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A Diachronic Evaluation of Neanderthal Cervid Exploitation and Site Use at Pech de l’Azé IV, France

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Zooarchaeology and Modern Human Origins

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology ((VERT))

Abstract

Pech de l’Azé IV has long been known for its extensive sequence of Mousterian deposits that span from MIS 5c to the later parts of MIS 3 and incorporate roughly 60,000 years of Neanderthal occupation. Rich stone tool and faunal assemblages were recovered from Bordes’ original excavations of the site as well as a recent campaign of excavations from 2000 to 2003. Presented here are results from a zooarchaeological analysis of faunal remains from the recent excavations, which provide insight on the exploitation of large cervids (red deer and reindeer) by Neanderthals over time. The zooarchaeological results are considered in conjunction with other archaeological data from the site in order to better understand changes in site use and Neanderthal mobility.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to Jamie Clark and John Speth for the invitation to participate in their stimulating session of the 11th ICAZ Congress in Paris. Thanks to the Pech IV team, particularly Harold Dibble and Shannon McPherron, for giving me the opportunity to work on the fauna and for many great discussions about the stones and bones. Thank you also to other team members Paul Goldberg, Dennis Sandgathe, and Alain Turq for their help and discussions. Thanks to Charles Egeland, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Jamie Hodgkins, Olaf Jöris, Lutz Kindler, Claire Letourneux, Natalie Munro, Isabelle Thèry-Parisot, Will Rendu, Daniel Richter, Utsav Schurmans, Uta Schwarz, Marie Soressi, Teresa Steele, Martin Street and Elaine Turner for their contributions to this research. I am also grateful to Mark Diab for his help with this paper; and to Donald Grayson and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions for improving the manuscript. Support for the excavation and analysis of Pech IV came from the National Science Foundation (0073856; 0551927), the Leakey Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and the Forschungsbereich Altsteinzeit—RGZM, Neuwied/Mainz.

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  1. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04105, Leipzig, Germany

    Laura Niven

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  1. Laura Niven
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Correspondence to Laura Niven .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Arkansas, USA

    Jamie L. Clark

  2. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    John D. Speth

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Niven, L. (2013). A Diachronic Evaluation of Neanderthal Cervid Exploitation and Site Use at Pech de l’Azé IV, France. In: Clark, J., Speth, J. (eds) Zooarchaeology and Modern Human Origins. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6766-9_9

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