Pleistocene Extinctions (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alejandra May. Melissa Torquato. Trevor Keevil. Lauren Christopher. Erik Otárola-Castillo.

This is an abstract from the "Bayesian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Approximately 13,000 years ago, 37 genera of North American megafauna went extinct. Proboscideans, mammoths, and mastodons, specifically, were among the megafauna affected. Today, researchers continue to debate between three hypotheses to explain these North American Pleistocene mass extinctions: (1) human over-hunting, (2) climate change leading to a reduced niche,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alan Simmons.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Akrotiri Aetokremnos, a collapsed rockshelter in Cyprus, was excavated over 30 years ago. The site caused controversy for two reasons: it was the oldest site on the island, and it was associated with extinct pygmy hippopotami. The first issue has been resolved, with over 70 radiocarbon determinations centered around 10,000 cal BC, placing the site in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jack Broughton. Elic Weitzel.

This is an abstract from the "Human Interactions with Extinct Fauna" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dozens of large mammals such as mammoth, mastodon, and horse (i.e., "megafauna") disappeared in North America at the end of the Pleistocene with climate change and "overkill" the most widely-argued causes. However, the population dynamics of humans and megafauna preceding extinctions have received little attention, even though such information may...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alan Simmons. Rolfe Mandel.

Akrotiri Aetokremnos is a small collapsed rockshelter that has provided evidence of the earliest well-documented human presence on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. It is, in fact, amongst the earliest numerically dated site on any of the Mediterranean islands. A large suite of radiocarbon ages indicates that Akrotiri Aetokremnos was occupied around 12,000 cal. B.P., during the Late Epipaleolithic. More controversial than the ages is the association of extinct endemic pygmy hippopotami with...