The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany

Geoff M. Smith; Karen Ruebens; Elena Irene Zavala; Virginie Sinet-Mathiot; Helen Fewlass; Sarah Pederzani; Klervia Jaouen; Dorothea Mylopotamitaki; Kate Britton; Hélène Rougier; Mareike Stahlschmidt; Matthias Meyer; Harald Meller; Holger Dietl; Jörg Orschiedt; Johannes Krause; Tim Schüler; Shannon P. McPherron; Marcel Weiss; Jean Jacques Hublin; Frido Welker

doi:10.1038/s41559-023-02303-6

The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany

Geoff M. Smith^*, Karen Ruebens, Elena Irene Zavala, Virginie Sinet-Mathiot, Helen Fewlass, Sarah Pederzani, Klervia Jaouen, Dorothea Mylopotamitaki, Kate Britton, Hélène Rougier, Mareike Stahlschmidt, Matthias Meyer, Harald Meller, Holger Dietl, Jörg Orschiedt, Johannes Krause, Tim Schüler, Shannon P. McPherron, Marcel Weiss, Jean Jacques HublinFrido Welker

^*Corresponding author for this work

Archaeology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recent excavations at Ranis (Germany) identified an early dispersal of Homo sapiens into the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago. Here we integrate results from zooarchaeology, palaeoproteomics, sediment DNA and stable isotopes to characterize the ecology, subsistence and diet of these early H. sapiens. We assessed all bone remains (n = 1,754) from the 2016–2022 excavations through morphology (n = 1,218) or palaeoproteomics (zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (n = 536) and species by proteome investigation (n = 212)). Dominant taxa include reindeer, cave bear, woolly rhinoceros and horse, indicating cold climatic conditions. Numerous carnivore modifications, alongside sparse cut-marked and burnt bones, illustrate a predominant use of the site by hibernating cave bears and denning hyaenas, coupled with a fluctuating human presence. Faunal diversity and high carnivore input were further supported by ancient mammalian DNA recovered from 26 sediment samples. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data from 52 animal and 10 human remains confirm a cold steppe/tundra setting and indicate a homogenous human diet based on large terrestrial mammals. This lower-density archaeological signature matches other Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician sites and is best explained by expedient visits of short duration by small, mobile groups of pioneer H. sapiens.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	564-577
Number of pages	14
Journal	Nature Ecology and Evolution
Volume	8
Issue number	3
Early online date	31 Jan 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02303-6
Publication status	Published - Mar 2024

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The excavations and analyses at Ranis were funded by the Max Planck Society and the Thuringian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments and Archeology. We thank the Landesmuseum in Halle for access to the Ranis collection and for facilitating the sampling of specimens. We thank S. Kalkhof, and J. Schmidt (IZI Fraunhofer, Leipzig, Germany), J. Vinh and E. Demey (Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie industrielle, Paris, France) for providing assistance with their MALDI-TOF MS instrument. Thanks to L. Paskulin for assistance with the proteomic sampling. We thank A. Chapin, A. Aximu-Petri and B. Vernot for help with sample collection and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Core Unit for support with data generation and DNA sequencing. We acknowledge M. Trost for all his work with the sampling, extraction and running of isotope samples and S. Steinbrenner for elemental analyser-isotope ratio mass spectrometry analyses. E.I.Z received funding from the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California, Berkeley. F.W. received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement number 948365). K.J. received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement number 803676). D. M. received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement number 861389 - PUSHH. G.M.S. is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie scheme (grant agreement number 101027850). We thank our reviewers for their help improving this manuscript.

Data Availability Statement

The MS proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE113 partner repository under accession code PXD-043272. The MALDI-TOF.mzml and.msd type files included in this study are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8063812. The raw sequencing aDNA data of single-stranded libraries enriched for mammalian mtDNA from the 26 sediment samples are publicly available on the European Nucleotide Archive (PRJEB67902). Isotope data are available in Extended Data Table 5 and the Supplementary Information.

Code availability
The R code associated with this work is publicly available through OSF at https://osf.io/aez4v/.

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Cite this

Smith, G. M., Ruebens, K., Zavala, E. I., Sinet-Mathiot, V., Fewlass, H., Pederzani, S., Jaouen, K., Mylopotamitaki, D., Britton, K., Rougier, H., Stahlschmidt, M., Meyer, M., Meller, H., Dietl, H., Orschiedt, J., Krause, J., Schüler, T., McPherron, S. P., Weiss, M., ... Welker, F. (2024). The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 8(3), 564-577. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02303-6

Smith, GM, Ruebens, K, Zavala, EI, Sinet-Mathiot, V, Fewlass, H, Pederzani, S, Jaouen, K, Mylopotamitaki, D, Britton, K, Rougier, H, Stahlschmidt, M, Meyer, M, Meller, H, Dietl, H, Orschiedt, J, Krause, J, Schüler, T, McPherron, SP, Weiss, M, Hublin, JJ & Welker, F 2024, 'The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany', Nature Ecology and Evolution, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 564-577. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02303-6

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title = "The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenh{\"o}hle in Ranis, Germany",

abstract = "Recent excavations at Ranis (Germany) identified an early dispersal of Homo sapiens into the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago. Here we integrate results from zooarchaeology, palaeoproteomics, sediment DNA and stable isotopes to characterize the ecology, subsistence and diet of these early H. sapiens. We assessed all bone remains (n = 1,754) from the 2016–2022 excavations through morphology (n = 1,218) or palaeoproteomics (zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (n = 536) and species by proteome investigation (n = 212)). Dominant taxa include reindeer, cave bear, woolly rhinoceros and horse, indicating cold climatic conditions. Numerous carnivore modifications, alongside sparse cut-marked and burnt bones, illustrate a predominant use of the site by hibernating cave bears and denning hyaenas, coupled with a fluctuating human presence. Faunal diversity and high carnivore input were further supported by ancient mammalian DNA recovered from 26 sediment samples. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data from 52 animal and 10 human remains confirm a cold steppe/tundra setting and indicate a homogenous human diet based on large terrestrial mammals. This lower-density archaeological signature matches other Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician sites and is best explained by expedient visits of short duration by small, mobile groups of pioneer H. sapiens.",

author = "Smith, {Geoff M.} and Karen Ruebens and Zavala, {Elena Irene} and Virginie Sinet-Mathiot and Helen Fewlass and Sarah Pederzani and Klervia Jaouen and Dorothea Mylopotamitaki and Kate Britton and H{\'e}l{\`e}ne Rougier and Mareike Stahlschmidt and Matthias Meyer and Harald Meller and Holger Dietl and J{\"o}rg Orschiedt and Johannes Krause and Tim Sch{\"u}ler and McPherron, {Shannon P.} and Marcel Weiss and Hublin, {Jean Jacques} and Frido Welker",

note = "Funding Information: The excavations and analyses at Ranis were funded by the Max Planck Society and the Thuringian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments and Archeology. We thank the Landesmuseum in Halle for access to the Ranis collection and for facilitating the sampling of specimens. We thank S. Kalkhof, and J. Schmidt (IZI Fraunhofer, Leipzig, Germany), J. Vinh and E. Demey (Ecole Sup{\'e}rieure de Physique et Chimie industrielle, Paris, France) for providing assistance with their MALDI-TOF MS instrument. Thanks to L. Paskulin for assistance with the proteomic sampling. We thank A. Chapin, A. Aximu-Petri and B. Vernot for help with sample collection and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Core Unit for support with data generation and DNA sequencing. We acknowledge M. Trost for all his work with the sampling, extraction and running of isotope samples and S. Steinbrenner for elemental analyser-isotope ratio mass spectrometry analyses. E.I.Z received funding from the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California, Berkeley. F.W. received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement number 948365). K.J. received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement number 803676). D. M. received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie grant agreement number 861389 - PUSHH. G.M.S. is funded by the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie scheme (grant agreement number 101027850). We thank our reviewers for their help improving this manuscript. ",

year = "2024",

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doi = "10.1038/s41559-023-02303-6",

language = "English",

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T1 - The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany

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AU - Ruebens, Karen

AU - Zavala, Elena Irene

AU - Sinet-Mathiot, Virginie

AU - Fewlass, Helen

AU - Pederzani, Sarah

AU - Jaouen, Klervia

AU - Mylopotamitaki, Dorothea

AU - Britton, Kate

AU - Rougier, Hélène

AU - Stahlschmidt, Mareike

AU - Meyer, Matthias

AU - Meller, Harald

AU - Dietl, Holger

AU - Orschiedt, Jörg

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AU - Hublin, Jean Jacques

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N1 - Funding Information: The excavations and analyses at Ranis were funded by the Max Planck Society and the Thuringian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments and Archeology. We thank the Landesmuseum in Halle for access to the Ranis collection and for facilitating the sampling of specimens. We thank S. Kalkhof, and J. Schmidt (IZI Fraunhofer, Leipzig, Germany), J. Vinh and E. Demey (Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie industrielle, Paris, France) for providing assistance with their MALDI-TOF MS instrument. Thanks to L. Paskulin for assistance with the proteomic sampling. We thank A. Chapin, A. Aximu-Petri and B. Vernot for help with sample collection and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Core Unit for support with data generation and DNA sequencing. We acknowledge M. Trost for all his work with the sampling, extraction and running of isotope samples and S. Steinbrenner for elemental analyser-isotope ratio mass spectrometry analyses. E.I.Z received funding from the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California, Berkeley. F.W. received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement number 948365). K.J. received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement number 803676). D. M. received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement number 861389 - PUSHH. G.M.S. is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie scheme (grant agreement number 101027850). We thank our reviewers for their help improving this manuscript.

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N2 - Recent excavations at Ranis (Germany) identified an early dispersal of Homo sapiens into the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago. Here we integrate results from zooarchaeology, palaeoproteomics, sediment DNA and stable isotopes to characterize the ecology, subsistence and diet of these early H. sapiens. We assessed all bone remains (n = 1,754) from the 2016–2022 excavations through morphology (n = 1,218) or palaeoproteomics (zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (n = 536) and species by proteome investigation (n = 212)). Dominant taxa include reindeer, cave bear, woolly rhinoceros and horse, indicating cold climatic conditions. Numerous carnivore modifications, alongside sparse cut-marked and burnt bones, illustrate a predominant use of the site by hibernating cave bears and denning hyaenas, coupled with a fluctuating human presence. Faunal diversity and high carnivore input were further supported by ancient mammalian DNA recovered from 26 sediment samples. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data from 52 animal and 10 human remains confirm a cold steppe/tundra setting and indicate a homogenous human diet based on large terrestrial mammals. This lower-density archaeological signature matches other Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician sites and is best explained by expedient visits of short duration by small, mobile groups of pioneer H. sapiens.

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The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany

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Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

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