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Late Stone Age human remains from Ishango (Democratic Republic of Congo): New insights on Late Pleistocene modern human diversity in Africa
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Although questions of modern human origins and dispersal are subject to intense research within and outside Africa, the processes of modern human diversification during the Late Pleistocene are most often discussed within the context of recent human genetic data. This situation is due largely to the dearth of human fossil remains dating to the final Pleistocene in Africa and their almost total absence from West and Central Africa, thus limiting our perception of modern human diversification within Africa before the Holocene. Here, we present a morphometric comparative analysis of the earliest Late Pleistocene modern human remains from the Central African site of Ishango in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The early Late Stone Age layer (eLSA) of this site, dated to the Last Glacial Maximum (25–20 Ky), contains more than one hundred fragmentary human remains. The exceptional associated archaeological context suggests these remains derived from a community of hunter-fisher-gatherers exhibiting complex social and cognitive behaviors including substantial reliance on aquatic resources, development of fishing technology, possible mathematical notations and repetitive use of space, likely on a seasonal basis. Comparisons with large samples of Late Pleistocene and early Holocene modern human fossils from Africa and Eurasia show that the Ishango human remains exhibit distinctive characteristics and a higher phenotypic diversity in contrast to recent African populations. In many aspects, as is true for the inner ear conformation, these eLSA human remains have more affinities with Middle to early Late Pleistocene fossils worldwide than with extant local African populations. In addition, cross-sectional geometric properties of the long bones are consistent with archaeological evidence suggesting reduced terrestrial mobility resulting from greater investment in and use of aquatic resources. Our results on the Ishango human remains provide insights into past African modern human diversity and adaptation that are consistent with genetic theories about the deep sub-structure of Late Pleistocene African populations and their complex evolutionary history of isolation and diversification.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2016
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Late Subatlantic history of the ombrotrophic Misten Bog (Eastern Belgium) based on high resolution pollen, testate amoebae and macrofossil analysis
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Misten Bog has through time received homogeneous pollen rain dominated successively by Fagus, Quercus and Picea. Based on the limits separating six pollen zones across nine cores, we show that the areas of major peat production have moved with time from one side of the bog to the other. The reduction of thickness of peat was strongly dependant on the proximity of peat cutting area since the 12th Century. Before the cutting, an Alnus wood that encircled the bog regressed during the Vandal Minimum (500-800 AD) and never recovered. During this age interval, testate amoebae indicate a drier period on the peat bog. From the 12th to the 14th Centuries, there was a slight increase of non arboreal pollens linked to farming. From the 14th to the 16th Centuries testate amoebae indicate again a drier period on the peat bog but whether this is linked to climate change or human pressure is unclear. From the 16th Century onwards, Sphagnum sect. Cuspidata almost disappeared but Sphagnum imbricatum persisted until the 19th Century. Pollens linked to farming culminated again during the early part of the 19th Century. High concentration of Si, Ti and N are probably linked to the increasing farming in the neighborhood as well as to industrial mining processes in the region and might have influenced these changes on the peat bog. The theory of cyclical hollow/hummock succession versus rather stationary hummocks is discussed.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Late Triassic dinosaur teeth from southern Belgium
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Late-glacial and Holocene climate reconstruction as inferred from a stalagmite from a stalagmite - Grotte du Père Noël, Han-sur-Lesse, Belgium.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Lateglacial and Holocene fluvial dynamics in the Lower Scheldt basin (N-Belgium) and their impact on the presence, detection and preservation potential of the archaeological record
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Latest Cretaceous storm-generated sea grass accumulations in the Maastrichtian type area, the Netherlands – preliminary observations
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Latest Danian carbon isotope anomaly and associated environmental change in the southern Tethys (Nile Basin, Egypt).
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Le crâne attribué au saint roi mérovingien Dagobert II. Étude historique et anthropologique.
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When History and legend meet forensic anthropology, it can lead to complex research. We owe it to chance, which allowed us to study a skull, part of the Treasury of the Sainte-Waudru collegiate Church in Mons (Belgium). Various documents have been studied and we have maintained contacts with the historians of the City of Stenay (France) and with the Circle of Saint-Dagobert, venerating since 679, Dagobert II, the king murdered on this date and became the protector of this locality. The strangeness of the lesion observed on this skull allowed us to study various weapons from this period in order to search and find very useful matches. Modern datation techniques (radiocarbon) however, have reversed the course of this story and excluded the belonging of this skull to one of the last Merovingian kings.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
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Le Frasnien dans la partie orientale du bord nord du Synclinorium de Namur
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RBINS Staff Publications 2016
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Le Frasnien dans la région des Surdents (Massif de la Vesdre, Belgique)
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RBINS Staff Publications
