Did other species of humans, in addition to Homo sapiens, have shelters or some other form of artificial structure to make life more comfortable? If so, what can this tell us about different human species’ adaptability and suitability to cold climates?
One possible way to recognize campsites is through the presence of fire. A new technique is helping researchers shed light on the presence of fire at sites where tools and other hominin activity have been found. This technique records any site’s level and molecular density of “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons” (or PAHs for short).
PAHs are left behind after a fire, whether that be natural, such as a forest fire, or after a campfire started by humans. The origin of a fire gives rise to a stark difference between the PAHs recorded at the site, both in the structure and frequency of PAHs recorded. Controlled fires by humans leave a much more significant proportion of PAHs with a greater molecular weight than that of forest fires, which produce more substantial numbers of lower molecular weight PAHs.
Lusakert Cave, a Middle Paleolithic site in Armenia known for its Levallois flake tools, is associated with Neanderthals as they were living in the area at the time and were utilizing the Levallois flake tool industry. No specifically modern human tools are known from the site. Researchers working there found many PAHs with a high molecular weight, pointing to hominins’ use of controlled fire as the cause. To be sure, the researchers combined this with what is known about the vegetation and climate of the area at the time the cave was inhabited, some 40-60 thousand years ago. The dating of the relevant layers allowed them to understand when hominins were making a fire in the cave relating to the climatic conditions. They found that fires were produced in the cave even when wildfires would have been reduced in number.
While fire would undoubtedly have been significant during the coldest periods of the Pleistocene epoch (i.e., the Ice Ages), there is evidence of early human species inhabiting temperate to cold regions without the use of fire quite early on. Currently, the first fossil site to illustrate this is Dmanisi, where winter temperatures averaged 2.7ºC (36.86ºF). While by no means cold according to the standards of other periods, for lightly built hominins to inhabit such regions without fire and even quite possibly without clothing shows a level of adaptability within their physical makeup. Later sites such as Happisburgh (pronounced Haysborough) show a similar picture of hominins adapting to cold climates without fire use, despite winters averaging at least 0ºC (32ºF) to -3ºC (26.6ºF).
Migrations as seasons changed could have allowed these early pioneers to avoid the worst of the cold, while staying away from such regions entirely during particularly frigid periods could also have been incorporated into the behavioral repertoire, like that by the hominins at times inhabiting the Nihewan Basin in China. Unfortunately, due to the incompleteness of the fossil record and the vast swathes of time that have passed, it may be tough to notice such strategies. Where examples of early humans that have been present in colder regions do exist, behaviors such as clothing and shelter cannot be exclusively ruled out.
Luckily, archaeological records show that shelters and other structures were designed for comfort. These include several open-air sites in addition to cave sites. These structures vary significantly from site to site in how they are interpreted. For instance, the existence of a collection of large cobbles and boulders 5m (16 and half feet) in length by 1.5m (4 feet and 11 inches) to 1.8m (5 feet 11 inches) in width at the site of Soleihac does appear to resemble a medium-sized dwelling. The researchers working on this site note this and go so far as to point out that water would not have been responsible for the accumulation of the pile of stones. This is because they could not find evidence whatsoever of things such as erosion channels, sheet flow, or even leaching. The researchers also note the presence of a Palaeoloxodon antiquus (straight-tusked elephant) tusk, which, in their words, “was wedged between the rocky blocks.” Additionally, the researchers found a tooth of the same species to be split in two, with one part recovered from the top of the stone pile and the other 0.6m (2ft) below it at the bottom. The researchers describe both parts as fitting together perfectly and cleanly, thus indicating that the pile of stones could have been accumulated during one event.
However, even a conclusion based on this evidence may need to be more solid. Hypothetically, the tooth could have washed in or fallen from a ledge above the site. A high fall could break the tooth, with one part remaining at the top of the pile where it landed, while the other part fell into a crack between the boulders and ended up at the bottom. The pile shifting due to disturbances by later animals, humans, and plants cannot be discounted.
Either way, the Soleihac site highlights an exciting hypothesis and could contradict what was said a few paragraphs above. The site has been dated to 800,000 years ago, which is only about 100,000 years later than the time that the Happisburgh footprints were made. If humans were making shelters some 800,000 years ago further south and in warmer periods, then it would be feasible that they would also be using them in colder regions at colder times.
A real possibility exists that there would have been many shelters in the archaeological record. However, the archaeological record itself may be biased against shelters. For instance, building functioning shelters that keep out the wind and rain would be quite a taxing task to complete daily. One way this can be solved is to stay many nights at any site and have the group’s fittest, most vital, and most complex members travel and hunt or scavenge far from the shelter. They would return before nightfall or when a large hunting party was sent out after several days. In this sense, we could think of the shelter as a staging camp, somewhere the group can return to and meet up before dispersing again. Terra Amata, Melka Kunture, Olorgesailie, Latamne, Bilzingsleben, and Ariendorf 1 have shelters consistent with this model. Where there are caves, there would not be the need to build shelters. However, such sites might still include the construction of windbreaks around the entrance, such as at Le Lazaret and Tor Faraj. This starkly contrasts the many small open-air sites representing more temporary hunting camps.
In conclusion, some evidence supports the argument that other species of humans did use shelters, as outlined above. What can this tell us about different human species’ adaptability and suitability to cold climates? On the one hand, one group of early humans may cope well with freezing conditions thanks to a suite of physiological characteristics, such as higher metabolism, more body hair, and a more significant amount of subcutaneous fat, none of which would show up in the fossil record. On the other hand, a different group devoid of these traits may use ingenuity to adapt its behavior to cope with the climate by building shelters.
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