Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Apr 8;16(4):e0249848. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249848. eCollection 2021.
Environmentally-based archaeological research at Zaraa Uul, including zooarchaeology, phytolith analysis, and radiocarbon dating, is the first of its kind in Mongolia and presents critical new insight on the relationship between periods of occupational intensity and climatic amelioration from the earliest anatomically modern humans to the adoption of pastoralism. The palaeoenvironmental and faunal record of Zaraa Uul show that Early-Middle Holocene hydrology and species distributions were distinct from all other periods of human occupation. Holocene hunter-gatherers inhabited an ecosystem characterized by extensive marshes, riparian shrub and arboreal vegetation along the hill slopes and drainages. The exploitation of species associated with riparian and wetland settings supports the hypothesis of, but suggests an earlier timing for, oasis-based logistical foraging during the Early-Middle Holocene of arid Northeast Asia. The onset of wetter conditions at 8500 cal BP agrees with other regional studies, but multiple lines of evidence present the first integrated field- and laboratory-based record of human-environment relationships in arid East Asia during the Holocene Climatic Optimum. We compare it to Late Pleistocene climatic amelioration, and highlight specific responses of the hydrological, vegetative and faunal communities to climate change in arid Northeast Asia.
扎拉乌苏环境考古研究，包括动物考古学、植硅石分析和放射性碳测年，在蒙古国尚属首例，为从最早的解剖学意义上的现代人到采用畜牧业这一时期的职业密集度与气候改善之间的关系提供了关键的新见解。扎拉乌苏的古环境和动物群记录表明，全新世早期到中期的水文学和物种分布与人类居住的所有其他时期都明显不同。全新世的狩猎采集者居住的生态系统以广泛的沼泽、河岸灌木和斜坡及排水渠的树木植被为特征。对与河岸和湿地环境相关的物种的开发支持了这样一种假说，即在干旱的东北亚全新世，绿洲基于后勤的觅食出现的时间更早。8500 年 cal BP 时更湿润的条件与其他区域研究一致，但多种证据提供了全新世气候最优期干旱东亚地区人类与环境关系的首个综合实地和实验室记录。我们将其与更新世晚期的气候改善进行了比较，并强调了干旱东北亚水文、植被和动物群落对气候变化的具体响应。
