Untermassfeld fossil site

The Untermassfeld fossil site is a palaeontological site in Thuringia, Germany. Excavated continuously since its discovery in 1978, it has produced many fossils dating to the late Early Pleistocene or Epivillafranchian geologic period, approximately 1.2 – 0.9 million years before present (BP).[1] Claims that hominins were also present at the site have sparked a major controversy.[2][3][4]

Hominin controversy

In a series of papers published between 2013 and 2017,[5][6][7] Günter Landeck and Joan Garcia Garriga claimed to have found evidence for a hominin presence at the site in the form of stone tools and butchery marks on bones. If verified, this would be the earliest known occupation of northern Europe by humans, as previous evidence had indicated that Europe was only sporadically occupied, at southerly latitudes, before 500,000 BP.[8][9] However, these findings have sparked a major controversy.[2][3][4] Questions were immediately asked about the provenance of the material, since neither Landeck nor Garcia Garriga had any connection to the Untermassfeld project and had never worked on the excavations at the site.[10]

Further doubts were raised in October 2017, in the preprint of a paper authored by several palaeontologists and Palaeolithic archaeologists, including Wil Roebroeks and Ralf-Dietrich Kahlke, the director of the Untermassfeld excavations.[11][12] The authors reported that they were unable to locate the collections Landeck and Garcia Garriga claim to have based their analysis on, even after contacting them. They alleged that the description of some of the bones discussed in Landeck and Garcia Garriga's papers match those in a package anonymously delivered to a local natural history museum; and that two bones matched specific pieces that were reported stolen from the site in 2009 and 2012. Based on a reanalysis of the material in the anonymous package and the details provided in their papers, they also argued that Landeck and Garcia Garriga had misidentified both the stone tools and the butchery marks. They concluded that there was no evidence of a hominin presence at Untermassfeld.[2][3][4]

Garcia Garriga has "strenuously denied" the allegations, stating that he had no connection to the material and had only helped write up Landeck's analysis. Landeck claimed that the material was shown to him by two unnamed private collectors who had found it during "rescue activities" near—but not in—the Untermassfeld site. Both told Nature that they had "nothing to do with a stolen bone" and were writing a detailed response to the allegations.[2][3]

gollark: I'll AR it.
gollark: Balloons are such great dragøns.
gollark: Inverse mints are such cool dragons.
gollark: You can only get one UDmint.
gollark: There are just lots of upsidedown mints.

References
  1. Kahlke, Ralf-Dietrich (2006). Untermassfeld: A late Early Pleistocene (Epivillafranchian) fossil site near Meiningen (Thuringia, Germany) and its position in the development of the European mammal fauna. BAR International Series 1578. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. ISBN 9781841717920.
  2. Callaway, Ewen (2017-11-16). "Archaeologists say human-evolution study used stolen bone". Nature. 551 (7680): 279–280. doi:10.1038/nature.2017.22984. PMID 29144486.
  3. Moody, Oliver (2017-11-15). "Stones, bones and skulduggery: war over 'stolen' early human artefacts". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2017-11-24.
  4. Bartels, Meghan (2017-11-13). "Allegations about stolen bones raise doubts about history of early humans in Europe". Newsweek. Retrieved 2017-11-24.
  5. Garcia, Joan; Landeck, Günter; Martínez, Kenneth; Carbonell, Eudald (2013-12-06). "Hominin dispersals from the Jaramillo subchron in central and south-western Europe: Untermassfeld (Germany) and Vallparadís (Spain)". Quaternary International. Middle to Upper Palaeolithic biological and cultural shift in Eurasia II. 316 (Supplement C): 73–93. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2013.03.005.
  6. Landeck, Günter; Garcia Garriga, Joan (2016-05-01). "The oldest hominin butchery in European mid-latitudes at the Jaramillo site of Untermassfeld (Thuringia, Germany)". Journal of Human Evolution. 94 (Supplement C): 53–71. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.02.002. PMID 27178458.
  7. Landeck, Günter; Garcia Garriga, Joan (2017-04-29). "New taphonomic data of the 1 Myr hominin butchery at Untermassfeld (Thuringia, Germany)". Quaternary International. 436 (Part A): 138–161. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.11.016.
  8. Dennell, Robin (2003-12-01). "Dispersal and colonisation, long and short chronologies: how continuous is the Early Pleistocene record for hominids outside East Africa?". Journal of Human Evolution. 45 (6): 421–440. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2003.09.006.
  9. Roebroeks, Wil (2006-07-01). "The human colonisation of Europe: where are we?". Journal of Quaternary Science. 21 (5): 425–435. doi:10.1002/jqs.1044. ISSN 1099-1417.
  10. Baales, Michael (2014-07-09). "Untermassfeld – Or the struggle for finding the earliest traces of human occupation in Central Europe: A comment on: "Hominin dispersals from the Jaramillo subchron in central and south-western Europe: Untermassfeld (Germany) and Vallparadís (Spain)" by J. Garcia et al., Quaternary International 316 (2013), pp. 73–93". Quaternary International. Environmental and Cultural Dynamics in Western and Central Europe during the Upper Pleistocene. 337 (Supplement C): 254–256. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.05.021.
  11. Roebroeks, Wil; Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Sabine; Baales, Michael; Kahlke, Ralf-Dietrich (2017-10-31). "Uneven Data Quality and the Earliest Occupation of Europe: The Case of Untermassfeld (Germany)". bioRxiv 10.1101/211268.
  12. Roebroeks, Wil; Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Sabine; Baales, Michael; Kahlke, Ralf-Dietrich (2017-12-27). "Uneven Data Quality and the Earliest Occupation of Europe—the Case of Untermassfeld (Germany)". Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology. 1: 5–31. doi:10.1007/s41982-017-0003-5. ISSN 2520-8217.
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