Published February 1, 2026
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Eemian climate seasonality reconstructed from intra-tooth oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen stable isotopes in equid enamel from Neumark-Nord 2, Germany
Creators
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1.
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
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2.
Harvard University
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3.
California Institute of Technology
- 4. MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioral Evolution, Leibniz Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA), Schloss Monrepos, Neuwied, 56567 Germany
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5.
Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
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6.
Leiden University
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7.
ETH Zurich
Abstract
Reconstructing the climate of central Europe during the Eemian serves a dual purpose. First, the Eemian represents the most recent pre-Holocene period of widespread climate warming, and its vegetation structure offers a potential natural baseline for temperate European vegetation, as it was unaffected by large-scale anthropogenic alterations. Second, because Neanderthals lived in Europe during this period, understanding the climate provides insights into their environmental adaptations.
Here we examined seasonal climate variation at a sub-annual scale during the early Eemian (ca. 121 ± 5 ka) by analyzing oxygen isotopes (δ18OCO3) in tooth enamel of 14 serially sampled equid third molars from the Neanderthal occupation site of Neumark-Nord 2 (NN2), Germany. These specimens were retrieved from find level NN2/2B, which spans less than 500 years. Stable carbon (δ13CCO3) and mineral-bound nitrogen isotopes (δ15Nmb) were measured in the same enamel aliquots to assess seasonal influences on diet.
Intra-tooth δ18OCO3 values show clear sinusoidal seasonal patterns, indicating mean annual temperatures of 11 ± 1 °C, which are closely aligned with previously published Eemian estimates and slightly higher than present-day values. However, modeled water δ18O suggest stronger seasonal contrasts than today, with summers ∼5 °C warmer and similar winter conditions. δ13CCO3 values indicate a semi-open habitat and more annual precipitation than today. Notably, δ13CCO3 and δ15Nmb values show no seasonal variation, implying stable year-round equid diets and consistent plant availability despite pronounced climate seasonality.
Copyright and License
© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Acknowledgement
We thank B. Hinnenberg, C. Pellio, F. Rubach, and M. Schmitt (Climate Geochemistry Department, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany) for technical support and A. Henry (Faculty of Archeology, University of Leiden, the Netherlands) for mentoring. We acknowledge the support of the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, and especially Prof. Dr. Harald Meller, during both the fieldwork and laboratory analyses of the rich Neumark-Nord material, which initiated this study. We also thank two anonymous reviewers who provided valuable feedback on this manuscript. This study was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Emmy Noether Fellowship LU 2199/2-1 (T. Lüdecke), the Max Planck Society (A. Martínez-García, H.B. Vonhof, G.H. Haug), and through financial support from the Leibniz Zentrum für Archäologie, the Leibniz Association (Collaborative Excellence Funding “AlterEco: Understanding the “Anthropocene”: human alteration of ecosystems in our deep history” (K283/2019) to S. Gaudzinski-Windheuser and L. Kindler) and from the LUF (Leiden University Fund) International Study Fund (L224092-6-45) to M. Vink.
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Additional details
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- LU 2199/2-1
- Max Planck Society
- Leibniz Association
- K283/2019
- Leiden University
- L224092-6-45
Dates
- Submitted
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2025-08-25
- Accepted
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2025-11-22
- Available
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2025-12-15Version of record