Earliest evidence for hunter-gatherer impacts on raven diet and ecology in the Gravettian of Southern Moravia

Abstract

The Early Gravettian of Southern Moravia – the Pavlovian – is notable for its corvid-rich faunal assemblages dominated by common ravens (Corvus corax). Based on the available zooarchaeological and settlement data from the Pavlovian, it has been hypothesized that ravens were attracted by human domestic activities and subsequently captured by Pavlovian people for food and feathers. Here, we report independent δ15N, δ13C and δ34S isotope data obtained from twelve adult common ravens from the Pavlovian key sites of Předmostí I, Pavlov I and Dolní Věstonice I. We show that these ravens had diets surprisingly rich in mammoth, thus strongly aligning in feeding preferences with contemporary early Homo sapiens foragers. We isolate two groups of ravens with distinct dietary profiles and argue that these opportunistic-generalist feeders were both attracted from adjacent regions and encouraged locally through human activity. These data provide the earliest direct evidence for incipient synanthropism among Upper Palaeolithic ravens. We suggest that subtle anthropogenic ecosystem engineering, including carrion supply dynamics, furnishes unique contexts for the emergence of synanthropism, affirming deep-historical roots in Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer contexts. The coalescence of synanthropic niches can promote novel foraging opportunities and human-environment feedback dynamics and is thus important for understanding early human ecosystem impacts.

The human side of biodiversity: coevolution of the human niche, palaeo-synanthropy and ecosystem complexity in the deep human past

“…The listed cases are all linked to forager societies of the Late Pleistocene and early/middle Holocene; 'state of knowledge' refers to the quality and reliability of palaeosynanthropic archaeological evidence, from low (+) to reasonable (+++).candidate animal speciesarchaeological contexthypothesized/expected human–environmental feedback systemstate of knowledgeliteraturecommon raven ( Corvus corax ), Arctic fox ( Vulpes lagopus )Pavlovian (earlier Gravettian/mid–Upper Palaeolithic of Moravia); ca 31 to 27 kyaUnusual site fidelity and recurrent mammoth hunting attract opportunistic scavengers that are in part deterred and in part promoted, in turn shaping human cultural behaviour and so creating complex, spatially heterogeneous ecologies with patches of biodiversity hotspots (integrated mammoth-based foraging). Foxes and ravens feature in human cultural practices.+++[54,187–192]red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ), Arctic foxAurignacian and Gravettian (pre-LGM Upper Palaeolithic of southwestern Germany (Swabian Jura)); ca 42 to 30 kyaIntensive human settlement and large herbivore hunting (esp. reindeer, Rangifer tarandus ) and selective body-part transport provide scavenging opportunities for small scavengers such as foxes, which are apparently tolerated by hunter–gatherers.…”

“…Recent work on the Moravian Pavlovian in the Czech Republic ( ca 31–27 kya) has revealed that common ravens ( Corvus corax ), unusually abundant in zooarchaeological assemblages of the region, developed dietary preferences closely aligned with those of contemporary human foragers, consuming primarily large herbivores such as bison and horse (but not reindeer) and especially mammoth, animals also preferentially targeted by their human neighbours [54]. This evidence coincides with a number of substantial changes in human behaviour when compared to the earlier Upper Palaeolithic settlement in the region.…”

“…New investigations of the spatially extensive mammoth bone beds flanking some of the major Pavlovian sites further indicate that they are likely anthropogenic and were used to cache and dispose surplus body parts of hunted large herbivores [230]. Concurrently, evidence for primary or even secondary access of larger carnivores to animal carcasses is minimal [54], and it is likely that they were actively removed from human neighbourhoods [189].…”

“…In order to maintain the stable micro-ecologies centred on large herbivore carcasses required for such integrated foraging strategies, it is hence important that humans only take these animals in moderate numbers and otherwise largely tolerate them in their surroundings. This condition appears to be met at the Pavlovian key sites in Moravia as raven bones, albeit clearly elevated in abundance by Pleistocene standards, comprise MNI (minimum number of individuals) scores between 1 and 13 only, and while generally dominating the bird assemblages, they make up a very small proportion of the total faunal assemblages (less than 1% of the number of individual specimens (NISP)) [54]. Raven remains are also treated differently from other animal species as there is hitherto no evidence for fire contact [54], which may suggest that the raven bodies were collected not only for subsistence purposes but also to provide culturally relevant resources [190,191].…”

“…In this paper, we argue that human–environment relations with notable biodiversity-tending dynamics have a deep hunter–gatherer past, stretching back considerably into the Pleistocene and countering the notion that human–nature relations primarily inform a deep history of negative biodiversity impacts. We suggest that (1) the evolution of the human niche is bound to hitherto largely overlooked human–environment feedback systems with distinct biodiversity legacies; and that (2) the emergence of palaeo-synanthropic niches [53,54] occupied by other animals in early forager-shaped environments supplies a useful model system to begin addressing some of the complexities and trade-offs of human–biodiversity relations. This perspective is currently under-researched and thus still in its infancy.…”