Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep Micromorphology of an Upper Paleolithic cultural layer at Grub- Kranawetberg, Austria Flora Schilt a,b,⁎ , Alexander Verpoorte c , Walpurga Antl d a Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Rümelinstrasse 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany b Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, Germany c Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands d Natural History Museum Vienna, Department of Prehistory, A-1014 Vienna, Austria ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Cultural layer Gravettian Micromorphology Site formation Anthropogenic soil Loess ABSTRACT Cultural layers are a fundamental part of open-air loess sites. As complex representations of the interaction between human activity and natural processes, we believe these layers deserve detailed investigation. In this paper we consider the impact of hunter-gatherers on sediments and soil formation and present a small-scale, micromorphological study of a cultural layer at Grub-Kranawetberg. Grub-Kranawetberg is a Gravettian site located on a flat crest overlooking the Morava river valley in Lower Austria. We used micromorphology to study the formation of the main cultural layer of the site as well as the bordering underlying and overlying deposits. The studied cultural layer of Grub-Kranawetberg shows evidence of 1) substantial anthropogenic input of organic and mineral material, 2) bioturbation by a diverse soil fauna including mollusks and earthworms, 3) translocation of carbonates, indicating soil-forming processes, 4) trampling and 5) a preserved, though bioturbated, occupation surface without signs of erosion or redeposition. By enhancing nutrient availability and soil faunal activity, the human waste influenced the diversity and composition of the plant communities. We argue that the cultural layer is best described as an anthropogenic soil, indicating that anthropogenic waste already played a role in Late Pleistocene human landscape modification. 1. Introduction Soils as archives of human interaction with the environment is not a topic frequently discussed in Paleolithic archaeology (but see Brancier et al., 2014; Engovatova and Golyeva, 2012; Glaser and Birk, 2012; Golyeva et al., 2016). However, several studies have demonstrated the effects of early hunter-gatherers on other aspects of the environment such as vegetation and animal diversity. Palynological analyses suggest that humans impacted vegetation as early as ca. 50.000 year ago in Borneo (Hunt et al., 2012) and in Western Europe Bos and Janssen (1996) argued for early human influences during the Younger Dryas (Bos and Janssen, 1996). Similarly, the hunting of animals contributed to the maintenance of prey diversity (Bird et al., 2013), but at times over-exploitation may have led to overkill and extinction events (Barnosky et al., 2004; Sandom et al., 2014; and Surovell et al., 2016; but see also Diamond, 1989; Guthrie, 1984; Owen-Smith, 1987; MacPhee and Marx, 1997; and Martin, 1984). The abandonment of food refuse at campsites created plant-rich patches (Politis, 1996), while some local plant and animal species benefited from human off- site use of fire (Bird et al., 2013; Scherjon et al., 2015). Stone tool use over the past 2,5 million years has also been described as resulting in a man-made lithic landscape (Foley and Lahr, 2015). The influence of early hunter-gatherers on vegetation and soils may have been less intense than during agricultural times, but through the extraction of food items, raw materials and other resources, hunter-gatherers did change their local landscapes (Smith, 2011; Rowley-Conwy and Layton, 2011; Boivin et al., 2016). In this paper we consider the impact of hunter-gatherers on the lithosphere and present a small-scale, micro- morphological study of a cultural layer. We approach the cultural layer as the complex representation of the interaction of human activity and geological processes of sedimentation, erosion and pedogenesis (Terhorst et al., 2014; Goldberg and Aldeias, 2016). Cultural layers are a characteristic feature of Upper Paleolithic open-air sites in loess and silt loam (Gribchenko, 2006). At large site complexes such as Dolní Věstonice (Klíma, 1963, 1969; Svoboda, 1991), Pavlov (Svoboda, 1994, 1997, 2005; Svoboda et al., 2016), Předmostí (Absolon and Klíma, 1977; Polanska et al., 2014), Kostenki (Pietsch et al., 2014; Hoffecker et al., 2016), Willendorf (Felgenhauer, 1959; Haesaerts et al., 1996; Nigst et al., 2014), Krems-Wachtberg (Einwögerer, 2000; Händel et al., 2014) and Grub-Kranawetberg (Antl- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.05.041 Received 3 March 2017; Received in revised form 28 April 2017; Accepted 21 May 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Rümelinstrasse 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany. E-mail addresses: flora.schilt@uni-tuebingen.de (F. Schilt), a.verpoorte@arch.leidenuniv.nl (A. Verpoorte), walpurga.antl@nhm-wien.ac.at (W. Antl). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 14 (2017) 152–162 2352-409X/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. MARK