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Thèse Année : 2021

Palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction in relation with the Middle to Late Pleistocene human occurrence in the Near East

Reconstructions paléoenvironnementales et paléoclimatiques des occupations humaines du Pléistocène moyen et supérieur au Proche-Orient

Résumé

Western Asia is the westernmost subregion of Asia and constitute an important enclave of passage between Africa, Asia and Europe. In this region, during the last decade, the small vertebrate studies are increasing, mainly for their interest as a useful tool for palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstructions, however most of them propose preliminary taxa list, due to the lack of osteological referential and the limited knowledge of molar characters. Taking into account this background, the main objective of this PhD thesis is to reconstruct the past environmental and climatic conditions using rodents assemblages in western Asia, focusing in the archaeological sites of Azokh 1 Cave and Kaldar Cave. In parallel to this work, barn owl pellets from Birecik region have been analyzed in order to obtain a better knowledge of rodent species. The correct identification of rodents was the main aim of this work, for that we used the literature and references collection. However, for some genus, as Ellobius, it was not enough that is the reason because we applied the Geometric Morphometric method analyzing the morphological and morphometric characters. Then, a preliminary taphonomic study and also the Habitat weighting and the Bioclimatic model have been applied to the fossil rodent assemblage. Last both, in order to test the potential of these methods for the environmental and climatic reconstructions. Showing that our results validated both methodologies for further archaeological studies in this region. Besides, the palaeoclimatic and paleoenvironmental results obtained from Azokh 1 Middle to Late Pleistocene layers, indicate that climate was relatively warm-temperate and an environment mainly composed of shrubland and steppe. No major changes have been observed between the studied layers, indicating favourable conditions for human populations. Moreover, palaeoecological analysis performed in Kaldar Cave revealed lower temperatures and lower precipitation than present-day conditions for the Late Pleistocene, indicating that hominin population lived in an environment mainly composed of dry steppes with patches of forested areas. Summarizing, the different methodologies used allow us to improve the taxonomic identifications, identify the predators at the origins of the assemblages and to recover important paleoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic information in western Asia, especially in the Zagros mountains of Iran and the Caucasus region. Also, regarding the paleobiogeography of our rodent identified species, which are mainly composed by taxa of Asiatic origin, indicating that probably the Zagros and Caucasus mountains acted as a barrier for small mammals coming from Africa.
Au Quaternaire, l'Asie occidentale constitue une importante zone de passage entre l'Afrique, l'Asie et l'Europe. Afin de reconstruire les conditions paleoenvironnementales de cette région, nous avons étudié les rongeurs pléistocènes des sites archéologiques d'Azokh 1 (montagnes du Caucase) et de Kaldar (montagnes du Zagros) ainsi que des pelotes modernes de chouette effraie de Birecik (bord sud du Zagros). Nous avons défini des caractères crânio-dentaires diagnostiques des espèces à partir de la littérature et de collections de référence. Pour certains genres, comme Ellobius, nous avons dû préciser les caractères dentaires à l’aide d’une analyse de Morphométrie géométrique. La synthèse des données taxonomiques, taphonomiques et des reconstitutions environnementales montre que les faunes de rongeurs de cette période sont principalement composées de taxons d'origine asiatique et que les chaînes du Zagros et du Caucase sont une barrière pour les petits mammifères provenant d'Afrique.
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Dates et versions

tel-03430792 , version 1 (16-11-2021)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : tel-03430792 , version 1

Citer

Ivan Rey-Rodríguez. Palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction in relation with the Middle to Late Pleistocene human occurrence in the Near East. Paleontology. Muéum national d'Histoire naturelle, 2021. English. ⟨NNT : ⟩. ⟨tel-03430792⟩
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