic expression in Europe (1, 2), Africa (3, 4), Southeast Asia (5–7), and Australia (8, 9)—illustrate the artistic skills, cognitive abilities, and cultural development of the Paleolithic people worldwide. However, evidence regarding the symbolic behavior of Paleolithic people (e.g., refs. 6, and 10–16) is still poorly understood and subject to ongoing debate. Symbolic behavior likely emerged alongside the development of complex cognitive abilities, enabling early humans to represent and communicate abstract concepts through symbols, embedded in artistic representation, language, and ritual practices. Archaeological evidence suggests that this capacity began to develop in the Middle Stone Age, with the earliest known examples of symbolic artifacts, such as ochre engravings and beads, appearing around 100,000 y ago (17). These artifacts indicate the ability to create and understand symbols, a critical step in the evolution of culture and social structures that help maintain large and more complex social networks (18). Communal rituals, as a specific form of symbolic behavior, often leave material traces, such as public-cum-ceremonial structures, communal burial grounds, and unique artifacts, which provide insights into the symbolic and social practices of prehistoric communities (19). The discovery of constructed stalagmite circles in Bruniquel Cave, France, suggests that some form of deep cave communal ritual was already practiced by Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic (20). Social evolution theories argue that the appearance of communal ritual practices is intimately interconnected with the evolution of social complexity as a mechanism aimed at promoting social cohesion (21).

In the archaeological record, identification of collective rituals is challenging and usually relies on physical elements such as exceptional stone structures interpreted as temples and shrines (22–24). In the earlier prehistoric periods, evidence may come in the form of confined spaces in caves, often decorated with paintings and engravings, that can host gathered people to perform nonmundane activities (25, 26). Such confined spaces provide options for seclusion, intimacy, selective attendance, and other modes needed in ritual activities (27, 28).

Rock engravings are already evident in the Middle Paleolithic period and became more complex and frequent during the Upper Paleolithic (29, 30) (SI Appendix, 1). In the Levant, engraved artifacts are uncommon and when found, they are often categorized as artistic items. These objects are usually portable and of a personal nature (31–36), commonly discovered in close association with domestic assemblages and other artifacts. In most Paleolithic sites in the Levant, there is no clear spatial division between areas designated for domestic activities and those used for other purposes [e.g., in Qafzeh Cave (37)]. Therefore, we cannot preclude the possibility that these small artifacts were mundane, made for aesthetic purposes, evidence for the adroitness of the artist, or meant to enhance prestige.

In this paper, we report the discovery of a confined space (referred to as the “ritual compound”) with an engraved dolomite boulder found in the deepest and darkest part of Manot Cave (Fig. 1) (38–40). This space (Areas A, H, K; Fig. 1C and SI Appendix, Fig. S1), is distinctly separated from the domestic living area (Area E), which was located close to the cave entrance. Our research provides compelling evidence indicating the boulder and the space surrounding it dedicated communal space for ritual purposes.

The site location, the cave plan with excavated areas, and the major findings. (A) Location of Manot Cave and other Paleolithic sites with engraved objects. (B) Archaeological horizons in the major activity area at the cave entrance (Area E). (C) Plan of the cave with excavated areas marked. The ritual compound is marked with a dashed-line red circle. (D) The location of the boulder with its geometric markings. (E) Persian fallow deer antler retrieved from the southern “hidden” chamber next to the entrance to the gallery. (F) Cross-section of the cave. Note that the gallery is in the deepest part of the cave. Numbers (1, 2, 3) denote the main locations of groups of stalagmites. (G) Stalagmites within the cave. Note a row of speleothems at the bottom of the western talus, separating the gallery from the rest of the cave. (H) Superolateral view (looking northwest) of the recovered boulder ( in situ). Note that the cave wall is void of similar engravings. (I) A three-dimensional image (3D) of the ritual compound where the engraved boulder was found. Notice the two pillars of stalagmites (forming the “gate”) at its entrance.

Fig. 2.
Macrotopography of artificial and naturally occurring grooves on Manot Cave boulder. (A) The engraved boulder. Note the central concentric line (black arrow) connecting two levels of geometric signs. In the white circle “navicular,” boat-shape, grooves. (B and C) Close-up views on a navicular groove, presented from two different angles. (D) A navicular groove was produced during the experimental study. (E and F) The locations where groove profiles were taken. (G) Profile (cross-section) of artificial (A1 to A3, B1 to B3, E1 to E3, F1 to F3) and natural (I1 to I3, J1 to J3, K1 to K3) grooves on the boulder surfaces. The worked groove maintains a linear appearance throughout its entire length. It possesses a V-shaped cross-section with well-defined shoulders and resembles the shape of a boat, i.e., wide in the middle and converging toward its ends. In contrast, a natural groove resembles a narrow fissure or crack. It is shallower and lacks the distinctive “V”-shape characteristic of an artificial groove. (H) Microphotography of both artificial (first two from Left to Right) and natural (first two from Right to Left) grooves. Natural grooves possess a gutter-like floor, in contrast to the reverse tapered sharp edge-shaped floor observed in the worked groove.

Fig. 3.
Presence of microscratches on the slanting walls of the boulder grooves and experimental grooves. (A) The studied grooves on Manot boulder. (B) Groove A, a white line marks the profile of the groove, the blue arrow marks the location of the micro scratches. (C) Groove F, the white line marks the profile of the groove, the blue arrow points to the location of the micro scratches on the sidewall of the groove. (D) Micro scratches in groove A. (E) Micro scratches in groove F. Due to erosion, the scratches are hard to notice. Major parts of the groove were covered by crust and could not be inspected for micro scratches. (F) The experimental study carried out with flint tools, consisting of carinated and dihedral burins (#1 to 3) and a heavy-duty scraper (#4) (G) produced similar navicular-shaped grooves (H) and micro scratches on the side walls (I and J) due to repeated movements of the sharp flint. The starting point can be easily detected.

For intellectually honest people, having an article of faith falsified so spectacularly as this would be reason enough to change their minds and reassess the basis of their beliefs. Not so, creationists whose first (and usually last) resort is to stick to their belief despite the contrary evidence and instead look for ways to ignore the contrary evidence. Their superstition is sacred, so facts must be ignored.

Refuting Creationism - Domesticated Dogs 2000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

A tibia, or lower-leg bone, of an adult canine from Swan Point, Alaska, radiocarbon dated to about 12,000 years old.

François Lanoë
School of Anthropology

Eurasian/North American Grey Wolf, Canis lupus.

By User:Mas3cf - This file was derived from: Eurasian wolf.JPG, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

How did humans and dogs become friends? Connections in the Americas began 12,000 years ago | University of Arizona News

At least 2,000 years before Creationists' little god created a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East, human in Alaska were feeding domesticated dogs on salmon, according to the findings of palaeontologists from the University of Arizona.

But of course, the parochial Bronze Age pastoralists from the infancy of our species who made up that myth, couldn't possibly have known anything about when dogs were domesticated, or Alaska for that matter because, as we can see from the tales they made up, they knew nothing of the world beyond a day or two's walk from their pastures and were completely ignorant of the geography, geology and history of the planet and life on it - which is why they made up such implausible origin myths in the first place.

That there were people feeding salmon to their domesticated dogs about 12,000 years ago is the subject of a paper published recently in Science Advances by the Arizona University team led by Assistant Professor François Lanoë, of the School of Anthropology in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. They explain their findings in an Arizona University News release

Refuting Creationism - The Japanese People Didn't Notice Noah's Genocidal Flood!

Representation of Jomo-period life in Japan in the shadow of Mount Fuji

AI-generated (ChatGPT4o)

Human remains from the Yayoi period, approximately 2,300 years ago, from which DNA was extracted.

Map of Japan showing Sakhalin (far north) and the Kuril and Ryukyu Islands

Google Map

Traces of ancient immigration patterns to Japan found in 2000-year-old genome | SCHOOL OF SCIENCE THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

Being parochial Bronze Age pastoralists who knew about nothing and nowhere that was more than a day or two's walk from their hill pastures in Canaan, those who made up the Hebrew creation myths could not possibly have been aware that there were other cultures in far-away places like China, Korea and Japan, which had ancient histories going way back before the myth-makers thought Earth was created, and which were unscathed by an global flood at the time in which they set that tale.

Had they been aware of them, they could have made up slightly more plausible myths with a more realistic timeline, instead of requiring their believers to try to compress everything that's happened in the entire 14-billion-year-old Universe into 10,000 years.

But how could they have done so when they had no-one to teach them the real history of the planet and the people living on it? All they had was their own limited imagination and a handful if inherited myths from neighbouring culture, like Egypt and Sumeria, for theirs was a backward, illiterate culture from the fearful infancy of our species, dependent on oral traditions and superstitions.

How could they possibly have known, for example, that a population of humans had been more or less isolated for about 6,500 years, ending at about the time the myth-makers believed Earth was made out of nothing by magic, complete with a dome over it to cover the small, flat place they called home? They would have known nothing about immigration from China or from the Korean Peninsula into the Japanese archipelago that brought this period of isolation to an end and probably resulted in the present-day population of Japan.

So, of course, they saw nothing wrong with inventing a tale about a genocidal flood killing everyone apart from 8 related survivors, or of building a tower to reach above the dome or about a panicking god making them all speak different languages so they couldn't work in cooperative groups any more, and yet, if their tale is to be believed, the descendants of those few survivors, all speaking different languages, migrated to places like China, Korea and Japan where they all adopted the local language and writing that had been used for several thousand years, forgot all about Noah and his flood and invented new gods and religions, whereas the myth-makers of Canaan remembered it all word-perfect in every detail...

So, how do we know the record they left was wrong?

Refuting Creationism - Humans Were Using Fire In Southeast Asia 42,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Access to T3 (lit area)

Photograph: V.C. Hernandez.

Fossils and fires: insights into early modern human activity in the jungles of Southeast Asia – News

At the same time that creationists believe their small god was making a universe consisting of a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East, then magicking a man a d a woman without ancestors, real humans were living in the jungles of Southeast Asia and making camp fires, around which they were probably making up origin myths just like the Middle Eastern Bronze Age pastoralists did. The difference was, their myths didn't get written down and included in a book declared to be the inerrant word of a magic man in the sky, so they aren't available to fool gullible people with today.

Instead, they left tangible records of their activities that scientists are now discovering and dating to between 52,000 and 10,000 years ago; records moreover that if the campfire tales of the Middle East had any truth in them would have been swept away and destroyed or covered with a deep layer of silt containing the bodies and remains of the animals and plants destroyed in the mythical global genocidal flood inflicted on the planet by an irascible magic despot.

Ironically, the human remains found buried in sediment in a cave floor were probably washed into the cave by a local flood, so all the other fossils at that location are also of local species, not the world-wide jumble that a global flood would have produced.

Tell me about the prehistoric history of the humans who occupied the Tam Pà Ling cave in Laos, please. The Tam Pà Ling cave, located in northern Laos, has yielded some of the most significant prehistoric human remains in Southeast Asia, providing key insights into the early human migrations in the region. The cave, whose name means "Cave of the Monkeys," sits at around 1,170 meters above sea level in the Annamite Mountains, making it an ideal site for shelter during prehistoric times.

Key Findings and Human Occupation
The site became famous when researchers unearthed several human fossils, including a cranium and jawbones, that have been radiocarbon dated between 46,000 and 63,000 years ago. These discoveries suggest that anatomically modern humans (*Homo sapiens*) were present in Southeast Asia much earlier than previously believed. The remains from Tam Pà Ling are considered some of the oldest evidence of modern humans in mainland Asia.

Significance in Human Migration
The fossils found in Tam Pà Ling have played an essential role in understanding the "Out of Africa" migration, where *Homo sapiens* spread from Africa to the rest of the world. The cave’s location, relatively close to the Mekong River, is thought to have been part of a corridor that early humans used as they moved from Africa through the Middle East, into South Asia, and ultimately into Southeast Asia and Australia.

The discovery of such early modern human remains in Laos supports the theory that early humans reached Southeast Asia via inland routes, rather than following only coastal paths. This inland route theory aligns with the ecological diversity of the region, which would have provided rich resources for early hunter-gatherer groups.

Anatomical Evidence
The fossils found in Tam Pà Ling are distinctly modern in their features. The skulls exhibit traits that are fully consistent with *Homo sapiens*, such as a high forehead, rounded braincase, and small, flat faces. However, some subtle characteristics, like thicker bones and robustness, indicate potential regional adaptations or the influence of archaic hominins like *Homo erectus* or *Denisovans*, both of whom were known to have existed in the broader region.

Cultural Context
No significant cultural artifacts, such as tools or other evidence of complex human behavior, have been found alongside the fossils in Tam Pà Ling, which leaves some aspects of the lives of these early inhabitants uncertain. Nonetheless, their presence in the cave hints at how early humans adapted to diverse environments—ranging from highland caves like Tam Pà Ling to coastal areas.

Importance in the Global Human Evolution Story
The discovery of these early human remains in Tam Pà Ling has contributed to the global conversation on human evolution. It suggests that *Homo sapiens* coexisted with archaic hominins in Asia longer than once thought. It also challenges the idea that humans primarily spread through coastal routes, indicating that Southeast Asia was likely populated by multiple waves of migration, using both coastal and inland routes.

The Tam Pà Ling site remains an important location for understanding the complexity of early human migration and the spread of *Homo sapiens* across the globe.

The cave is the Tam Pà Ling cave, located in northern Laos where Laotian, French, American and Australian archaeologists have been working for some 14 years to unearth the secrets contained in it.

Now a new study, led by PhD candidate Vito Hernandez and Associate Professor Mike Morley from the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University, SA, Australia, has reconstructed the ground conditions inside the cave between 52,000 and 10,000 years ago. They have just published their findings in Quaternary Science Reviews and announced them in a Flinders University news release:

Fossils and fires: insights into early modern human activity in the jungles of Southeast Asia

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Studying microscopic layers of dirt dug from the Tam Pà Ling cave site in northeastern Laos has provided a team of Flinders University archaeologists and their international colleagues further insights into some of the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in mainland Southeast Asia.

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The site, which has been studied for the past 14 years by a team of Laotian, French, American and Australian scientists, has produced some of the earliest fossil evidence of our direct ancestors in Southeast Asia.

Excavation of the Tam Pà Ling cave

Now a new study, led by PhD candidate Vito Hernandez and Associate Professor Mike Morley from the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, has reconstructed the ground conditions in the cave between 52,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Using a technique known as microstratigraphy at the Flinders Microarchaeology Laboratory, we were able to reconstruct the cave conditions in the past and identify traces of human activities in and around Tam Pà Ling. This also helped us to determine the precise circumstances by which some of the earliest modern human fossils found in Southeast Asia were deposited deep inside.

Vito C Hernandez, co-lead author
Flinders Microarchaeology Laboratory
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Flinders University, South Australia, Australia.

Microstratigraphy allows scientists to study dirt in its smallest detail, enabling them to observe structures and features that preserve information about past environments and even traces of human and animal activity that may have been overlooked during the excavation process due to their minuscule size.

The human fossils discovered at Tam Pà Ling were deposited in the cave between 86,000–30,000 years ago but until now, researchers had not conducted a detailed analysis of the sediments surrounding these fossils to gain an understanding of how they were deposited in the cave or the environmental conditions at the time.

Published in Quaternary Science Reviews, the findings reveal conditions in the cave fluctuated dramatically, going from a temperate climate with frequent wet ground conditions to becoming seasonally dry.

This change in environment influenced the cave’s interior topography and would have impacted how sediments, including human fossils, were deposited within the cave. How early Homo sapiens came to be buried deep within the cave has long been debated, but our sediment analysis indicates that the fossils were washed into the cave as loose sediments and debris accumulating over time, likely carried by water from surrounding hillsides during periods of heavy rainfall.

Associate Professor ,” says Associate Professor W.M. Morley, co-lead author
Flinders Microarchaeology Laboratory
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Flinders University, South Australia, Australia.

The team also identified preserved micro-traces of charcoal and ash in the cave sediments, suggesting that either forest fires occurred in the region during the drier periods, or that humans visiting the cave may have used fire, either in the cave or near the entrance.

This research has allowed our team to develop unprecedented insights into the dynamics of our ancestors as they dispersed through the ever-changing forest covers of Southeast Asia, and during periods of variable regional climate instability.

,Assistant Professor Fabrice Demeter, co-author
Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre
Globe Institute
University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Publication:

VC Hernandez, MW Morley, AM Bacon, P Duringer, KE Westaway, R Joannes-Boyau, JL Ponche, C Zanolli, P Sichanthongtip, S Boualaphane, T Luangkhoth, JJ Hublin, F Demeter
Late Pleistocene–Holocene (52–10 ka) microstratigraphy, fossil taphonomy and depositional environments from Tam Pa Ling cave (northeastern Laos) Quaternary Science Reviews (2024) 108982. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108982

Highlights

• Late Pleistocene-Holocene cave sediments from Tam Pà Ling, northeastern Laos, were geoarchaeologically investigated.
• Microstratigraphic analyses were employed.
• Ground and ambient conditions vary in the cave ∼52–10 ka.

Abstract
Fossil evidence for some of the earliest Homo sapiens presence in mainland Southeast Asia have been recovered from Tam Pà Ling (TPL) cave, northeastern Laos. Taphonomic indicators suggest that these human fossils washed into TPL via gradual colluviation at varying times between MIS 5–3, yet no attempt has been made to situate them within the depositional environments of the cave within these periods. This has precluded a deeper appreciation of their presence there and in the surrounding landscape. In this first microstratigraphic study of TPL, we primarily use sediment micromorphology to reconstruct the depositional environments of the cave, relate these environments with the taphonomic history of the human fossils recovered from the upper 4 m of the excavated sequence, and explore how the sediments can better explain the presence of these humans in the area during MIS 3–1 (52–10 ka). Our results demonstrate changes in local ambient conditions from being temperate to arid, with ground conditions often wet during MIS 3 and becoming increasingly seasonal (wet-dry) during MIS 2–1. The changing cave conditions impacted its interior topography and influenced the way sediments (and fossils) were deposited. Preserved combustion biproducts identified in the sediments suggest two possible scenarios, one where small forest fires may have occurred during periods of regional aridity and/or another where humans visited the cave.

1. Introduction
The excavations in Tam Pà Ling (Cave of Monkeys), northeastern Laos (Fig. 1A), have unearthed a fossil assemblage of Homo sapiens that is unique for the study of Late Pleistocene human evolution in Southeast Asia (SEA) (Demeter et al., 2012; Demeter et al., 2015; Demeter et al., 2017; Shackelford et al., 2018; Freidline et al., 2023). The fossil assemblage is formed of a partial cranium (TPL1), two mandibles (TPL2, TPL3), a partial rib (TPL4), a proximal pedal phalanx (TPL5), a partial frontal (TPL6), and a tibial fragment (TPL7), all excavated from a trench situated deep inside the cave. Although disarticulated, the fossils otherwise display minimal evidence of remobilisation or physical abrasion, a rare occurrence from the region (Lee and Hudock, 2021; Sawafuji et al., 2024). As such, the fossils have helped demonstrate the major morphological variations that existed between the different populations of Homo sapiens in SEA during the Late Pleistocene (Demeter et al., 2017), consequently making Tam Pà Ling (TPL) a key site for the study of the evolution and dispersal of our species in the Far East (Matsumura et al., 2019; Demeter and Bae, 2020; Hublin, 2021.1; McAllister et al., 2022; Sawafuji et al., 2024).

Fig. 1. (A) Location of Tam Pà Ling (20°12′33.41"N, 103°24′22.02"E). Red square indicates the study area. (B) Pà Hang hill with Tam Pà Ling and other studied sites labelled (Photograph: P. Duringer) (C) Access to T3 (lit area) (Photograph: V.C. Hernandez). (D) Plan of Tam Pà Ling (Redrawn after J.-L. Ponche and P. Duringer). (E) Studied section showing locations of micromorphological sampling and levels where TPL1, 2, and 5 were recovered (dashed orange line)

Photograph V.C. Hernandez.

The TPL fossils represent some of the earliest evidence for Homo sapiens in continental SEA, deposited in the cave at different times between Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5b and MIS 3 (∼87–30 ka) (Freidline et al., 2023). Although some of the fossils have been directly dated via uranium–thorium methods, their dates are reported only as minimum age estimates (Demeter et al., 2012, 2015). This is largely due to the unaccounted profiles of uranium from the sampled deposits, noting that tropical environments hold the potential of enhancing heterogeneous distribution of uranium in bones that are chemically weathered in situ. Hence, the modelled depositional ages (2σ) of the containing sediment matrix are preferred when referring to the age of the fossils, with the oldest returned age estimate being ∼86 ka, supporting a much earlier dispersal of Homo sapiens into SEA than previously known. Details of the modelled depositional chronology of TPL are published in Freidline et al. (2023). Whereas palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of the landscape surrounding TPL have provided some context to understand the early dispersal of Homo sapiens in SEA (Milano et al., 2018.1; Bourgon et al., 2021.2; McAllister-Hayward et al., 2024.1), there is still very little understanding of their presence at the site and in the local catchment, other than the occurrence of the fossils. This largely precludes the development of more detailed scenarios for the early Homo sapiens settlement of Asia (Dennell, 2017.1) and achieving a better understanding of their adaptations to environmental changes in tropical landscapes, which are argued to play an important role in human evolution and dispersals in the deep past (Scerri et al., 2022.1 and references therein). In SEA, such knowledge remains elusive due to the limited evidence from the Pleistocene archaeological record and the current resolution of ages that frame the presence of humans at many of the studied sites.

While the ages of the fossils from TPL are well-constrained, the absence of artefacts or occupation surfaces found to date suggests that humans did not intensively occupy the cave during the Late Pleistocene. However, evidence of human presence and occupation at neighbouring sites spanning the Middle Pleistocene to Late Holocene (Demeter et al., 2009; Patole-Edoumba, 2015.1; Bacon et al., 2021.3; Demeter et al., 2022.2, Fig. 1B), and the presence of the fossils from TPL, suggest that humans may have at least visited sporadically or used the cave in the past, even briefly. If so, then traces of their activities from the entrance or even inside might still be preserved, although likely in small quantities, probably degraded, diagenetically altered, or buried beneath limestone slabs.

The research at TPL has simultaneously highlighted the scientific challenges of understanding archaeological site formation processes in the hot and humid tropics (Morley and Goldberg, 2017.2 and references therein), and the need to better understand geomorphological processes that affect the interpretation and dating of fossils from cave sites (Liu et al., 2015.2; Westaway et al., 2017.3; Yao et al., 2020.1). These challenges are made more difficult by the erratic preservation of organic materials in tropical cave environments (Louys et al., 2017.4 and references therein; Smith et al., 2020.2 and references therein), and therefore demand the systematic evaluation of the stratigraphy of a site with the potential to yield bioarchaeological data (e.g., aDNA, proteins) that can inform about humans and their environments in the past (Massilani et al., 2022.3; Morley et al., 2023.1; Aldeias and Stahlschmidt, 2024.2). It is for these reasons that there is a need to better understand the stratigraphy of TPL at various spatial scales (vertical and horizontal) and at finer resolution, with research from other sites in SEA suggesting a geoarchaeology-focused approach to achieve this (O'Connor et al., 2010; Morley, 2017.5).

Sediment micromorphology (microstratigraphy) is one method employed in geoarchaeological research that can help to better understand the geomorphological and site formation processes governing TPL. Research employing this method to study the critical sites for understanding early human evolution and dispersals in SEA show that microstratigraphy can provide a more nuanced picture of local environments in the past, help to reveal more about human adaptations to the different environmental conditions that existed, and temporally resolve the presence of humans on-site and in the immediate catchment (Stephens et al., 2005, 2017.6; Lewis, 2007; Brasseur et al., 2015.3; Mijares, 2017.7; Morley et al., 2017.8; McAdams et al., 2020.3; Anderson et al., 2024.3; Shipton et al., 2024.4). With these in mind, a program of microstratigraphic analysis at TPL was initiated to gain further insights into the history of the site and the taphonomy of the Homo sapiens fossils recovered from there.

To improve the understanding of the history of the site and taphonomy of Homo sapiens fossils recovered from TPL we link the results of the microstratigraphic analysis with loss-on-ignition (LOI) and magnetic susceptibility (χ) analysis of sediments. Both methods provide quick to obtain and accurate determinations of geochemical characteristics that can complement the interpretation of the microstratigraphic record (Stoops, 1978; Macphail and Goldberg, 2017.9). LOI, for instance, has complemented microstratigraphic analysis of archaeological cave sites in Malaysia, northern Vietnam and Thailand, resulting in a clearer understanding of the depositional environments that existed in these caves in the past (Hunt et al., 2007.1; Stephens et al., 2016; McAdams et al., 2020.3; Saminpanya and Denkitkul, 2020.4). While χ has been used at TPL to infer moisture availability that helped to reconstruct the vegetation surrounding the cave during the Late Pleistocene (Milano et al., 2018.1) and allowed insights into the timing of sediment delivery into the cave during periods of strengthened monsoons (Freidline et al., 2023). By linking the results of these analyses with that of the microstratigraphy, it is hoped that a clearer understanding of site formation and better explanation of the presence of humans at TPL is achieved.

Here, we present the results of the program to analyse the microstratigraphy, LOI and χ of sediments in TPL. Our geoarchaeological work aims to prove the efficacy of a microstratigraphic approach to understanding the important stratigraphy of the site by reconstructing its ground conditions, clarifying the taphonomic history of the fossils related to the depositional history of the cave, and exploring the potential archaeology within its sediments. By doing so, we try to resolve how past conditions in TPL (sediment, cave, and catchment) affect the interpretation of human presence at the site and explore how this information changes the narrative of Late Pleistocene human evolution and dispersals in the Far East. We focus the analyses on the upper 4 m Late Pleistocene–Holocene sediment sequence exposed in the 7 m-deep excavation inside the cave. This upper sequence was securely dated to between 46 ± 6 ka and 13 ± 3 ka (Freidline et al., 2023) and was where the human fossils TPL1, 2 and 5 were recovered (Demeter et al., 2012, Demeter et al., 2015, Demeter et al., 2017).

The refutation of creationism continues unabated. Not only were there people living in South East Asia tens of thousands of years before creationists think Earth was created by magic, but the remains proving it were washed into the cave by a local flood, which, had it been anything resembling creationism's favourite genocidal flood, would also have washed in non-local debris. And that simply never happened, then or later.

And, to make it doubly difficult for creationists to explain without the usual lies and misrepresentations of the dating methods used, the authors have allowed for possible errors by using the minimum ages of the fossils. In other words, if creationists are right about errors in the dating methods, these fossils are even older than creationists dogma says they should be.

And so creationism staggers on under the load of yet more evidence that it is just a childish fairytale.

Refuting Creationism - How Pterosaurs Became Flying Giants - 252-66 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Representation of pterosaurs

AI generated image (ChatGPT4o)

Life restoration of a group of giant azhdarchids, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, foraging on a Cretaceous fern prairie.
A juvenile titanosaur has been procured by one pterosaur, while the others stalk through the scrub in search of small vertebrates and other foodstuffs.

Witton MP, Naish D (2008)

Pterosaurs needed feet on the ground to become giants | News | University of Leicester

New research by scientists led by the University of Leicester has filled in another of those gaps much sought after by creationists as somewhere to fit their ever-shrinking little god. The gap was in our understanding of how and when the pterosaurs evolved to their gigantic size from their small beginnings.

Because this took place over the almost 190 million years that pterosaurs were around before going extinct, along with the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago, most creationists will probably have ignored it because it all happened so long before 'Creation Week'. Any reference to gaps in the fossil record that long ago will mean simultaneously holding two mutually exclusive views about the age of Earth, with all the painful cognitive dissonance that entails, so creationists frauds will most likely have kept quiet about it if they were even aware of it.

Refuting Creationism - Living Bacteria Sealed Inside 2 Billion-Year-Old Rock

Microbial cells stained green

© Y. Suzuki, S. J. Webb, M. Kouduka et al. 2024/ Microbial Ecology

2-billion-year-old rock home to living microbes | The University of Tokyo

The Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC), South Africa.
This picture shows a very famous outcrop where nearly horizontal black and white layers are observed. The BIC made of layers of igneous rock in a basin shape, formed over a period of about 1 million years, after which it seems to have barely changed.

© Y. Suzuki.

In today's incidental rebuttal of creationist dogma, archaeologists have discovered living colonies of microbes sealed within cracks in 2-billion-year-old rocks from South Africa.

The microbes became sealed in the cracks by tightly-packed layers of clay so effectively creating sealed chambers from which nothing could escape and, more importantly, nothing could enter. They have survived over geological time by firstly having an extremely low metabolic rate, with a generation time measured in thousands, even millions of years, compared to surface-dwelling microbes with generation times in hours or minutes, and by utilising sulphates as their energy source.

What they demonstrate, apart from the fallacy of Earth only being made by magic 10,000 years ago, is that in a highly stable environment, a plentiful source of energy and the ability to recycle their dead with almost no loss of energy, there is no environmental pressure to evolve, so the microbes have remained virtually unchanged for hundreds of millions, even billions of years.

Refuting Creationism - An Improved Method For Analysing Ancient Microfossils To Discover How Life Evolved

Research News - Unveiling Ancient Life: New Method Sheds Light on Early Cellular and Metabolic Evolution | Tohoku University Global Site

One of the clutch of science publications which casually and unintentionally refute creationism to be published today, comes in the form of a paper by a team from the University of Tokyo, Tohoku University and Kochi University, Japan, which describes a new method for analysing ancient microfossils, and so discovering more about how key processes evolved in early cellular life.

The purpose of this is to discover not whether (that is never in doubt) but the precise details of how and when these key processes evolved.

Refuting Creationism - Humans Probably Exterminated The Pygmy Hippos and Elephants On Cyprus - 3-4,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Cypriot pygmy megafauna,
Troodos Mountains in the background

AI generated (ChatGPT4o)

Cypriot pygmy hippos, Hippopotamus minor

Source

Small populations of Stone Age people drove dwarf hippos and elephants to extinction on Cyprus

Today's routine refutation of creationism comes in the form of an article about the pygmy fauna on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, that, along with similar pygmy fauna on other Mediterranean islands, was probably exterminated by early modern humans 3,000 - 4,000 years before the mythical 'Creation Week'.

The article is by Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Node Leader in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, Flinders University; Christian Reepmeyer, Deputy Director - Oceania, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut - German Archaeological Institute, and Theodora Moutsiou, Special Scientist, University of Cyprus, published in The Conversation. It is reprinted here under a Creative Commons licence, reformatted for stylistic consistency.

But first a little background to the Mediterranean island pygmy fauna:

Refuting Creationism - Migration Into Iberia When Creationists Think Earth Was Under A Genocidal Flood

AI generated depiction of Yamnaya life in Central Asia

ChatGPT4o

AI-gerated depiction of a Yamnaya migration caravan.
(Spot the errors!)

Theory of a violent invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in Late Prehistory now questioned - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - UAB Barcelona

Had the ancient inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula contrived to get their oral history and origin myths written down in the same way that the Bronze Age Canaanite pastoralists did, we might have had a slightly more accurate and less implausible history. It certainly wouldn't have had daft tales about a global genocidal flood just at the time newcomers with new ideas, a new language and new techniques of animal husbandry were migrating into the area having traversed Western Europe from the Steppes of Central Asia.

Unlike the parochial Canaanite nonsense, it might well have had people, places and animals from more than a day or two's walk from the Canaanite Hills.

Archaeological evidence shows that, at the time when creationist superstition says everyone had been drowned in a genocidal, global flood several thousand feet deep, by a vindictive god, people originating on the Steppes of Central Asia were migrating across western Europe and into the Iberian Peninsula, as though nothing unusual was happening.

Malevolent Designer News - What Was The Divine Malevolence Doing With Plague Bacteria 5000 years ago?

Spread of Yersinia pestis (Black Death)

AI generated

In the study, scientists performed a genetic analysis on the bones of 133 human individuals from late Neolithic megalithic graves near Warburg in North Rhine-Westphalia. The team discovered the genome of the bacterium Yersinia pestis in the bone samples of two independent individuals. Additionally, previously published genomic data from a bone sample of a Neolithic dog found in Ajvide (Sweden) suggested a potential infection route.

© Carsten Reckweg, CRC 1266/Uni Kiel

Neolithic plague bacterium did not cause mass mortality

What was creationism's divine malevolence up to with one of its most successful pathogens with which if killed hundreds of millions and changes society - the Yersinia pestis bacterium which caused the waves of black death and plague that regularly spread across the world?

It seems to have been experimenting, possibly trying to either perfect its virulence or work out the best delivery system to ensure it got to and killed as many people as possible. Sometimes, entire villages were wiped out. Not far from where I currently live are a couple of former villages that disappeared during the black death - the village of Woodperry near Oxford is an example, surviving now only in the name 'Woodperry Road' and a farmhouse later built on the site.

But 5000 years ago, Y. pestis doesn't seem to have been anything like a virulent as it became in the 12th Century. According to a recent discovery, it was capable of killing the occasional neolithic farmer but not of becoming a major pandemic able to kill hundreds of thousands and depopulate vast areas.

So, what changed, and more to the point, which explanation would a creationist prefer; the one which blames their god or the one which attributes it to evolution, climate change and cultural changes in human society? One thing we can be sure of though is the Michael J. Behe's biologically nonsensical religious apologetic of 'genetic entropy', causing the bacterium to 'devolve' away from an assumed created perfection (as though that were remotely possible), can be ruled out, because whatever the changes were, it led to a massive increase in the number of Y. pestis organisms, so was indisputably beneficial to it - in other words, in classical terms, it evolved.

Refuting Creationism - How Modern Humans Spread Across Europe Thousands Of Years Before 'Creation Week'

Imaginative reconstruction of a European scene in the Aurignacian

AI generated by ChatGPT4.0

The distributions of density in (P 100 km−2) for a 43, b 42, c 41, d 40, e 39 and f 38 ka are shown. The symbols represent the AUR archaeological sites for different phases (full black dots: Phase 1; open circle: Phase 2; and red triangles: Core sites).

New population model identifies phases of human dispersal across Europe

There are of course, very many things Bible-literalist creationists need to ignore, lie about and/or misrepresent to maintain the delusion of Earth being just a few thousand years old, not the least of which is the abundant geological and archaeological evidence of human activity long before they believe Earth was created by magic out of nothing in the so-called 'Creation Week'.

Their handicap is in trying to compress the entire 13.8 billion year history of the Universe, the 3.8 billion year history of planet Earth and the 2-3 million year history of human evolution, into 10,000 or fewer years, and then trying to ignore the evidence of continuous, unbroken cultural history extending from way before a global genocidal flood, right through it and continuing to modern times, as though such a flood never happened.

And, as is normal with science, a paper just published in Nature Communications, gives them more evidence to ignore, lie about and/or misrepresent. It shows the history of early modern human migration across Europe during the Aurignacian (43,000 -32,000 years ago). The research comes from a team from the University of Cologne, Germany, led by Professor Dr Yaping Shao. It is explained in a University of Cologne press release:

Refuting Creationism - The Fossil Record Shows Climate Change - 59-51 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Microscopic fossil foraminifera shells

This article is best read on a laptop, desktop or tablet

What microscopic fossilized shells tell us about ancient climate change – @theU

The bad news for creationists continues unabated as science discovers more facts, as we would expect of a counter-factual superstition.

This time it's news that new research led by University of Utah geoscientists has shown how there is a record of climate change in the fossil record in the form of traces of boron isotopes in the fossilised shells of microscopic foraminifera.

The record, 59-51 million years before creationists think Earth was created, is just another record of events in that 99.9975% of Earth's history that creationists try to shoe-horn into 10,000 to make it seem like their childish creation myth has some merit.

The record of change itself depends not on radioactive decay rates but on the ratios of stable isotopes of boron that get incorporated in the shells of microscopic foraminifera during their growth and then remain locked up as their bodies fossilise in marine sediment.

Dating of this marine sediment is done using several strands of evidence, one of which is U-Pb dating of zircon crystals, and all of which converge on the same dates (see the AI panel on the right).
What changes is the ratio of ¹¹B (δ¹¹B) incorporated in the shells of foraminifera during their lifetime, and this is related to the pH of the seawater. pH of sea water is in turn determined by the level of atmospheric CO₂ - the higher the level of CO₂, the lower the pH due to dissolved carbonic acid H₃CO₄.

Refuting Creationism - What Neanderthals Were Doing In The Pyrenees 90,000 To 55,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Abric Pizarro

Artist's impression: Iberian Neanderthals taste wild mushrooms, pine nuts and forest moss.

Image: Abel Grau, CSIC Communication.

Rare archaeological site reveals ‘surprising’ Neanderthal behaviour at Pyrenees foothills

The flood of science papers that casually and unintentionally refute creationism shows no signs of slackening; if anything, it's reaching the status of a tsunami. This is of course a function of the fact that with 99.9975% of the history of Earth occurred before creationists believe Earth was magically created out of nothing, which gives a very high probability that anything about the geological or biological history of Earth will have occurred in that long pre-'Creation Week' period.

So, it shouldn't surprise anyone that a Team Led by researchers from the Australian National University and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain, have uncovered evidence of Neanderthal habitation of a rock shelter known as the Abric Pizarro in the Pyrenean foothills, in south-western France. The discovery challenges the belief that Neanderthals lived by hunting large animals. The evidence is that that community of Neanderthals consumed a wide variety of small animals and plants.

What can you tell me about the Abric Pizarro in the Pyrenean foothills, and the Neanderthal community who lived there between 100,000 and 65,000 years ago? The Abric Pizarro is an archaeological site located in the Pyrenean foothills of southwestern France. This site has gained significant attention for its well-preserved evidence of Neanderthal habitation, particularly during the Middle Paleolithic period, between roughly 100,000 and 65,000 years ago. The site provides crucial insights into the lives of the Neanderthals who occupied this region, offering a window into their daily activities, environmental adaptation, and survival strategies.

Geographic and Environmental Context
The Abric Pizarro site is a rock shelter situated within a broader landscape that would have been rich in resources for the Neanderthals. The Pyrenean foothills offered a diverse environment with access to water sources, varied vegetation, and an abundance of game. This location would have been ideal for the seasonal movement of hunter-gatherer groups, providing shelter from the elements and proximity to essential resources. Neanderthal Habitation and Activities
The archaeological evidence at Abric Pizarro indicates that Neanderthals used this site repeatedly over thousands of years. The layers of sediment found in the rock shelter contain numerous artifacts, including stone tools, animal bones, and other material remains that suggest a range of activities took place here.

1. Stone Tools: The lithic assemblage from Abric Pizarro is characteristic of the Mousterian tradition, which is associated with Neanderthals across Europe. These tools were primarily made from locally available stone and include hand axes, scrapers, and points. These implements were used for various purposes, including hunting, butchering animals, and processing plant materials.
2. Hunting and Subsistence: The faunal remains discovered at the site provide evidence of the Neanderthal diet, which was heavily reliant on large game such as deer, horses, and possibly even smaller mammals. The presence of cut marks on bones suggests that the Neanderthals at Abric Pizarro were proficient hunters and that they butchered animals on-site for food.
3. Seasonal Occupation: Some researchers believe that the site was likely used seasonally, with Neanderthals returning to the shelter at certain times of the year when game was more plentiful or when the weather made other areas less hospitable. This seasonal occupation would have been part of a broader pattern of movement across the landscape, typical of Neanderthal groups who adapted to changing environments over time.
4. Social Organization: While direct evidence of social structure is difficult to ascertain from a single site, the repeated use of Abric Pizarro over many millennia suggests that it may have been a significant location for the Neanderthal community. The organization of space within the shelter, as inferred from the distribution of artifacts, indicates that different areas may have been designated for specific activities, reflecting a level of social organization.

Significance of Abric Pizarro
The importance of Abric Pizarro lies in its contribution to the broader understanding of Neanderthal life in Europe. The site provides a snapshot of how these early humans adapted to the challenging environments of the Pyrenean foothills. It also highlights the technological skills of Neanderthals, particularly in stone tool production and hunting.

Moreover, the long duration of occupation at Abric Pizarro offers valuable data for understanding the changes in Neanderthal behavior over time, including how they responded to climatic shifts and environmental changes during the Middle Paleolithic. This site is a key part of the mosaic of Neanderthal archaeology in Europe, helping to build a more complete picture of their way of life.

In summary, Abric Pizarro is a significant archaeological site that sheds light on the lives of Neanderthals in the Pyrenean foothills, revealing aspects of their subsistence strategies, technological abilities, and social organization during a crucial period in prehistory.

The Australian National University and Autonomous University of Barcelona team, led by Dr. Sofia C. Samper Carro, have just published their findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science. It is also explained in an Australian National University Press release:

Rare archaeological site reveals ‘surprising’ Neanderthal behaviour at Pyrenees foothills

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An unchartered area in the foothills of the Southern Pyrenees in Spain is providing insights into a poorly known period of Neanderthal history, offering clues that could help archaeologists uncover the mystery of their downfall, according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (CEPAP-UAB).

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Abric Pizarro is one of only a few sites worldwide dating from 100,000 to 65,000 years ago during a period called MIS 4. The researchers have gathered hundreds of thousands of artefacts, including stone tools, animal bones and other evidence, providing significant data about the Neanderthal way of life during that time — largely unknown in human history until now.

The findings reveal Neanderthals were able to adapt to their environment, challenging the archaic humans’ reputation as slow-footed cavemen and shedding light on their survival and hunting skills.

Lead author and ANU archaeologist, Dr Sofia Samper Carro, said that the findings show that Neanderthals knew the best ways to exploit the area and territory and were resilient through harsh climate conditions.

Our surprising findings at Abric Pizarro show how adaptable Neanderthals were. The animal bones we have recovered indicate that they were successfully exploiting the surrounding fauna, hunting red deer, horses and bison, but also eating freshwater turtles and rabbits, which imply a degree of planning rarely considered for Neanderthals.

Dr Sofia C. Samper Carro, lead author
School of Culture, History and Language
College of Asia and the Pacific
Australian National University, Australia.

According to the researchers, these new insights challenge widespread beliefs that Neanderthals only hunted large animals, such as horses and rhinoceros.

Through the bones that we are finding, which display cut marks, we have direct proof that Neanderthals were capable of hunting small animals. The bones on this site are very well preserved, and we can see marks of how Neanderthals processed and butchered these animals. Our analysis of the stone artefacts also demonstrates variability in the type of tools produced, indicating Neanderthals’ capability to exploit the available resources in the area.

Dr Sofia C. Samper Carro.

Shedding light on this crucial transitional period helps archaeologists edge closer to solving a mystery that has plagued researchers for decades: what drove the Neanderthals to extinction? According to the researchers, finding sites like Abric Pizarro, from this specific and not well-recorded period, gives information about how Neanderthals lived when modern humans were not in the area yet and shows that they were thriving.

ANU archaeologist Dr Sofia Samper Carro says the insights found at Abric Pizarro challenge widespread beliefs that Neanderthals only hunted large animals.

Photo: Dr Sofia Samper Carro.

The unique site at Abric Pizarro gives a glimpse of Neanderthal behaviour in a landscape they had been roaming for hundreds of thousands of years. Neanderthals disappeared around 40,000 years ago. Suddenly, we modern humans appear in this region of the Pyrenees, and the Neanderthals disappear. But before that, Neanderthals had been living in Europe for almost 300,000 years. They clearly knew what they were doing. They knew the area and how to survive for a long time.

This is one of the most interesting things about this site, to have this unique information about when Neanderthals were alone and living in harsh conditions and how they thrived before modern humans appeared.

Dr Sofia C. Samper Carro.

Thanks to modern excavation techniques, Abric Pizarro and other nearby Neanderthal sites provide fine-grain data to understand Neanderthal behaviour.

We 3D plot every single remain found larger than one to two centimetres. This makes our work slow, and we have been excavating some of these sites for over 20 years, but it turns into a uniquely precise recording of the sites. We are interested in how the different data relates to each other, from stone tools to bones and hearths. This more thorough excavation gives archaeologists information on how Neanderthals lived and how long they were in an area. It’s not only the individual materials that give us clues, but also where exactly they are found in relation to other materials on the site that helps us understand how and when Neanderthals were visiting these sites. Were they settled there or just passing through?

Dr Sofia C. Samper Carro.

Excavation and research in Abric Pizarro are part of Dr Samper Carro’s DECRA project. It also consists of one of the field schools offered by the ANU School of Culture, History and Language. Research in the Catalan Pre-Pyrenees is supported by local collaborators from CEPAP-UAB, The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Culture Department of the Catalan Government. The research is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Highlights

• New archaeological site in the Pre-Pyrenees to study Neanderthal lifeways.
• Chronometric ages from Abric Pizarro confirm its MIS 4 chronology.
• Palaeoenvironmental data contribute to MIS 4 climatic interpretations.
• Faunal and lithic assemblages indicate Neanderthal adaptability and resilience.

Abstract
Extensive research carried out during the last 30 years in the lowermost foothills of the Southern Pyrenees has revealed the significance of this area for studying Neanderthal lifestyle and settlement histories in the Iberian Peninsula. With a large number of cave and rock shelter sites, broad-ranging chronologies, and relatively well-known sedimentation rates and environmental conditions, this enclave continues to improve our knowledge about Neanderthal behaviour in Western Europe.

Here we present the chronostratigraphic, technological, faunal, and palaeoenvironmental results from Abric Pizarro, a recently discovered site from the region. Its archaeological sequence is centred on MIS 4, a poorly known period in Neanderthal history. The application of three different dating methods (newly obtained single-grain optically stimulated luminescence and U-series fossil teeth ages, in addition to previously published thermoluminescence ages) provides an accurate chronology for a site where the exceptional preservation of faunal remains leads to significant interpretations of Neanderthal hunting abilities and adaptability. Moreover, analysis of the lithic assemblage, as well as preliminary palaeoenvironmental data, are used to provide insights into the degree to which chronocultural or palaeoenvironmental factors were responsible for some of the significant differences observed among the four archaeological units explored in Abric Pizarro to date. Our results contribute to discussion about Neanderthal resilience and their livelihood before their disappearance from the archaeological record.

1. Introduction
Since the discovery of the first Neanderthal fossils in the 19th century, these hominins have been a sustained focus of study. Researchers have strived to identify anatomical and physiological similarities and differences between our closest relatives and anatomically modern humans (AMHs), their phylogenetic position, as well as suggesting factors that contributed to their demise around 40ka years ago (e.g. Bailey and Lynch, 2005; Bocherens and Drucker, 2006; Banks et al., 2008; Churchill, 2014; Villa and Roebroeks, 2014.1; Agustí and Rubio-Campillo, 2017; Banks et al., 2021; Romagnoli et al., 2022; Gonzalez et al., 2023). This information has been mainly gained from archaeological deposits dated to the Last Interglacial cycles during the Late Pleistocene -MIS 5 (ca. 130-71ka) and MIS 3 (57-30ka)-. However, to fully understand Neanderthal ways of life in the millennia before their extinction, further research is needed to characterize the preceding glacial maxima (MIS 4; 71-57ka), at both regional and local scales.

MIS 4 is generally characterized as a sub-continental scale glaciation over northern Europe, coupled with dry conditions in continental eastern Europe (Helmens, 2014.2). The ice volume maximum, centred at 65 ka, was preceded by a progressive increase in ice volume through MIS 5 and a decrease in summer insolation (e.g. Sánchez-Goñi, 2022.1). Although these global environmental conditions are relatively well-known from environmental records in central and northern Europe and the Levant, there are few site-specific palaeoclimatic proxies in the Iberian Peninsula and western Europe, with scarce data available to understand local environmental conditions in these regions during MIS 4 (Fig. 1). Nonetheless, research on glacial and fluvioglacial deposits in river valleys in NE Spain provide data to interpret glacial-interglacial cycles in this region from ca. 70ka onwards. In the Aragon Valley glacier, evidence from moraine M2 dated the Last Maximum Ice Extent (LMIE) around 68 ± 7 ka (García-Ruiz et al., 2013), also identified in the Cinca and Gállego Rivers and associated to a strong increase in fluvial discharge and sediments availability related to the transition to deglaciation (Peña et al., 2004; Lewis et al., 2009). Other nearby moraines also confirm evidence for a LMIE event in the central Pre-Pyrenees during the MIS 4 (Sancho et al., 2003, 2018; Turu et al., 2023.1).

Fig. 1. Map of the Iberian Peninsula with location of the sites mentioned in the text. 1) Abric Pizarro; 2) Estret de Tragó; 3) Cova Gran de Santa Linya; 4) Roca dels Bous; 5) Abric Romaní; 6) Arlampe; 7) Padul; 8) Villarquemado; 9) Lezetxiki; 10) Atxagakoa; 11) Covalejos; 12) Roca San Miguel; 13) Fuente del Trucho; 14) Fuente de San Cristóbal; 15) Moros de Gabasa; 16) Abric del Pastor, 17) Teixoneres; 18) Cova del Toll.

Moreover, some recent reviews of palaeobotanical data from archaeological sites in the Iberian Peninsula include sites with records dating to MIS 4 located in mediterranean (Abric Romani and Abric Pastor) and Atlantic/Euro-siberian (Axlor) bioregions (Ochando et al., 2022.2; Revelles et al., 2022.3). In Abric Romaní (Capellades, Barcelona), there is a dominance of Pinus throughout the sequence, with a phase of climate warming identified around 70–67 ka, characterized by higher percentages of arboreal pollen and thermophilic taxa (evergreen Quercus and Olea-Phillyrea), This phase was interrupted by a period of cooling between 66 and 59ka characterized by an increase in steppic taxa (Poaceae and Artemisia), followed by an increase in meso and thermophilic taxa (e.g. Burjachs et al., 2012; Revelles et al., 2022.3). Multiproxy analyses conducted from the MIS 4 occupations at Abric del Pastor (Alcoy, Alicante) indicate a mosaic of biotopes, with predominantly cold conditions (Connolly et al., 2019). In the site of Axlor (Biscay) in northern Spain, pollen studies indicate that during MIS 4, the landscape surrounding the site was dominated by grasses and heather, with patchy evergreen-boreal forest (Demuro et al., 2023.2).

In addition to pollen data from archaeological sites, the pollen cores extracted from the Padul wetland (Granada) and the Villarquemado palaeolake (Teruel) provide significant pollen reference sequences from mediterranean bioregions. The Padul 15-05 sediment core contains a continuous sedimentary and palaeoenvironmental record of the last ca. 200,000 ka, with two pollen zones attributed to MIS 4 (Zones 3a and 2c) (Camuera et al., 2019.1; Ochando et al., 2022.2). Zone 3a shows a decline in arboreal pollen relative to the previous zone, with an average of ca. 10% in Quercus total, with some peaks for Alnus, Abies and Cedrus (1.5%) and Pinus averaging 57%. There is a significant pollen change in Zone 2c (60-43ka), with relatively high Mediterranean forest values until ca. 51ka BP, when the last occurrence of Abies is recorded and Pinus show a similar average percentage as the previous zone (ca. 53%). An interesting ecological change from zone 3a to 2c at Padul is the loss of heathland taxa (Ericacea and Cistaceae) and their replacement with xerophytes (Artemisia and Amaranthaceae) (Camuera et al., 2019.1).

The Villarquemado core is an interesting case study to address palaeoenvironmental conditions in continental areas influenced by climatic extremes, similar to those observed in the southeastern Pre-Pyrenees. In Villarquemado, the pollen zone VIL-10 (71–57.5 ka) is characterized by the absence of Mediterranean taxa, with evergreen Quercus and Juniperus disappearing from the record, while aquatics and hygrophytes fluctuate, likely indicating intense environmental changes (González-Sampériz et al., 2020). This replacement of Mediterranean woody elements with mesophytic ones is similar to that observed in sites like Abric Romani, coupled with an abrupt contraction in Juniperus and an expansion of Pinus (Burjachs et al., 2012). Other persistent trees are deciduous Quercus at the beginning of the MIS 4 and cold-tolerant species such as Betula and Alnus. In general, the MIS 4 assemblage from Villarquemado suggests cold and relatively humid conditions (González-Sampériz et al., 2020). These local analyses remark the complexity of environmental responses to climatic changes observed in these sites, while highlighting gaps in our current knowledge about regional palaeoenvironmental conditions during MIS 4 in the Iberian Peninsula.

Focusing on Neanderthal subsistence, the few faunal assemblages documented in Iberian sites dated to the MIS 4 display a relatively wide range of species, with variations in the taxonomic representation likely to be related to the orographic location of the sites as well as biogeographic conditions (Fig. 1). In the north of the Iberian Peninsula, the fauna assemblages from levels B, C and D (50.7 ± 3.5–70.4 ± 5.3ka) of Axlor (Biscay) show a diversified fauna, with a progressive decrease of cervids, stability in the number of caprids (wild goat), and an increase in the number of large animals, especially equids (González et al., 2005.1; Demuro et al., 2023.2). In Arlampe (Biscay), faunal assemblages dated to the MIS 5/4 transition (70.6ka) are dominated by caprines (Capra pyrenaica and Rupicapra pyrenaica), low number of cervid remains, and no equids (Arceredillo et al., 2013.1; Rios-Garaizar et al., 2015). The faunal assemblage for level V from Lezetxiki (Gipuzkoa; 57 ± 2–70±9ka), disregarding the large number of ursids likely related to natural accumulations, yielded large numbers of Cervus elaphus remains, followed by Bos/Bison (Falguères et al., 2005.2; Lazuén and Altuna, 2012.1). In Atxagakoa (Biscay), deposits dated to MIS 4 show deer as the main taxon (Castaños et al., 2004.1; Yravedra and Cobo-Sánchez, 2015.1). In Covalejos cave (Cantabria), the faunal assemblage throughout the sequence is equally dominated by cervids (ca. 90%), with indicators of a specialisation for hunting juvenile individuals (Castaños, 2021.1). In the central plateau, chamois and ibex are represented from MIS 5 to MIS 3, with an increase in their representation after 70ka, although the presence of large bovids (Bos/Bison) and cervids is also recorded (e.g. Díez, 2007; Arceredillo and Díez, 2009.1; Yravedra and Cobo-Sánchez, 2015.1).

One of the reasons for the gaps in our knowledge about Neanderthal behaviour during MIS 4 is the scarcity of sites across the European continent dated to this period, which contrasts with the remarkable number of sites dated to MIS 5 and MIS 3. The limited number of MIS 4 sites has been attributed to population shrinkage, as well as a contraction and shift in the range of suitable habitats exploited by Western European Neanderthal populations (Stewart, 2005.3; Banks et al., 2021), although other factors, such as poor preservation of sites from this period should not be disregarded.

During the last few decades, research on several sites located in the Southern Pre-Pyrenees have revealed the significance of this region for studying Neanderthal lifestyles (Fig. 1). In the Pre-Pyrenees of Huesca, the oldest Neanderthal site yet identified consists of Roca San Miguel, with a chronology ranging from MIS6d to MIS5a, and evidence of site abandonment during the MIS 4 (Montes et al., 2021.2; Peña-Monné et al., 2021.3). In the same region, the younger sites of Fuente del Trucho (Mir and Salas, 2000; Montes et al., 2006.1), Fuentes de San Cristóbal (Rosell et al., 2000.1; Menéndez et al., 2009.2) and Gabasa (Montes et al., 2006.1 Santamaría et al., 2010) provide evidence of Neanderthal presence during MIS 3 (Fig. 1). In the Noguera county (Lleida), the earliest Neanderthal occupations documented comprise the lower units from Estret de Tragó, dated to the MIS 5 (130-90ka), followed by MIS 3 occupations documented in Tragó upper units, Roca dels Bous and Cova Gran de Santa Linya (Casanova et al., 2009.3; Martínez Moreno et al., 2010.1; Mora et al., 2011, 2018.1; de la Torre et al., 2012.2). Since 2007, field prospection programs have identified several other prehistoric and historical settlements in the eastern Pre-Pyrenees region (Pizarro et al., 2013.2). Among the new prehistoric sites identified, Abric Pizarro has yielded Middle Palaeolithic techno-complexes that indicate this site could contain occupations predating MIS 3, thereby representing a unique site for understanding the chronostratigraphy of Neanderthal presence in the southeastern Pre-Pyrenees.

An introduction to the geochronology and a preliminary analysis of the fauna and stone artefacts documented in the more recent archaeological units from Abric Pizarro was recently published (Vega Bolivar et al., 2018.2). However, validation of the site geochronology, as well as the development of new research lines, comprising palaeoenvironmental and biomolecular data, triggered new excavation seasons and analyses. Here we present the results from the new chrononometric and palaeoenvironmental data obtained from Abric Pizarro, as well as the preliminary analysis of the complete fauna and lithic assemblage from the site.

Fig. 2. A) General view Abric Pizarro rockshelter; B) Map of the area of study with nearby archaeological sites; C) Lithostratigraphic column of Abric Pizarro with approximated location of samples taken for OSL and U-Th new ages. Ground surface refers to the original surface of the deposit before excavation began. A description of the profile is provided in section 2.1. D) Photograph of the west section of the deposit, with vertical distribution of the archaeological units identified superimposed.

Samper Carro, Sofia C.; Vega Bolivar, Susana; Pizarro Barbera, Jezabel; Westbury, Eboni; Connor, Simon; Allué, Ethel; Benito-Calvo, Alfonso; Arnold, Lee J.; Demuro, Martina; Price, Gilbert J.; Martinez-Moreno, Jorge; Mora, Rafael
Living on the edge: Abric Pizarro, a MIS 4 Neanderthal site in the lowermost foothills of the southeastern Pre-Pyrenees (Lleida, Iberian Peninsula)
Journal of Archaeological Science (2024) 169 106038 DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2024.106038

Copyright: © 2024 The authors.
Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

Creationists might like to ignore the fact that the archaeological evidence shows how Neanderthals adapted to climate changes and resulting changes in local flora and fauna over the 35,000 or so years that they inhabited the site, and how well this evidence meshes with other evidence of climate change. These multiple strands of converging evidence are of course commonplace in Archaeology and are exactly as we would expect of a record of actual events.

Creationists might also like to ignore the fact that the site shows no evidence of submergence under thousands of feet of water either during or after the Neanderthal occupation. In fact, the evidence shows that there never was such an inundation, which, had it happened, would have swept away much of the evidence now being revealed and covered the rest of it in a thick layer of silt containing the jumbled remains of animals and plants from disconnected land masses that would inevitably result from a global genocidal flood and which is conspicuous by its complete absence, not just in the foothill of the Pyrenees, but everywhere else on Earth.