Jacques Cinq-Mars

Bio: Jacques Cinq-Mars is an academic researcher from Canadian Museum of History. The author has contributed to research in topics: Holocene & Radiocarbon dating. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 5 publications receiving 153 citations.

Periglacial geoarchaeology at the Dog Creek site, Northern Yukon

Abstract: The Dog Creek archaeological site (NcVi-3), located in the northern Yukon, provides evidence of complex site transformational processes related to microclimatic conditions occurring since the mid-Holocene. Geoarchaeological research at Dog Creek sought to interpret site formation processes in order to understand the relationship between surficial artifacts, buried artifacts, and stratified sediments. It also attempted to reconstruct the periglacial processes that were active in transforming the site and their relationships to microclimatic conditions. Sedimentology and fabric analysis show that artifacts were buried by solifluction and disturbed by frost heave and cryoturbation. Radiocarbon dating and pollen analysis demonstrated that solifluction took place approximately 5200–2000 years ago when a spruce forest existed at the site. This evidence suggests an onset of cooling conditions that continues to the present. After the mid-Holocene, the spruce treeline began to move south toward its present position. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Faunal and Archaeological Remains as Evidence of Climate Change in Freezing Caverns, Yukon Territory, Canada

Abstract: Animal and plant remains, some associated with prehistoric artifacts, were collected in freezing caverns ( glacieres ) of northern Yukon Territory. Radiocarbon dates show that the oldest remains are Middle Wisconsinan ca. 38 000 BP). The absence of material of Late Wisconsinan age likely indicates that the caves were infilled by ice during this cold period. Climate warming and ice melting during the Holocene allowed animals and prehistoric hunters to regularly visit these caves. Ice plugs were evidently smaller during the early Holocene than they are now.

Le karst de Tsi-it-toh-Choh : notes préliminaires sur quelques phénomènes karstiques du Yukon septentrional, Canada

Abstract: Cet article a pour but de presenter quelques donnees preliminaires portant sur l'existence de phenomenes karstiques situes au Yukon septentrional, en milieu periglaciaire, a l'extremite orientale de ce que fut, au Tardiglaciaire, le refuge beringien

Neandertals made the first specialized bone tools in Europe

Abstract: Modern humans replaced Neandertals ∼40,000 y ago. Close to the time of replacement, Neandertals show behaviors similar to those of the modern humans arriving into Europe, including the use of specialized bone tools, body ornaments, and small blades. It is highly debated whether these modern behaviors developed before or as a result of contact with modern humans. Here we report the identification of a type of specialized bone tool, lissoir, previously only associated with modern humans. The microwear preserved on one of these lissoir is consistent with the use of lissoir in modern times to obtain supple, lustrous, and more impermeable hides. These tools are from a Neandertal context proceeding the replacement period and are the oldest specialized bone tools in Europe. As such, they are either a demonstration of independent invention by Neandertals or an indication that modern humans started influencing European Neandertals much earlier than previously believed. Because these finds clearly predate the oldest known age for the use of similar objects in Europe by anatomically modern humans, they could also be evidence for cultural diffusion from Neandertals to modern humans.

Late Quaternary Vegetation History of Northern North America Based on Pollen, Macrofossil, and Faunal Remains

Abstract: Biome maps spanning the interval from the last glacial maximum to modern times are presented. The biome distributions at 18 ka BP were probably as nearly in equilibrium with climate as are the modern distributions, but deglacial biomes were probably in disequilibrium. Ice sheet configuration was a strong control of climate until 7 ka BP. Regional climate trends can be inferred from changing biome distributions, but during periods of disequilibrium, biome distributions under-represent summer warming. Because of summer cooling by 2-4 °C during the Holocene, largely in the last 3-5 ka, middle and certain early Holocene biome distributions and species compositions are reasonable analogues of future equilibrium displacements due to equivalent warming, at least in areas that were long-since deglaciated. Past biome migration rates in response to rapid regional warming during deglaciation were mainly in the range of 100-200 m per year. If these rates pertain in the future, biomes may shift 10-20 km in most regions over the next century. A major impediment to using former Holocene conditions as a guide to future conditions is that warmer Holocene summers were accompanied by colder winters, whereas warmer future summers will be accompanied by warmer winters.

Man the fat hunter: the demise of Homo erectus and the emergence of a new hominin lineage in the Middle Pleistocene (ca. 400 kyr) Levant.

Abstract: The worldwide association of H. erectus with elephants is well documented and so is the preference of humans for fat as a source of energy. We show that rather than a matter of preference, H. erectus in the Levant was dependent on both elephants and fat for his survival. The disappearance of elephants from the Levant some 400 kyr ago coincides with the appearance of a new and innovative local cultural complex – the Levantine Acheulo-Yabrudian and, as is evident from teeth recently found in the Acheulo-Yabrudian 400-200 kyr site of Qesem Cave, the replacement of H. erectus by a new hominin. We employ a bio-energetic model to present a hypothesis that the disappearance of the elephants, which created a need to hunt an increased number of smaller and faster animals while maintaining an adequate fat content in the diet, was the evolutionary drive behind the emergence of the lighter, more agile, and cognitively capable hominins. Qesem Cave thus provides a rare opportunity to study the mechanisms that underlie the emergence of our post-erectus ancestors, the fat hunters.

Climatic and geomorphic factors affecting contemporary (1950–2004) activity of retrogressive thaw slumps on the Aklavik Plateau, Richardson Mountains, NWT, Canada

Abstract: The climatic and geomorphic factors affecting retrogressive thaw slump initiation and activity on the Aklavik Plateau (Richardson Mountains, NWT) were examined using historical air photographs over a 54-year period (1950 to 2004). In this region, thaw slumps include a near-vertical headwall, a floor of low gradient (2–10°) and a steeply sloping evacuation channel (15–25°) that connects the floor of the thaw slumps to Willow River located 60–150 m below. All thaw slumps on the Aklavik Plateau are located within the glacial limit of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and the majority developed on the western side of the valley on gently sloping terrain. Aerial photographic analysis showed an increase in thaw slump initiation from 0.35 new thaw slump yr−1 over the 1954–71 period to 0.68 new thaw slump yr−1 over the 1985–2004 period. This increase follows the pattern of the 10-year running mean summer air temperature record over the 1950–2004 period. However, the total number of active mature thaw slumps on the Aklavik Plateau decreased from a maximum of 46 in 1950 to a minimum of 24 observed in 2004, which follows, to a certain extent, the 10-year running average of rainfall. Both these trends may relate to the influence of climate on the erosional processes that are thought to initiate thaw slumps and keep them active in regions of highlands. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada.