The Central Andes play a pivotal role for glacier and climate reconstruction along the American Pole-Equator-Pole transect. Nevertheless, knowledge about late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental changes in this region is extremely limited. With the advent and application of surface exposure dating during the last few years, the establishment of more detailed glacial chronologies could provide important insights into forcings and mechanisms of glaciation and climate change. This paper reviews previously published exposure ages and compares them with independent age control on glacial chronologies and with information about the palaeohydrological conditions. Although available data are still very limited and there are remaining systematic uncertainties related to surface exposure dating, the following simplified palaeoglacial/palaeoclimate model is presented to serve as a testable hypothesis for future studies. (i) Glaciers in the humid tropical Andes were mainly temperature sensitive and therefore advanced during temperature minima. Advances are dated to 20-25 ka, $15 ka and 11-13 ka, i.e. synchronous to the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the Heinrich event 1 and the Younger Dryas/Antarctic Cold Reversal. (ii) Further south and west, precipitation decreases and glaciers therefore become more precipitation sensitive. Maximum or at least prominent glacial advances as far south as 308 S are dated into the Lateglacial, i.e. synchronous with lake transgression phases (Tauca: 14-18 ka, and Coipasa: 11-13 ka). (iii) Between $30 and 408 S, glaciers reached their maximum extent much earlier during the pre-LGM ($35-40 ka). This is attributed to a northward shift and/or intensification of the westerlies, whereas conditions during the global LGM were too dry to allow for significant glacial advances. (iv) South of 408, glaciers become temperature sensitive again and reached their maximum accordingly synchronous to the global LGM.

No abstract

Oceania is a key region for studying human dispersals, adaptations and interactions with other hominin populations. Although archaeological evidence now reveals occupation of the region by approximately 65–45 000 years ago, its human fossil record, which has the best potential to provide direct insights into ecological adaptations and population relationships, has remained much more elusive. Here, we apply radiocarbon dating and stable isotope approaches to the earliest human remains so far excavated on the islands of Near and Remote Oceania to explore the chronology and diets of the first preserved human individuals to step across these Pacific frontiers. We demonstrate that the oldest human (or indeed hominin) fossil outside of the mainland New Guinea-Aru area dates to approximately 11 800 years ago. Furthermore, although these early sea-faring populations have been associated with a specialized coastal adaptation, we show that Late Pleistocene–Holocene humans living on islands in the Bismarck Archipelago and in Vanuatu display a persistent reliance on interior tropical forest resources. We argue that local tropical habitats, rather than purely coasts or, later, arriving domesticates, should be emphasized in discussions of human diets and cultural practices from the onset of our species' arrival in this part of the world. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Tropical forests in the deep human past’.

The Middle and Late Bronze Age, a period roughly spanning the 2nd millennium BC (ca. 2000–1200 BC) in the Near East, is frequently referred to as the first ‘international age’, characterized by intense and far-reaching contacts between different entities from the eastern Mediterranean to the Near East and beyond. In a large-scale tandem study of stable isotopes and ancient DNA of individuals excavated at Tell Atchana (Alalakh, located in Hatay, Turkey), we explored the role of mobility at the capital of a regional kingdom, named Mukish during the Late Bronze Age, which spanned the Amuq Valley and some areas beyond. We generated strontium and oxygen isotope data from dental enamel for 53 individuals and 77 individuals, respectively, and added ancient DNA data of 10 newly sequenced individuals to a dataset of 27 individuals published in 2020. Additionally, we improved the DNA coverage of one individual from this 2020 dataset. The DNA data revealed a very homogeneous gene pool. This picture of an overwhelmingly local ancestry was consistent with the evidence of local upbringing in most of the individuals indicated by the isotopic data, where only five were found to be non-local. High levels of contact, trade, and exchange of ideas and goods in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, therefore, seem not to have translated into high levels of individual mobility detectable at Tell Atchana.

Santiago de Compostela is, together with Rome and Jerusalem, one of the three main pilgrimage and religious centres for Catholicism. The belief that the remains of St James the Great, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, is buried there has stimulated, since their reported discovery in the 9th century AD, a significant flow of people from across the European continent and beyond. Little is known about the practical experiences of people living within the city during its rise to prominence, however. Here, for the first time, we combine multi-isotope analysis (δ13C, δ15N, δ18Oap, δ13Cap and 87Sr/86Sr) and radiocarbon dating (14C) of human remains discovered at the crypt of the Cathedral of Santiago to directly study changes in diet and mobility during the first three centuries of Santiago’s emergence as an urban centre (9th–12th centuries AD). Together with assessment of the existing archaeological data, our radiocarbon chronology broadly confirms historical tradition regarding the first occupation of the site. Isotopic analyses reveal that the foundation of the religious site attracted migrants from the wider region of the northwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula, and possibly from further afield. Stable isotope analysis of collagen, together with information on tomb typology and location, indicates that the inhabitants of the city experienced increasing socioeconomic diversity as it became wealthier as the hub of a wide network of pilgrimage. Our research represents the potential of multidisciplinary analyses to reveal insights into the origins and impacts of the emergence of early pilgrimage centres on the diets and status of communities within Christian mediaeval Europe and beyond.