Elsevier

Quaternary International

Volumes 272–273, 12 September 2012, Pages 322-332
Quaternary International

Environmental context of the Magdalenian settlement in the Jura Mountains using stable isotope tracking (13C, 15N, 34S) of bone collagen from reindeer (Rangifer tarandus)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.040Get rights and content

Abstract

The Jura Mountains are considered to be a region where phases of ice cap extension and retreat in response to climatic variation during the Upper Pleniglacial and Lateglacial (ca. 24,000–12,800 cal BP) are well reflected in the vegetation and animal spectrum composition. A new set of direct AMS radiocarbon dates of collagen from reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) bones found at archaeological sites indicated an almost continuous occupation of the Jura region since the end of Last Glacial Maximum, at ca. 24,000 cal BP, until its local disappearance around 14,000 cal BP. To investigate a possible change in reindeer ecology, isotopic analysis of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur in collagen (δ13Ccoll, δ15Ncoll, δ34Scoll) were performed on the dated specimens. A decrease in the δ13Ccoll and δ15Ncoll values of Jura reindeer was found at the beginning of the Lateglacial period around 16,300–15,600 cal BP. While the change in δ13Ccoll values was better explained by a change in diet composition with a decreasing input of lichens, the relative low δ15Ncoll values of the reindeer during the Lateglacial was consistent with a geographical pattern of soil maturity inherited from the Last Glacial Maximum. The same pattern was also seen in the δ15Ncoll values of the Lateglacial horse (Equus sp.) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) until ca. 14,000 cal BP. The decrease in reindeer δ15Ncoll around 16,300–15,600 cal BP and around 21,000–20,000 cal BP in the Jura region may be linked to the occupation of territories recently released by glaciers that formed during the Heinrich event 1 and the Last Glacial Maximum, respectively. The associated high δ15Ncoll and δ34Scoll values found in two specimens indicate the occurrence of areas of high soil activity in a globally cold context. This might correspond to the occupation of refugia in the close surroundings of the Jura region. Such local refugia could explain the capacity of the reindeer to occupy rapidly the newly available territories during phase of glacier retreat. The intensification of the Magdalenian human settlement could have been favored by these local ecosystem expansions.

Introduction

The stable isotope signature of ancient bone collagen has been used for several decades for dietary and environmental reconstruction (e.g. review in Koch, 2007; Bocherens and Drucker, 2007). Although isotope signatures were originally used mostly to reconstruct trophic webs involving humans, large mammals have been employed more recently as trackers of change in ecology and environment in the analyzed species. The chronological evolution of carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 (13C and 15N) abundance in collagen over the last 40,000 years, during the Upper Palaeolithic, has been studied in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), red deer (Cervus elaphus), horse (Equus sp.), large bovines (Bos or Bison) and woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) from Eurasia (e.g. Iacumin et al., 1997, 2000; Drucker et al., 2003; Richards and Hedges, 2003; Stevens and Hedges, 2004; Stevens et al., 2008) and North America (Fox-Dobbs et al., 2008; Szpak et al., 2010). These studies have demonstrated a rather stable distribution in the collagen 13C abundance among large herbivore species that is linked to diet specialization. Plant growth forms differ in the relative amount of carbon-13 they contain. For instance, lichens are systematically enriched in 13C compared to vascular plants from the same ecosystem (e.g. Barnett, 1994). Thus, high 13C abundance in the collagen of ancient and modern reindeer may be interpreted as the predominant consumption of lichens, which are avoided by other herbivores due to its toxicity (e.g. Fizet et al., 1995; Drucker et al., 2003, 2010; Bocherens et al., 2011a). In contrast, the nitrogen-15 amounts in the collagen of the same individuals exhibit variation over time as a result of change in climatic conditions, such as aridity in Alaska (Fox-Dobbs et al., 2008; Szpak et al., 2010) and temperature in northwestern Europe (Drucker et al., 2003; Stevens et al., 2008). In the latter, the effect of temperature on 15N abundance in large herbivores is thought to be indirect and conveyed by soil processes, particularly under permafrost influence. Regions where permafrost action was the most intense from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) deliver the lowest collagen 15N abundance in large herbivores during the post-LGM period (Drucker et al., 2003, 2011b). From a chronological point of view, 15N amounts in large herbivores collagen were found to increase with rising temperature, which triggered higher soil activity (Drucker et al., 2003, 2011a). These spatial and temporal patterns are comparable to modern ones in which 15N amounts in surface soils rise with increasing distance from a glacier front due to soil development (Hobbie et al., 2005).

Higher soil maturity, reflected in higher 15N amounts passed on to herbivores, has been recently hypothesized to lead to higher abundance of sulphur-34 in the collagen of deer as well (Drucker et al., 2011a). At a given period of time, some differences in the sulphur-34 abundance in deer collagen were observed that might be linked to local geology parameters (Drucker et al., 2011b). Thus, applied on terrestrial herbivore in continental context, sulphur-34 appears to be a promising tracker of home range that could complete the information delivered by the carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 measurements.

By the end of the Upper Palaeolithic, during the Lateglacial period that extended from ca. 18,000 to 11,600 cal BP, a rapid oscillation from a cold episode (GS-2a event, ca. 18,000–14,700 cal BP) to a warm episode (GI-1e to GI-1a event, ca. 14,700–12,800 cal BP) was experienced by the ecosystems at a global scale (e.g. Lowe et al., 2008). This global first warming event succeeded thousands of years of cold conditions of the post-LGM period and allowed the development of boreal forest following grassland colonization (e.g. Amman and Lotter, 1989; De Beaulieu et al., 1994). A first major change in the large herbivore community occurred with the extinction or retreat of some emblematic species of the Pleniglacial, including reindeer (R. tarandus). Reindeer played a central role in human subsistence during the Upper Palaeolithic, and during most of the Lateglacial, it was one of the most important deer prey hunted by the human groups of the Magdalenian culture (e.g. Grayson et al., 2001). This taxon, however, was later replaced by the red deer (C. elaphus), whose population significantly extended with the warming conditions (e.g. Bridault and Chaix, 2009). Thus, the chronology of the extinction of the reindeer has been intensively examined at the local scale especially in France (e.g. Bridault et al., 2000; Oberlin and Pion, 2009; Szmidt et al., 2009; Drucker et al., 2011c). In the Jura Mountains in eastern France, reindeer have been shown to disappear around 14,000 cal BP (Bridault et al., 2000; Oberlin and Pion, 2009), ca. 2000 years after the local extinction of the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros (Bridault and Chaix, 2009). Similarly, the hypothesis of reindeer occurrence later than ca. 14,000 cal BP in the western French Pyrenees (e.g. Delpech, 1983; Altuna et al., 1991) has not been confirmed so far by direct radiocarbon dating of bones from the Dufaure and Duruthy sites (Costamagno et al., 2009).

In this work, the aim is to examine the ecology of reindeer in the Jura Mountains during the key period of the Lateglacial using the stable isotope composition (carbon-13, nitrogen-15 and sulphur-34) of collagen combined with direct radiocarbon dating. The occupation of deglaciated territories with low soil activity is expected to provide low 15N and possibly low 34S amounts, while the context of global warming should be associated with increasing 15N and 34S abundance due to rising temperature. Moreover, changes in temperature are also expected to trigger changes in vegetation availability that could be reflected in the 13C amounts of reindeer. This study presents a chronological record of variation in reindeer collagen stable isotopes for the Jura region in order to better understand the control parameters that occur during colonization in a periglacial context.

Section snippets

Material and methods

Bones of reindeer (R. tarandus) from the Jura region were selected from archaeological sites that contained Magdalenian artefacts (Table 1; Fig. 1): Baume Noire (Frétigney; David, 1996), Chaumois-Boivin (Blois-sur-Seille; Cupillard, 2008), Grotte Grappin (Arlay; Cupillard and Welté, 2006, 2009), and La Baume (Gigny-sur-Suran; Campy et al., 1989; Fabre, 2010) and Les Cabônes (Ranchot; Cupillard and David, 1995). The selection of the bone was primarily oriented toward samples that could be

Chronological sequence of the reindeer in the Jura Mountains

The new AMS radiocarbon dating results of reindeer bone from the French Jura have delivered a long chronological sequence extending from ca. 14,600 to 23,000 cal BP (12,500 to 19,300 BP; Table 2). About half of these dates were comparable with previous results ranging from ca. 14,000 to 17,500 cal BP published in Bridault et al. (2000) and in Oberlin and Pion (2009) for the Lateglacial reindeer of the French Jura and northern Alps. This time range was coeval to the GI-1e and GS-2a events of

Conclusion and perspectives

The new AMS dating of reindeer samples resulting from human activity in sites that yielded Magdalenian artefacts confirmed that the Jura region was not completely deserted during the post-LGM period, before the intense phase of Lateglacial settlement. The relatively continuous record from ca. 24,000 to 14,000 cal BP provided by the dated reindeer allow to observe a slight decrease of their δ13Ccoll values, most probably linked to a change in their dietary composition, in particular a decrease

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Ministry of Culture and regional funding through the PCR project n°06/073 (coord. Christophe Cupillard, “Le Tardiglaciaire et le début de l'Holocène dans le massif du Jura et ses marges, 2005–2008) and the Program of the French Institut of Biodiversity n°0403 (coord. A. Bridault, “Global change, animal biodiversity and human societies in the northern half of France since 16,000 years”, 2005–2006). Sample preparation and isotopic measurements were conducted

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