One step closer

A licentiate defense is one of the milestones on the way to a PhD degree. The licentiate thesis is made up of one or two manuscripts and a thesis summary and is usually defended after two years of PhD education. The students present their research during 20-30 minutes and are then examined by two reviewers. All this is of course done in front of an audience and in a lecture hall.

Last week it was time for my two PhD students Akkaneewut (Nut) Chabangborn and Sakonvan (Moo) Chawchai. Nut’s defense was last Wednesday and Moo’s last Thursday. Both made very good presentations of their results and of their plans for future work. And, they had of course no problems to find good answers to the reviewers’ questions. Congratulations Moo and Nut to nice presentations and a good defense!!

Nut’s research addresses the comparison between paleo proxydata and climate model output, i.e. how well model simulations for past climates compare with actual reconstructions of past climatic conditions. The answer is that they partly compare well, and partly not at all! One of the next steps will be to investigate a different time interval for these data-model comparisons, but also to analyze lake sediment sequences that are more than 20 000 years old.

Moo’s focus is on lake sediments from northern Thailand and what these tell us about the strength of the Asian summer monsoon during the past 9000 years. Can we only observe a response to insolation changes or can also variations at higher frequencies be seen? Future work will specifically look at the last 2000 years to better understand whether climate or humans or both influenced sedimentation patterns in lakes in northern Thailand.

Both Moo and Nut have recently submitted their first manuscripts and I really keep my fingers crossed that the reviewers and editors want to see the manuscripts published. I am sure they will, but probably they will ask for quite an extensive revision, which is quite normal.

First Thailand monsoon project article goes to printer

A few days we received an e-mail from the editor of Global and Planetary Change letting us know that our first manuscript has finally been accepted! This was great news for all of us. Finally the manuscript will be printed! The story we are telling is how lake sediments, using a variety of different chemical, biological and physical analytical techniques allow tracing the intensity of the Asian summer monsoon back in time. This first manuscript is of course only one in a series of contributions to the Thailand monsoon project that have and will be submitted for publication during the coming years.

Moo and Nut have recently submitted their first manuscripts, and I very much hope that the reviewers will be positive and that the manuscripts will be accepted for publication during the course of this year. It will be great to see their work printed.

Our work, which now goes in print, shows that multiple sediment sequences need to be analyzed with a variety of parameters in large lakes in order to understand the depositional history of the sediments and, in a further step to trace shifts in summer precipitation. Our Lake Kumphawapi record is important because it fills a crucial gap in an area from which little is known about past Asian monsoon variability. While Kumphawai registered shifts in Asian monsoon intensity in concert with insolation changes, our findings of a lake level rise, and as such higher precipitation and a stronger summer monsoon during parts of the last 2000 years need to be tested further. For this we will now focus on a site situated close to Kumphawapi and will try to interpret the shifts we see in the geochemistry in terms of climatic and environmental changes. Of course we will also try to compare this record to Kumphawapi, and to high-resolution precipitation/drought records established based on tree rings by other researchers.

Kumphawapi’s water lilies are beautiful and attract numerous visitors each year. Our plan is to make posters in English and Thai that will explain the lake’s story to all visitors.

Kumphawapi’s beautiful water lilies

The last Thailand monsoon film is taking shape

Hywel George from PlasticBuddha came over to Stockholm for a day to shoot more sequences for the last and final Thailand film. This film will portray our achievements and the bright future that lies ahead of us and will feature especially composed music by Joe Holmquist, a musician and composer.

Although we have still a lot of work to do to analyse the remaining two lake sequences, we are already making plans on where to focus next – Indonesia and its numerous lakes and peat bogs is a strong contender, but Laos and Burma would also seem like very interesting places from where virtually no long paleorecords are available. But this means establishing connections, involving interested researchers and students in these countries in our project, and finally – find the money to carry out fieldwork and subsequent analysis.

It is a long way from idea to final product! My first contacts with Thai researchers started in 2007, the first project proposal was submitted in 2008, and the project officially started in 2009. And now three years later, the first manuscript is accepted, and two more have been submitted. But in addition to these, we have produced two films, and these enjoy quite a number of views on Youtube. Making these films, which document the way the project is evolving, and especially how we do fieldwork and laboratory work and why we do all this, is important, because it conveys our research in an easy to understand way to all those who pay for it, namely all the tax payers. Although I have been lucky to secure some money for this last film, the search for money has been much more difficult than for the two previous films. Why – I don’t know. I would have thought that the Bert Bolin Centre for Climate Research at Stockholm University would easily give more money, because our films are among the few outreach projects that have emerged from this research centre. But this time we only got little money, and I was even asked to provide a clear outline regarding marketing strategies and target audience should I get back to ask for more money some other time. Well, well, I sure have a target audience, but I have no marketing strategies, other than posting my films on Youtube, on Vimeo, and on my homepage, writing about the films on Facebook, and on my blog, distributing them to who ever is interested, giving them to our life-long learners in evening classes, or going to schools in Thailand and Sweden to talk about our research. I am not really sure what more can be done without paying expensive money to a professional marketing person!?

Au revoir Les Eyzies

It is time to say good-bye to this beautiful place, the Vézère Valley, Les Eyzies, Beune and all the Neanderthals and Cro Magnons. But already in September we will be back, and then again in May next year, and probably many more years to come.

Yesterday’s last excursion day had the same schedule as last week’s excursion: a visit to the flint workshop, where Bernard Ginelli showed how to make a biface (Mousterian of Acheulean type), a racloir and a burin (Mousterian typique). He had also prepared a few Mousterian tools for me to take home. I will place these together with all our skulls in the display case on floor 2, and will of course use them for next year’s course in Human Evolution.

Abri du Poisson was next, then a quick round in the museum, and finally the lecture by Will Banks from Bordeaux University, who replaced Francesco d’Errico, last week’s lecturer. Similar to Francesco’s lecture, Will also talked about symbolism, but added some recent results from his own research within the Tracsymbol project, a ERC project led by Christopher Henshilwood (Bergen University) and Francesco d’Errico (Bordeaux University). Some ten to fifteen years ago, most people thought that the use of symbolism and art by the first Homo sapiens in Europe only started about 40,000 years ago. However archaeological work in Africa allowed tracking the use of symbols much farther back in time, and currently the oldest finds of ochre (which may have been used as body paint) date to more than 100,000 years ago. Some of the most spectacular finds are large Abalone shells, which were used as containers for paint some 100,000 years ago! It is also often still assumed that Neanderthals were quite simple, meat-eating wild beasts. But this is not true at all! Our dear cousins also used symbols, painted their bodies, and made elaborated tools. These were different of course from Anatomically Modern Humans (AHM, Homo sapiens), but they clearly show that the people who made them had to know how the end product should look like. Within Tracsymbol, Will’s research is directed at modelling the actual and potential niches occupied by Neanderthals and AMH during different time intervals. He can for example show that the Neanderthals greatly reduced their geographical range during and after the cold and dry interval at around 40,000 years ago, although they potentially could have used a much larger area for food supply. In contrast, AHMs expanded, and moved into completely new areas, despite of climatic and environmentally difficult conditions. Science moves really fast in this field and it will be great to see more fascinating results emerging from the Tracsymbol project in the coming years.

Before leaving Les Eyzies, I would like to thank all the people who helped making this year’s excursion to the Vézère Valley such a success: the staff and guides at the Musée National de la Préhistoire in Les Eyzies, at Font de Gaume and Cap Blanc; the Plassard family in Rouffignac; our bus drivers from Voyages Rey; Bernard Ginelli, the champion of flint tools; the Jugie family at Laugerie Basse; everyone at the Auberge du Musée – our internet refuge; and of course Madame Spadi at Beune, whose little gîte provides us with the perfect tranquility to recover after long excursion days.

Meeting the Neanderthals and Cro Magnons again

Dark clouds and rain welcomed us this morning on our way to Le Moustier. I really like this site, with its archaeological history and with all the stories surrounding the excavation of the site. Of course it is all about Otto Hauser and Denis Peyrony, whose personalities once again clashed here.

Unfortunately much of the famous Neanderthal skeleton of Le Moustier, which had once cost a fortune for the Museum in Berlin, is lost. But thanks to Peyrony, who preserved a whole Neanderthal grave and moved it complete with its sediments to the Museum at Les Eyzies, Bruno Maureille could excavate the whole package decades later and publish a nice account on the ontogeny of young Neanderthals. The stratigraphy, which is now visible in Le Moustier, is a cast, of course. But a very nice one, showing alternating fluvial sediments and Mousterian layers at the base, and different Mousterian layers (Mousterian of Acheulean tradition, typical Mousterian), with visible flint tools and fire places in the upper part. Not to forget the Châtelperronian and Aurignacian layers in the very top. Despite all the excavations at Le Moustier, much of the original layers are still in place under the building on the side of the old excavation and these can be excavated by later generations.

La Ferrassie is one of the few places in Europe where seven Neanderthal graves have been found. Actually only forty graves are known in all of Europe, and seven of these are from La Ferrassie. But also here, excavations had been made long ago, and without modern excavation techniques. Archaeologists who try to interpret the finds thus have to rely on the old documentations. New excavations of the Mousterian layers are currently carried out by Alain Turq and Harold Dibble, mainly to being able to better date the Mousterian layers, in which the famous graves had been found. By the end of the year the scientists hope to obtain the first ESR dates on animal teeth, which could give us a clue about the age of the graves.

Abri Pataud is the direct opposite to Le Moustier and La Ferrassie. Here we have a nice stratigraphy, modern excavation techniques, and the combined use of botany, zoology and geology to reconstruct the environment during the Aurignacian, Gravettian and Solutrean. When I first visited this site 28 years ago as a young student, I was so impressed by all the work that had been done here, and thought that my future as a geologist would lie in cave stratigraphies! But this was not the case, and it is probably much better that I am focusing on lakes, which have much more undisturbed stratigraphies. New radiocarbon dates that were recently published for Abri Pataud (Highham et al. 2011: New radiocarbon dates for Abri Pataud)now allow revising the chronological context. But these new dates have still not been incorporated in the information shown alongside the stratigraphies.

Our final meeting today was with the Magdalenians in Rouffignac Cave. But before we took the little train deep down into the center of the Earth, we made a short stop to look at the newly opened shop of the Plassard family, where they sell local produces, and especially their own goose and duck products. I can tell you that their Foie Gras d’Oie and de Canard is delicious!!

A new week, a new day and a new group of students

Sunday invited for a long walk in the surroundings of Les Eyzies. We chose the Boucle de la Gorge d’Enfer, which is some ten kilometres long and leads from Gorge d’Enfer through meadows and forests, and picturesque hamlets back to Les Eyzies. Since the weather was so nice, we decided to walk a bit further, and explore the small hamlet of Tayac, its old medieval church, and the horse riding facilities at Fonluc. From this side of the Vézère River we had a gorgeous view towards Laugerie Basse and Laugerie Haute.

Yesterday a new group of students arrived. As always, everyone found today’s meeting place, the parking de la Vézère, although concerns had been raised in Stockholm whether the students would find it! However in a small place such as Les Eyzies, everything is close and in walking distance, and very easy to find. After our usual introduction we walked to Abri Cro Magnon, where I explained the history of archaeological discoveries in the area and presented the major players, Lartet, Peyrony, Hauser, Capitain, Breuil, Bordes, Leroi-Gourhan, Movius, among many others. Luckily the sun was shining today and we did not have the heavy rain of last Monday when we walked along the Vézère, discussed the geology of the area, and the formation of rock shelters and caves.
Our lunch at Chez Jugie in Laugerie Basse was good as usual, and everybody greatly enjoyed the foie gras, the confit de canard, the walnut cake, and of course all the wine. It is probably good to have a long walk back to Les Eyzies after such a long lunch!
A guided visit to the Musée National de la Préhistoire concluded the day. Cécile, who was also our guide this week, was as brilliant as always! She has such a nice and engaged way of explaining the exhibits in the museum.

The program of tomorrow will be Le Moustier, La Ferrassie, Abri Pataud and Grotte de Rouffignac.

Still so much to see around Les Eyzies

The first excursion finished, I finally had some time to visit sites that I had not visited before.

La grotte du Sorcier at Saint-Cirq, a few kilometres from les Eyzies, was one these. It is a cute little rock shelter with a few engravings, and of these the sorcier or shaman is most famous, because only two engravings depicting a human exist in France for the Magdalenian time period. First I had troubles seeing the whole figure, but after some time my eyes got used, and voilà there he was in all his beauty!

La Roque St Christophe had been recommended to me by several people, and sure it is interesting to walk around the medieval houses that had been built into the limestone walls, to climb the same stairs and walk along the same paths as people had done several hundreds of years ago. But still it was not as spectacular as I had thought it would be.

In contrast, the visit to Abri Ruth, which is located some 1600 m from the village of Le Moustier, was a very nice experience. Monsieur Page, who is the grandson of the old Monsieur Page, gave us a long account on the discovery of the abri and showed us many of the finds that had been made in the abri and along the banks of the river.

The medieval town of Beynac with its castle is a really pretty sight, overlooking the Dordogne, the flood plain and the surrounding hills with more castles. However, one of my favorites is the Château de Commarque, which I had seen many times from Abri de Cap Blanc, but never visited. A very nice path leads from the parking through the forest down to the ruins of the old castle, which sits above an old flood plain. On the opposite side are the Château de Laussel and the Abri Laussel, where the famous Venus of Laussel was found some hundred years ago. The limestone cliffs around the Château de Commarque also contain numerous traces of former dwellings that had been built into the rocks.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.