Central Asia identified as a key region for human ancestors

The interior of Central Asia has been identified as a major route for some of the earliest hominin migrations across Asia in a new study led by Dr. Emma Finestone, Assistant Curator of Human Origins at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Research Affiliate of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

The study’s findings indicate that the steppe, semi-arid and desert regions of Central Asia were once a favorable environment for hominids and their distribution in Eurasia.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists from institutions spanning four continents set out to expand the limited knowledge of early hominids in the Central Asian lowlands. The team consisted of Dr. Paul Breeze and Professor Nick Drake from Kings College London, Professor Sebastian Breitenbach from Northumbria University Newcastle, Professor Farhod Maksudov from the Uzbekistan Academy of the Sciences and Professor Michael Petraglia from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.

“Central Asia connects several zones that played an important role in the spread of hominids from Africa and through Asia,” said Dr. fine stone. “Yet we know relatively little about the early occupation of Central Asia. Most archaeological material is undated and detailed paleoclimate data is scarce, making it difficult to understand the early distribution of hominids and the occupation dynamics in that region.”

The team collected and analyzed palaeoclimatic and archaeological data from Pleistocene (c. 2.58 million years ago to 11,700 years ago) Central Asia. This involved building a dataset of Paleolithic stone tools and analyzing a mineral deposit that formed in a cave (a stalagmite) in southern Uzbekistan. Tool making and tool customization are key to the human ability to migrate to new environments and overcome environmental challenges. Ancient hominids moved their tools with them as they spread. The researchers studied the location of stone tools and the environmental conditions reflected in the stalagmite as it grew at the end of the Marine Isotope Stage 11 (a warm period between the ice ages MIS 12 and MIS 10) about 400,000 years ago.

dr. Maksudov of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences said relatively little is known about the region’s earliest toolmakers, as most of the Lower Palaeolithic events (the earliest subdivision of Palaeolithic stone tools) in Central Asia have no reliable context for dating. and environmental reconstruction.

“Despite the potential importance of Central Asia for early distribution, our knowledge of the Lower Paleolithic in this vast and diverse landscape is limited.”

“We collected data on Palaeolithic finds from all over Central Asia and created a dataset of 132 Palaeolithic sites — the largest dataset of its kind,” said Professor Petraglia, a senior author of the study. “This allowed us to consider the distribution of these sites in the context of a new high-resolution speleothem-based multi-proxy record of hydrological changes in southern Uzbekistan from the Middle Pleistocene onwards.”

Cave deposits are incredible records of environmental conditions at the time of their growth. Using geochemical data from stalagmites, we gain insight into seasonal to millennial changes in moisture availability and the climatic dynamics that governed rainfall and snowfall. Our work suggests that the local and regional conditions did not follow simple long-term trends, but were quite variable.” said Professor Breitenbach, who led the stalagmite-based analysis.

“We argue that Central Asia was a favorable habitat for Paleolithic toolmakers when warm interglacial phases coincided with periods when the Caspian Sea had consistently high water levels, resulting in greater moisture availability and more temperate conditions in otherwise arid regions,” said Dr. . fine stone. “The pattern of stone tool assemblies also supports this.”

During periodic warmer and wetter intervals, the local environment of arid Central Asia may have been a favorable habitat and frequented by Lower Paleolithic toolmakers who produced hand axes (stone tools worked on both sides).

“Interdisciplinary work bridging archeology with paleoclimate models is becoming increasingly necessary to understand human origins,” said Dr. fine stone. “Going forward, the databases generated in this study will continue to allow us to ask questions about the context of hominin dispersal.”

The study ‘Paleolithic occupation of arid Central Asia in the Middle Pleistocene’ is published in PLOS ONE.