The ungulate assemblage from layer A9 at Grotta di Fumane, Italy: A zooarchaeological contribution to the reconstruction of Neanderthal ecology

Abstract One of the most widespread flaking methods in Europe was the Discoidal technique. However, technological analyses of these lithic artifacts are not yet sufficiently integrated into a corpus of zooarchaeological indicators that outline an ecological profile of Neanderthal mobility. To address this issue, this study presents evidence from Grotta di Fumane in northern Italy, where the exclusive use of the Discoid manufacturing technology is embedded in a Late Mousterian sequence with Levallois industries. The paper begins with a presentation of the regional ecological and contextual setting, and then explains the taphonomic and zooarchaeological data from the large and varied ungulate assemblage. Results show that hunting activity was shaped by the availability of game and that well-established, cost-effective patterns were used in carcass processing. Compared on a broader scale with other contexts where Discoid implements have been taken into account in relation to faunal assemblages, these foraging practices show that a common model for Neanderthal subsistence strategy cannot be applied.

[1]  D. Metcalfe,et al.  Plant Utility Indices: Two Great Basin Examples , 1996 .

[2]  Steven L. Kuhn,et al.  Differential Burning, Recrystallization, and Fragmentation of Archaeological Bone , 1995 .

[3]  Robert J. Blumenschine,et al.  A Quantitative Diagnosis of Notches Made by Hammerstone Percussion and Carnivore Gnawing on Bovid Long Bones , 1994, American Antiquity.

[4]  A. Machordom,et al.  Tooth Eruption and Replacement in the Spanish Wild Goat , 1985 .

[5]  Lucio Calcagnile,et al.  Age of the final Middle Palaeolithic and Uluzzian levels at Fumane Cave, Northern Italy, using 14C, ESR, 234U/230Th and thermoluminescence methods , 2008 .

[6]  C. Ravazzi.  Late Quaternary history of spruce in southern Europe , 2002 .

[7]  J. Yellen.  Cultural patterning in faunal remains: evidence from the !Kung bushmen , 1977 .

[8]  A. J. Sutcliffe,et al.  Spotted Hyaena: Crusher, Gnawer, Digester and Collector of Bones , 1970, Nature.

[9]  M. Peresani.  An initial overview of the middle Palaeolithic discoid industries in Central-Northern Italy. , 2003 .

[10]  Munich,et al.  A guide to the measurement of animal bones from archaeological sites , 1976 .

[11]  K. Hawkes,et al.  Patterns in the distribution, site structure and assemblage composition of Hadza kill-butchering sites , 1992 .

[12]  Elspeth Ready.  Neandertal foraging during the late Mousterian in the Pyrenees: New insights based on faunal remains from Gatzarria Cave , 2013 .

[13]  B. Sala,et al.  Did Neandertals and anatomically modern humans coexist in northern Italy during the late MIS 3 , 2012 .

[14]  R. Blumenschine.  Early hominid scavenging opportunities : implications of carcass availability in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro ecosystems , 1986 .

[15]  M. Peresani.  A New Cultural Frontier for the Last Neanderthals: The Uluzzian in Northern Italy , 2008, Current Anthropology.

[16]  The Neanderthal Legacy , 1995 .

[17]  M. Stiner.  Thirty years on the “Broad Spectrum Revolution” and paleolithic demography , 2001, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[18]  M. Domínguez‐Rodrigo,et al.  The use of tooth pits to identify carnivore taxa in tooth-marked archaeofaunas and their relevance to reconstruct hominid carcass processing behaviours , 2003 .

[19]  S. Capaldo,et al.  Experimental determinations of carcass processing by Plio-Pleistocene hominids and carnivores at FLK 22 (Zinjanthropus). Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. , 1997, Journal of human evolution.

[20]  M. Peresani,et al.  Blades, bladelets and flakes: A case of variability in tool design at the dawn of the Middle–Upper Palaeolithic transition in Italy , 2013 .

[21]  M. Peresani,et al.  Late Neandertals and the intentional removal of feathers as evidenced from bird bone taphonomy at Fumane Cave 44 ky B.P., Italy , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[22]  J. Yellen.  Small mammals: Post-discard patterning of !Kung San faunal remains , 1991 .

[23]  R. Bettinger,et al.  Central Place Models of Acorn and Mussel Processing , 1997 .

[24]  M. Romandini.  Analisi archeozoologica, tafonomica, paleontologica e spaziale dei livelli Uluzziani etardo-Musteriani della Grotta di Fumane (VR). Variazioni e continuità strategicocomportamentaliumane in Italia Nord Orientale: i casi di Grotta del Col della Stria(VI) e Grotta del Rio Secco (PN). , 2012 .

[25]  H. Bunn,et al.  Variability in Camp Structure and Bone Food Refuse Patterning at Kua San Hunter-Gatherer Camps , 1991 .

[26]  R. Bird,et al.  Interpreting abundance indices: some zooarchaeological implications of Martu foraging , 2010 .

[27]  C. Ravazzi,et al.  Pollen stratigraphy, vegetation and climate history of the last 215 ka in the Azzano Decimo core (plain of Friuli, north-eastern Italy) , 2009 .

[28]  F. Bayham.  Factors Influencing the Archaic Pattern of Animal Exploitation , 1979 .

[29]  William Rendu,et al.  Shifts in Neandertal mobility, technology and subsistence strategies in western France , 2011 .

[30]  C. Marean,et al.  Captive hyaena bone choice and destruction, the Schlepp effect and olduvai archaeofaunas , 1992 .

[31]  S. Kuhn.  Mousterian Lithic Technology: An Ecological Perspective , 2014 .

[32]  Johnna Fisher.  Bone surface modifications in zooarchaeology , 1995 .

[33]  T. Higham.  European Middle and Upper Palaeolithic radiocarbon dates are often older than they look: problems with previous dates and some remedies , 2011, Antiquity.

[34]  M. Moncel,et al.  On Neanderthal subsistence strategies and land use: A regional focus on the Rhone Valley area in southeastern France , 2010 .

[35]  Marco Peresani,et al.  Fifty thousand years of flint knapping and tool shaping across the Mousterian and Uluzzian sequence of Fumane cave , 2012 .

[36]  P. Valensi,et al.  Faunal Exploitation during the Middle Palaeolithic in south-eastern France and north-western Italy , 2004 .

[37]  E. Carbonell,et al.  Learning by Heart: Cultural Patterns in the Faunal Processing Sequence during the Middle Pleistocene , 2013, PloS one.

[38]  Isabelle Théry-Parisot,et al.  Taphonomic consequences of the use of bones as fuel: experimental data and archaeological applications , 2005 .

[39]  T. Pickering.  Reconsideration of criteria for differentiating faunal assemblages accumulated by hyenas and hominids , 2002 .

[40]  R. Blumenschine.  Carcass consumption sequences and the archaeological distinction of scavenging and hunting , 1986 .

[41]  D. Grayson,et al.  Quantitative zooarchaeology: topics in the analysis of archaeological faunas , 1987 .

[42]  R. Blumenschine.  Hominid carnivory and foraging strategies, and the socio-economic function of early archaeological sites. , 1991, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[43]  S. Bokonyi.  A New Method for the Determination of the Number of Individuals in Animal Bone Material , 1970 .

[44]  Lewis R. Binford,et al.  Hyena scavenging behavior and its implications for the interpretation of faunal assemblages from FLK 22 (the zinj floor) at olduvai gorge , 1988 .

[45]  J. Broughton.  Prey spatial structure and behavior affect archaeological tests of optimal foraging models: Examples from the Emeryville Shellmound vertebrate fauna , 2002 .

[46]  R. Blumenschine,et al.  Percussion marks on bone surfaces as a new diagnostic of hominid behaviour , 1988, Nature.

[47]  J. Boone.  Subsistence strategies and early human population history: An evolutionary ecological perspective , 2002, World archaeology.

[48]  R. Blumenschine,et al.  Competition for carcasses and early hominid behavioral ecology: A case study and conceptual framework , 1994 .

[49]  P. Miracle.  Late Mousterian subsistence and cave use in Dalmatia: the zooarchaeology of Mujina Pećina, Croatia , 2005 .

[50]  L. Binford.  Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths , 1981 .

[51]  Cristina Lemorini,et al.  Techno-morphological and use-wear functional analysis: an integrated approach to the study of a discoid industry , 2003 .

[52]  R. Bird,et al.  In Pursuit of Mobile Prey: Martu Hunting Strategies and Archaeofaunal Interpretation , 2009, American Antiquity.

[53]  M. Domínguez‐Rodrigo,et al.  A study of carnivore competition in riparian and open habitats of modern savannas and its implications for hominid behavioral modelling. , 2001, Journal of human evolution.

[54]  R. Aitken.  Delayed implantation in roe deer (Capreolus capreolus). , 1974, Journal of reproduction and fertility.

[55]  A. Mysterud.  Diet overlap among ruminants in Fennoscandia , 2000, Oecologia.

[56]  Lewis R. Binford,et al.  Dimensional Analysis of Behavior and Site Structure: Learning from an Eskimo Hunting Stand , 1978, American Antiquity.

[57]  K. Mariezkurrena.  Contribucion al conocimiento del desarrollo de la denticion y el esqueleto postcraneal de Cervus elaphus , 1983 .

[58]  Françoise Delpech,et al.  Changing Diet Breadth in the Early Upper Palaeolithic of Southwestern France , 1998 .

[59]  I. Garin,et al.  Habitat use in a Rupicapra pyrenaica pyrenaica forest population , 1996 .

[60]  H. Bunn,et al.  Variability in Bone Assemblage Formation from Hadza Hunting, Scavenging, and Carcass Processing , 1988 .

[61]  K. T. Jones,et al.  A Reconsideration of Animal Body-Part Utility Indices , 1988, American Antiquity.

[62]  A. Rodríguez-Hidalgo,et al.  A zooarchaeological contribution to establish occupational patterns at Level J of Abric Romaní (Barcelona, Spain) , 2012 .

[63]  M. Vanhaeren,et al.  Criteria for Identifying Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) Age and Sex from Their Canines. Application to the Study of Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Ornaments , 2002 .

[64]  V. Geist.  Deer of the World: Their Evolution, Behavior, and Ecology , 2000 .

[65]  M. M. Selvaggio.  Carnivore tooth marks and stone tool butchery marks on scavenged bones: archaeological implications , 1994 .

[66]  Éric Boëda,et al.  Le débitage discoïde et le débitage Levallois récurrent centripède , 1993 .

[67]  R. Potts,et al.  Cutmarks made by stone tools on bones from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania , 1981, Nature.

[68]  F. Rivals,et al.  Large carnivores as taphonomic agents of space modification: an experimental approach with archaeological implications , 2013 .

[69]  L. Meignen,et al.  Les technocomplexes du Paléolithique moyen en Europe occidentale dans leur cadre diachronique et géographique , 2007 .

[70]  M. Gala,et al.  Ecology and subsistence strategies in the eastern Italian Alps during the Middle Palaeolithic , 2004 .

[71]  L. Binford.  The archaeology of place , 1982 .

[72]  Marco Peresani,et al.  La variabilité du débitage discoïde dans la grotte de Fumane (Italie du Nord)/The variability of discoid production at the grotte de Fumane , 1998 .

[73]  P. Shipman,et al.  Cutmark Mimics on Modern and Fossil Bovid Bones , 1984, Current Anthropology.

[74]  Paola Villa,et al.  Breakage patterns of human long bones , 1991 .

[75]  P. Reimer,et al.  The vegetation and climate history of the last glacial cycle in a new pollen record from Lake Fimon (southern Alpine foreland, N-Italy) , 2010 .

[76]  E. Morin.  Reassessing Paleolithic Subsistence: References , 2012 .

[77]  Marco Peresani,et al.  Problems with radiocarbon dating the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Italy , 2009 .

[78]  Marvin Kay,et al.  The analysis of animal bones from archeological sites , 1984 .

[79]  R. Blumenschine.  An experimental model of the timing of hominid and carnivore influence on archaeological bone assemblages , 1988 .

[80]  C. K. Brain.  The Hunters or the Hunted?: An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy , 1983, Geological Magazine.

[81]  R. Blumenschine.  Percussion marks, tooth marks, and experimental determinations of the timing of hominid and carnivore access to long bones at FLK Zinjanthropus, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania , 1995 .