The return of humans to the British Isles occurred about 15,200 years ago, after the end of the last ice sheet that covered much of the Northern Hemisphere – about 500 years earlier than previous estimates.
This movement of people coincides with Sharp rise in summer temperatures in southern Britain, Research by our group shows.
These environmental conditions allowed humans to migrate back to Britain – which was then still connected to the European mainland. They were preying on herds of deer and horses, migrating north to graze in ecosystems that supported their preferred foods.
Following the end of the last ice age, the climate in north-west Europe shifted from cool to warm conditions on at least two occasions, with temperature changes thought to have occurred over decades.
Our latest research addresses the first of these transitions in the Late Upper Paleolithic (14,000 to 11,000 years ago). In areas such as northwestern Europe, which includes what is today the British Isles, humans gradually abandoned and then returned to areas with sudden changes in between. cold and hot periods.
Broadly speaking, evidence of humans from the fossil record suggests that they migrated where environmental conditions supported them survival.
due to repopulation
The recolonization of the British Isles after the last Ice Age is an excellent period to explore the relationships between climate and environment and the re-presence of humans in the region.
In previous studies, the evidence has been somewhat difficult to read due to the uncertainty of dating methods and incomplete records of environmental and climatic conditions. The traditional view was that the north-west European climate was warmer than the Ice Age temperatures around 14,700 years agoAnd humans recaptured Britain at that time.
However, preparation techniques were modified in the early 2000s. Dating of human remains and associated artifacts The earliest appearance of humans is shown to have occurred 14,700 years ago, before temperatures began to rise.
The discovery was difficult to understand, as it matched the cold glacial climate of the time, which was unlikely to support people in Britain with the resources they needed to survive.
our study New calibrations of radiocarbon ages were used which confirmed that the human remains were between 15,200 and 15,000 years old. So, if humans did indeed exist in the British Isles, could they survive in the cold climate – or was our picture of the past climate at this time wrong?
The clearest insight comes from Lake Llangorse (Lake Cyfadan) in south Wales, where sudden climate change has been recorded in detail in lake sediments spanning the last 19,000 years. Furthermore, the location of the lake is close to the cave in the Wye Valley where the oldest British evidence of human remains after the Ice Age was found.
By extracting fossil pollen, chironomids (non-biting midges) and chemically analyzing lake sediments, An unexpected picture of the climate emerged – which showed that previous climate reconstructions for the region were wrong.
Chironomids were used to reconstruct summer temperatures, and showed that the climate has warmed in a different pattern compared to other parts of northwest Europe and Greenland. There was a sudden temperature change in Britain from 5–7 °C to 10–14 °C over 15,200 years – 500 years earlier than previous evidence.
Just before this climate warming, there was a persistent presence of human prey such as deer and horses in southern Britain around 15,500 years ago. These animals were exploiting newly available pastures, people tracking herds northward, and tolerating moderately hot summer climatic conditions.
Examination of environmental and climatic records as well as archaeological records allows for more accurate reconstruction of when humans were able to repopulate previously inaccessible areas. This helps to re-evaluate old radiocarbon dates of human evidence in the landscape and produce a more accurate environmental record from that time – including more precise timing of transitions from cold to warm periods.
This provides us with a complete picture of human responses to changes in temperature (and their effects on the environment) in the Late Upper Paleolithic. Human survival was the driver of these movements, and pursuing prey into new areas was important. But only relatively small changes in summer temperatures were needed to enable this migration.
Our research provides a better understanding of human behavior and resilience to climate change after the last ice age about 15,000 years ago. But understanding these environmental factors from the past helps create new perspectives on human responses to them today.
These fundamental factors have not gone away. The response observed in this study may provide clues about the warming of our polar regions and future human behavior glaciers meltIt shows how human migration could potentially occur increased.