Comments on 'Human-climate interaction during the early Upper Paleolithic: Testing the hypothesis of an adaptive shift between the Proto-Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian' by Banks et al.

摘要

Banks et al. (2013) have recently published a paper on humane climate interactions and address the question of whether the two main facies of the Aurignacian technocomplex of Europe represent an adaptive change in response to changing Marine Oxygen- Isotope Stage 3 (MOIS3) climates. They suggest a chronological separation between the Early and Proto-Aurignacian, arguing that the Early Aurignacian starts only with the onset of Heinrich Event 4 (H4) and ends with the onset of Greenland Interstadial 8 (GI8). This is an interesting question, but we think there are serious problems with the basic chronometric data they have used. In this brief comment, we question their data selection and the methodologies they have applied.