Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:45:00.708Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geological and Ecological Perspectives on the Middle Pleistocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Karl W. Butzer
Karl W. Butzer*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and of Geography, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60637 USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper evaluates the geological and paleoecological implications of a Wenner-Gren symposium Stratigraphy and Patterns of Cultural Change in the Middle Pleistocene. The deep-sea, glacial-eustatic, loess, alluvial, and palynological records suggest between six and eight cold-warm cycles since the Brunhes-Matuyama magnetic reversal of 700,000 BP. Till and outwash stratigraphies are inadequate to provide a valid nomenclature for the numerous glacials preceding the Würm. Since at least five of the glacials since 700,000 BP were sufficiently severe to produce permafrost in midlatitude Europe, the “glacial Pleistocene” begins with the Brunhes-Matuyama. Although earlier cold-warm cycles extend well back into the early Pleistocene, with extensive glaciation and repeated floral decimations in higher latitudes, the first record of permafrost in the Rhine Basin 700,000 BP argues that major climatic oscillations of the Brunhes epoch were of glacial-interglacial amplitude. It is therefore recommended that a Lower-Middle Pleistocene boundary be linked to the practicable and universally applicable chronometric horizon provided by the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal, while the Middle-Upper Pleistocene limit can continue to be drawn at the base of the last, Eemian Interglacial (130,000 BP). The tropical African record presently contributes little to general understanding of the Middle Pleistocene, while the climatic cycles of higher latitudes are of limited value in analyzing mid-Pleistocene records of the tropical continents. Problems of stratigraphic control and environmental contexts for archeological sites are discussed.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , June 1974 , pp. 136 - 148
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bonnefille, R., (1972). Associations Polliniques Actuelles et Quaternaires en Éthiopie (Vallées de l' Awash et de l'Omo). Paris: D.Sc. Thesis University of Paris 5132 Vols.Google Scholar
Bout, P., (1974). The contribution of the volcanic Massif Central of France to European Quaternary chronology. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Brunnacker, K., (1974). The mid-Pleistocene of the Rhine Basin. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., (1971a). Environment and Archeology: An Ecological Approach to Prehistory. Aldine-Atherton, Chicago.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., (1971b). Recent History of an Ethiopian Delta: the Omo River and the level of Lake Rudolf. University of Chicago, Department of Geography 1–184Research Paper 136.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., (1973a). Pleistocene “periglacial” phenomena in southern Africa. Boreas 2, 1–11.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., (1974a). Geo-archeological interpretation of Acheulian calcpan sites at Doornlaagte and Rooidam (Kimberley, South Africa). Journal of Archaeological Science 1, 1–25.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., (1974b). Paleo-ecology of South African australopithecines: Taung revisited. Current Anthropology 15, in press.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., (1974c). The Mursi, Nkalabong and Kibish Formations, Lower Omo Basin (Ethiopia). Prehistoric Archeology and Ecology 3, in press.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., (1974d). Pleistocene littoral-sedimentary cycles of the Mediterranean Basin: a Mallorquin view. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., Helgren, D.M., (1972). Late Cenozoic evolution of the Cape Coast between Knysna and Cape St. Francis, South Africa. Quaternary Research 2, 143–169.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., Helgren, D.H., Fock, G.J., Stuckenrath, R., (1973). Alluvial terraces of the lower Vaal River, South Africa: a reappraisal and reinvestigation. Journal of Geology 81, 341–362.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., (1974). After the Australopithecines: stratigraphy, ecology and culture change in the Middle Pleistocene. World Anthropology Series Mouton Publishers, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., Richardson, J.L., Washbourn Kamau, C.K., (1972). Radiocarbon dating of East African lake levels. Science 175, 1069–1076.Google Scholar
Deacon, H.J., (1974). Demography, subsistence and culture during the Middle Pleistocene in southern Africa. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Downie, C., (1964). Glaciations of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Northeast Tanganyika. Bulletin, Geological Society of America 75, 1–16.Google Scholar
Evernden, J.F., Curtis, G.H., (1965). The potassium-argon dating of late Cenozoic rocks in East Africa and Italy. Current Anthropology 6, 343–385.Google Scholar
Frenzel, B., (1968a). The Pleistocene vegetation of northern Eurasia. Science 161, 637–649.Google Scholar
Frenzel, B., (1968b). Grundzüge der Pleistozänen Vegetationsgeschichte Nord-Eurasiens. F. Steiner, Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Gladfelter, B.G., (1974). Middle Pleistocene sedimentary sequences of East Anglia (U.K.). Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Hammen, T.van der, Wijmstra, T.A., Zagwijn, W.H., (1971). The floral record of the late Cenozoic of Europe. Turekian, K.K., Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages Yale University Press, New Haven 391–424.Google Scholar
Hay, R.L., (1972). Geologie background of Beds I and II: Stratigraphic summary. Leakey, M.D., Excavation in Beds I and II, Olduvai Gorge Vol. 3, Cambridge University Press 9–18.Google Scholar
Hay, R.L., (1973). Lithofacies and environments of Bed I, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Quaternary Research 3, 541–560.Google Scholar
Isaac, G.L., (1974a). Sorting out the muddle in the middle: an anthropologist's post-conference appraisal. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Isaac, G.L., (1974b). Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy and cultural patterns in East Africa. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Kukla, G.J., (1974). Loess stratigraphy of Central Europe. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Leakey, M.D., (1974). Cultural patterns in the Olduvai sequence. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Leakey, M.D., Hay, R.L., Thurber, D.L., Protsch, R., Berger, R., (1972). Stratigraphy, archaeology and age of the Ndutu and Naisiusiu Beds, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. World Archaeology 3, 328–341.Google Scholar
Maglio, V.J., (1974). Pleistocene faunal evolution in Africa and Eurasia. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Remy, H., (1958). Zur Flora und Fauna der Villafranca-Schichten von Villarroya, Prov. Logroño, Spanien. Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart 9, 83–103.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J., (1974). The stratigraphic record of deep sea cores and its implications for the assessment of glacials, interglacials, stadials and interstadials in the mid-Pleistocene. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J., Opdyke, N.D., (1973). Oxygen isotope and palaeomagnetic stratigraphy of equatorial Pacific core V28–238: oxygen isotope temperatures and ice volumes on a year and 105 year 105 scale. Quaternary Research 3, 39–55.Google Scholar
Turner, C., (1974). The correlation and duration of Middle Pleistocene interglacial periods in northwest Europe. Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., After the Australopithecines Mouton, The Haguein press.Google Scholar
Woldstedt, P., (1929). Das Eiszeitalter. F. Enke, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Woldstedt, P., (1958). Europa, Vorderasien und Nordafrika im Eiszeitalter. Vol. 2, F. Enke, StuttgartDas Eiszeitalter.Google Scholar
Zagwijn, W.H., (1963). Pollen-analytic investigations in the Tiglian of the Netherlands. Mededelingen van die Geologische Stichting 49–71Nieuwe Serie No. 16.Google Scholar
Zinderen Bakker, E.M.van, Butzer, K.W., (1973). Quaternary environmental changes in southern Africa. Soil Science 116, 236–248.Google Scholar