Coastal strip of the Levantine Corridor for the Calabrian (late Early Pleistocene) hominin migration

Abstract

As a geographical bridge across continents, the Levantine Corridor has played an important role in the migration and dispersal of hominins throughout the Pleistocene. Archaeological sites along and around this corridor provide evidence of these movements dating back to the Early Pleistocene, in the form of artefacts and, to a lesser extent, fossils, which attest to the presence of hominins in the region. Interestingly, younger sites (i.e., Calabrian) are located along the coastal strip of the Levantine Corridor while older sites (i.e., Gelasian sites such as Zarqa, Yiron and El-Kowm Oasis) are found further inland. In this study, we revise the foraminiferal biostratigraphy of marine deposits exposed on land in Latakia, Syria, in order to track sea-level and coastal line changes. We demonstrate that the coastal strip of the Levantine Corridor was inaccessible to hominins as a migration pathway prior to 1.28 Ma, as evidenced by the presence of biomarker planktic (Neogloboquadrina pachyderma, Globoturborotalita rubescens, Globigerinoides tenellus, Globigerinoides obliquus obliquus) and benthic foraminifers (Bulimina marginata and Hyalinea baltica). We also document the governing climate conditions and sea-levels during the Calabrian times in this region, more specifically between Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 53 and MIS 40, where foraminifers and detailed dinoflagellate data point to frequent short-term oscillations before the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition (EMPT; ∼1.2–0.7 Ma) with shifts between warm and cold temperatures and between saline and freshwater environments with varying nutrient input linked to riverine inflow. Pollen data reveal that the prevailing climate was typically Mediterranean climate during the Calabrian (late Early Pleistocene).