Southern Germany is rich with Palaeolithic cave sites, many of which are concentrated in the extensive karst systems of several river valleys. Artefact inventories and faunal assemblages from these sites are renowned but less is known about the Middle Palaeolithic faunas. This paper provides an evaluation of faunas from key Middle Palaeolithic cave localities of the Lone Valley including new results from the sites of Bockstein and Vogelherd. These assemblages reflect high species diversity, particularly of large-and medium-sized herbivores as well as large carnivores. Horse is the most frequent prey animal in both Bocksteinschmiede III and Vogelherd VII. Several anthropogenic signatures characterize the Bocksteinschmiede III fauna, but the role of hominids is less clear in the bone accumulation from Vogelherd VII.
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