Bears and humans, a Neanderthal tale. Reconstructing uncommon behaviors from zooarchaeological evidence in southern Europe

Abstract

Cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), brown bear (Ursus arctos), and Neanderthals were potential competitors for environmental resources (shelters and food) in Europe. In order to reinforce this view and contribute to the ongoing debate on late Neanderthal behavior, we present evidence from zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses of bear bone remains discovered at Rio Secco Cave and Fumane Cave in northeast Italy, an extended geographic area north of the Adriatic Sea. The remains from both caves come from layers dated to 49-42 ky cal. BP, and suggest close interactions between humans and bears, with data not only limited to the association of Mousterian lithic artifacts with numerous bear remains, but also the detection of clearly preserved traces of human modification such as cut and percussion marks, which enable a reconstruction of the main steps of fur recovery and the butchering process. Examples of Neanderthal bear exploitation are extremely sporadic in Europe, and Grotta Rio Secco and Grotta Fumane can be considered rare cases of remain accumulations generated by the human predation of bears of varied age classes during or near the end of hibernation. All of this evidence suggests that bears had a strategic role in the nomadic economy of Neanderthal hunting groups.

Additive effects of climate change and human hunting explain population decline and extinction in cave bears

“…) and Rio Secco (Romandini et al . ). However, this evidence is scarcer and more erratic than that for H. sapiens .…”

“…The European archaeological record shows evidence of cave bear individuals that were killed by Palaeolithic hunters. Several cave bear remains from central and eastern Europe bear cut marks, suggesting they were stripped from flesh by Palaeolithic people (Torres et al 2007;M€ unzel et al 2011;Romandini et al 2018;Wojtal et al 2018). Besides hunting, humans probably competed with cave bears for the cave environment, which was crucial to survival overwinter during the LGM (Grayson & Delpech 2003;Conard et al 2006).…”

“…This is relevant because cave bear remains may constitute up to 80-90% of all fossil remains in cave or shelter environments, indicating how important the cave environments were to U. spelaeus. Direct evidence of bear exploitation by humans (and even, although erratic, by Neanderthals) comes from a number of Upper Palaeolithic sites such as Nietoperzowa, Hohle Fels, Deszczowa, Fumane, Rio Secco, Geißenkl€ osterle, Mamutowa, Paina and Trene, amongst others(Torres et al 2007;M€ unzel et al 2011;Baca et al 2014;Romandini et al 2018;Terlato et al 2018; Wojtal et al 2018). However, most of these sites are younger than 45 kya, providing a further indication of the intensification of the negative effects of H. sapiens on cave bear viability(M€ unzel et al Conard et al 2006) that drove U. spelaeus extinct.…”

Bone tools, ornaments and other unusual objects during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Italy

“…Grotta Maggiore Malerba and Gicobini, 1996;Jéquier et al, 2012;Thun Hohenstein and Bertolini, 2012;Peresani et al, 2014;Romandini et al, 2018;Thun Hohenstein et al, 2018)…”

The Uluzzian in the north of Italy: insights around the new evidence at Riparo Broion

“…Fumane does not correlate with any detectable change in the way that fauna was exploited; Neanderthals predominantly hunted large and middle-sized ungulates like giant deer and red deer, in addition to birds and carnivores like foxes and brown bears (Peresani et al 2011a;2011b;Tagliacozzo et al 2013;Romandini et al 2018).…”