Cave paleozoology in the Judean Desert: assembling records of Holocene wild mammal communities

Abstract

Long temporal records of Holocene wild mammal communities are essential to examine the role of human impacts and climatic fluctuations in the configuration of modern ecosystems. We show that such records can be assembled through extensive radiocarbon dating of faunal remains obtained from biogenic cave deposits. We dated 110 mammalian remains from 19 different cave sites in the Judean Desert. We use the dates in combination with archaeological survey data and bone collagen/apatite δ 13 C values to study faunal succession in the context of Holocene climate change and human settlement history in the region. Our results suggest a change in the late Holocene, expressed in fewer observations of Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus nimr) and gazelle (Gazella spp.), and an increase of Syrian striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena syriaca), fox (Vulpes spp.), Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana) and rock hyrax (Procavia capensis); suids (Sus scrofa) appear for the first time. According to the data distribution, however, the probability of finding a bone diminishes exponentially with time, which implies that the Judean Desert cave paleozoological record is temporally biased. The weight of evidence ultimately favors an explanation of the observed patterns as the consequence of a combined anthropogenic and climatic impact on local food webs.

The Late Middle Pleistocene mammalian fauna of Oumm Qatafa Cave, Judean Desert: taxonomy, taphonomy and palaeoenvironment

“…The latest occurrence of Crocuta in the region was in the terminal Pleistocene of Kebara C (Kurten 1965; Bar‐Oz and Weissbrod 2017), following which Hyaena hyaena became the sole representative of this family in the southern Levant (Lazagabaster et al . 2021a, 2022). Work in progress suggests that Crocuta may have also been present in the southern Judean Desert during the latermost Middle Pleistocene and in the latermost Late Pleistocene.…”

“…Late Acheulian occurrences of Hyaenidae are recorded in the assemblages from Zuttiyeh (Crocuta), Tabun Layer E (Hyaena) (Kurten 1965), Qesem Cave and Rantisalthough the hyaenid species represented at the last two sites was not noted (Marder et al 2011;Stiner et al 2009). The latest occurrence of Crocuta in the region was in the terminal Pleistocene of Kebara C (Kurten 1965; Bar-Oz and Weissbrod 2017), following which Hyaena hyaena became the sole representative of this family in the southern Levant (Lazagabaster et al 2021a(Lazagabaster et al , 2022. Work in progress suggests that Crocuta may have also been present in the southern Judean Desert during the latermost Middle Pleistocene and in the latermost Late Pleistocene.…”

“…The rich habitat diversity and the geographical position of the Levant as a dispersal route between Eurasia and Africa is reflected in its present and past faunal composition (Bar‐Oz and Weissbrod 2017; Bar‐Yosef and Belmaker 2011; Bate 1937; Lazagabaster et al . 2021a, b, 2022; Orbach and Yeshurun 2019; Stiner et al . 2009; Tchernov 1988, 1998).…”

Faunal remains from the Upper Paleolithic site of Nahal Rahaf 2 in the southern Judean Desert, Israel

“…Although taphonomic analysis is not at the focus of this study, we present here basic data on bone surface modifications and bone preservation as a background check to the assumption that the assemblage reflects, by and large, human subsistence activities rather than biogenic cave deposition that is more common in the Judean Desert region (Horwitz et al, 2002; Lazagabaster, Égüez, et al, 2021). All specimens were observed with a Dinolite™ microscope using at least X5 magnification to scan for bone surface modifications such as carnivore damage, cut marks, and percussion marks.…”

“…Layers 5–8 contained Upper Paleolithic archaeological finds (Barzilai et al, 2020), dated by radiocarbon to ∼39–32 ky Cal BP. Younger ages were obtained by Lazagabaster et al (2021: Table S3), through the radiocarbon dating of the bioapatite component in two leopard phalanges from Layer 5 (30247±70; 33065±70).…”