% pubman genre = article @article{item_2505563, title = {{The depositional environments of Sch{\"o}ningen 13 II-4 and their archaeological implications}}, author = {Stahlschmidt, Mareike C. and Miller, Christopher E. and Ligouis, Bertrand and Goldberg, Paul and Berna, Francesco and Urban, Brigitte and Conard, Nicholas J.}, language = {eng}, isbn = {0047-2484}, doi = {10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.07.008}, year = {2015}, date = {2015}, abstract = {{Geoarchaeological research at the Middle Pleistocene site of Sch{\"o}ningen 13 II-4, often referred to as the Speerhorizont, has focused on describing and evaluating the depositional contexts of the well-known wooden spears, butchered horses, and stone tools. These finds were recovered from the transitional contact between a lacustrine marl and an overlying organic mud, originally thought to be a peat that accumulated in place under variable moisture conditions. The original excavators proposed that hominin activity, including hunting and butchery, occurred on a dry lake shore and was followed by a rapid sedimentation of organic deposits that embedded and preserved the artifacts. Our geoarchaeological analysis challenges this model. Here, we present evidence that the sediments of Sch{\"o}ningen 13 II-4 were deposited in a constantly submerged area of a paleolake. Although we cannot exclude the possibility that the artifacts were deposited during a short, extreme drying event, there are no sedimentary features indicative of surface exposure in the sediments. Accordingly, this paper explores three main alternative models of site formation: anthropogenic disposal of materials into the lake, a geological relocation of the artifacts, and hunting or caching on lake-ice. These models have different behavioral ramifications concerning hominin knowledge and exploitation of the landscape and their subsistence strategies.}}, journal = {{Journal of Human Evolution}}, volume = {89}, pages = {71--91}, }