Human interactions with tropical environments over the last 14,000 years at Iho Eleru, Nigeria
Jacopo Niccolò Cerasoni,
Emily Yuko Hallett,
Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie,
Kseniia Ashastina,
Mary Lucas,
Lucy Farr,
Alexa Höhn,
Christopher A. Kiahtipes,
James Blinkhorn,
Patrick Roberts,
Andrea Manica,
Eleanor M.L. Scerri
Affiliations
Jacopo Niccolò Cerasoni
Department of Biology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL 60660, USA; Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745 Jena, Germany; Corresponding author
Emily Yuko Hallett
Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745 Jena, Germany; Department of Anthropology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL 60660, USA; Corresponding author
Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, 200132 Ibadan, Nigeria; Corresponding author
Kseniia Ashastina
Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745 Jena, Germany
Mary Lucas
Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745 Jena, Germany; Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT-the Arctic University of Norway, 9019 Tromsø, Norway
Lucy Farr
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK
Alexa Höhn
Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Goethe-Universität, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Christopher A. Kiahtipes
Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
James Blinkhorn
Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745 Jena, Germany
Patrick Roberts
Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745 Jena, Germany; isoTROPIC Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745 Jena, Germany; School of Social Science, the University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Andrea Manica
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Eleanor M.L. Scerri
Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745 Jena, Germany; Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta, 2080 Msida, Malta; Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, 50923 Cologne, Germany; Corresponding author
Summary: The Ihò Eléérú (or Iho Eleru) rock shelter, located in Southwest Nigeria, is the only site from which Pleistocene-age hominin fossils have been recovered in western Africa. Excavations at Iho Eleru revealed regular human occupations ranging from the Later Stone Age (LSA) to the present day. Here, we present chronometric, archaeobotanical, and paleoenvironmental findings, which include the taxonomic, taphonomic, and isotopic analyses of what is the only Pleistocene faunal assemblage documented in western Africa. Our results indicate that the local landscape surrounding Iho Eleru, although situated within a regional open-canopy biome, was forested throughout the past human occupation of the site. At a regional scale, a shift from forest- to savanna-dominated ecotonal environment occurred during a mid-Holocene warm event 6,000 years ago, with a subsequent modern reforestation of the landscape. Locally, no environmental shift was observable, placing Iho Eleru in a persistent forested “island” during the period of occupation.
