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On Bovid Assemblages and their Consequences for the Knowledge of Subsistence Patterns in the Middle Palaeolithic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Sabine Gaudzinski
Sabine Gaudzinski
Affiliation:
Forschungsbereich Altsteinzeit des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseum Mainz, Schloß Monrepos, 56567 Neuwied, Germany
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Abstract

A comparative study of four Late Pleistocene sites — Il'skaja (Russia), La Borde and Mauran (France), and Wallertheim (Germany) — was undertaken. The sites are considered to be kill and/or habitation sites, showing bovid dominated faunal assemblages which have already independently been described as resulting from hominid hunting activities. In this synthetic paper it is discussed whether these archaeological records reflect a distinct mode of procurement. Focusing on the faunal remains, similarities and differences are demonstrated between the varying bovid assemblages in terms of the body profiles, and age and sex structures, and evidence of hominid bovid carcass exploitation is examined. Physical, taphonomical, and hominid behavioural implications of the different variables compared are treated in a problem-oriented discussion. The results indicate focussed and selective hunting strategies in parts of Europe during the Middle Palaeolithic, emphasising that during the period an enormous variation of subsistence options existed, some of them quite similar to those of the Upper Palaeolithic.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 62 , 1996 , pp. 19 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1996

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References

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