The environmental and climatic conditions of the Late Pleistocene of Southern Belgium are here determined for the final part of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) and for MIS 2 on the basis of a study of rodent assemblages. This paper provides a synthesis of several sets of environmental and climatic data from Late Pleistocene sites, all of which are located in southern Belgium. One has previously been published (Caverne Marie-Jeanne), and seven are unpublished (Cavernes de Goyet, Trou des Nutons, Trou du Frontal, Trou de Chaleux, Grotte la Chefalize, Trou du Chˆene, and Trou du Sureau). The habitat weighting and quantified ecology methods are applied to rodent material housed in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS, Brussels), and previous radiocarbon dates are updated, in order to reconstruct past environments. Among all the sites under analysis, the quantified ecology method shows that Trou de Chaleux corresponds to the coldest temperatures and lowest precipitation. Trou de Chaleux, with a chronology between ca. 15,964–14,014 cal yr B.P., could probably be placed in Greenland Stadial 2 (GS2) or Heinrich Event 1 (HE1). It has a rodent assemblage associated with a predominance of open dry and rocky formations, the most abundant species being the collared lemming and the narrow-headed vole. These data are found to coincide with previous studies carried out on the large-mammal, herpetofaunal, and avifaunal associations of the site, as well as on small-mammal associations from other sites in southern Belgium with similar chronology, such as Grotte Walou. Taken together, this indicates that these latest Pleistocene intervals in southern Belgium were characterized by harsh climatic and environmental conditions. In contrast, the other assemblages under study yielded much more heterogeneous results, frequently inconsistent with an attribution to the Pleistocene. This is likely to be a result of their admixture with Holocene material due to recent intrusions.
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications 2023
In the Roman world, as in many other cultures, ivory was perceived as raw material suitable for the carving of prestigious personal items. The types of Roman and Late Antique carved ivory objects that survived as well as their quantity and stylistic range is probably a result of their preservation contexts as well as their appreciation and sometimes ongoing use in later epochs. Regarding ivory combs decorated with bas-relief carvings, only nine specimens are ascribed to the Mediterranean and NW-Europe during Late Antiquity, all exclusively present biblical iconography. Information about their origin, object history and age is usually very limited. The first evidence that hunting scenes were still part of the ivory carving tradition in Late Antiquity is provided by a comb discovered in a mid-6th-century male inhumation burial at Deiningen, Nördlinger Ries. In addition to stylistic and technological comparison, SEM-imaging, ZooMS, ancient DNA (aDNA) sequencing and 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios were applied to identify the species and possible origin. While size and structure point toward Loxodonta africana as a likely source, poor preservation of the material hindered more refined results by ZooMS or aDNA analyses and consequently a precise triangulation of the source area in combination with the strontium isotope ratios. Besides being a singular piece of craftsmanship, the ivory comb fits into an assumed network of production and distribution that spanned from Northern Africa to the Frankish realm north of the Alps.
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications 2026 OA
