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

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106153

Human interactions with tropical environments over the last 14,000 years at Iho Eleru, Nigeria

iScience. 2023 Feb 8;26(3):106153. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106153. eCollection 2023 Mar 17.

Authors

Jacopo Niccolò Cerasoni^{1

2}, Emily Yuko Hallett^{2

3}, Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie⁴, Kseniia Ashastina⁵, Mary Lucas^{5

6}, Lucy Farr⁷, Alexa Höhn⁸, Christopher A Kiahtipes⁹, James Blinkhorn², Patrick Roberts^{5

10

11}, Andrea Manica¹², Eleanor M L Scerri^{2

13

14}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL 60660, USA.
² Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745 Jena, Germany.
³ Department of Anthropology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL 60660, USA.
⁴ Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, 200132 Ibadan, Nigeria.
⁵ Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745 Jena, Germany.
⁶ Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT-the Arctic University of Norway, 9019 Tromsø, Norway.
⁷ Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK.
⁸ Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Goethe-Universität, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
⁹ Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA.
¹⁰ isoTROPIC Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745 Jena, Germany.
¹¹ School of Social Science, the University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
¹² Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
¹³ Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta, 2080 Msida, Malta.
¹⁴ Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, 50923 Cologne, Germany.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Biological sciences; Paleobiology; Plant Biology.