Zooarchaeological perspective on the Broad Spectrum Revolution in the Pleistocene-Holocene transitional period,with evidence from Shuidonggou Locality 12,China

Based on optimal foraging theory,prey animals from the Shuidonggou Locality 12(SDG12) are divided into three types according to body size and defense traits:high-ranked large game,low-ranked slow small game,and low-ranked fast small game.Application of the Reciprocal of Simpson's Index to the three types of animals from SDG12 yields a relatively high level of evenness,which implies a broader meat diet of the SDG12 hominids.Compared to values of taxonomic evenness from Mediterranean sites,it is suggested that this dietary expansion probably resulted from the occurrence of the Broad Spectrum Revolution rather than from climatic changes in the Shuidonggou area.Comparative studies between the Natufian phases in Hayonim Cave and the SDG12 validate this argument.

Links of Terrestrial Environment with Solar Activity and Solar and Planetary Orbital Motion

In this paper we emphasize statistical links between solar activity and orbital motion with various terrestrial phenomena: terrestrial temperature, sea levels, ice areas, frequencies of volcanic eruptions, and Oceanic Nino Index (ONI). Solar activity links. The solar activity indices are expressed through the averaged sunspot numbers SSN and the summary curve of eigen vectors of the solar background magnetic field (SBMF). The terrestrial temperature (GLB dataset), global sea level, and volcanic eruption frequencies are shown from the wavelet analysis to have a clear link to the SBMF index, which has the same significant period of 21.4 years. The ice and snow areas in the Northern hemisphere are found to vary with a period of 10.7 years equal to the usual sunspot activity cycle while in the Southern hemispheres, no links to solar activity are detected. Solar orbital motion links. The variations of total solar irradiance (TSI) measured from the abundance of 14C isotope during the Holocene are shown to have a similar period of 2200-2300 years (Hallstatt’s cycle) as the solar inertial motion (SIM) induced by the gravitation of large planets, In the current millennium the amount of TSI deposited on Earth in the March-September to Northern hemisphere is ≈1.2% higher than in the September to March in the Southern hemisphere. The wavelet analysis of ONI revealed the two significant periods of 4.5 and 12 years. The first one is shown to have a link to the lunar perigee period variations while the second period is linked to the Jupiter period of revolution about the Sun whose gravitation seems to trigger terrestrial tectonic processes leading to volcanic eruptions. The ONI variation is noticeably linked to the occurrence of underwater volcanic eruptions (correlation of 25%), which, in turn, are linked to the tidal forces of Jupiter, the Moon and the Sun in its inertial motion. Joint effects of the solar activity and the solar and planetary orbital motion are likely to govern the current changes in the terrestrial environment defining continuing climate change.