Human consumption of tortoises at Level IV of Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain)

Blasco, Ruth

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.05.013

Cited by 119 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Here, tortoises are also a consistent component of faunal assemblages from the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene (Blasco et al, 1986;Blasco, 2008;Blasco and Fernández Peris, 2012b; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Nutritional value of tortoises and foraging implications at Blombos Cave 8 Tchernov, 2002;Stiner et al, 2000). However, in the Mediterranean Basin the subsistence implications of tortoise exploitation have also been examined in detail, especially through use of optimal foraging theory and diet breadth models (Blasco and Fernández Peris, 2012a;Munro and Atici, 2009;Stiner, 2001;Stiner and Munro, 2002;Stiner et al, 2000;Stiner et al, 1999).…”

Section: Tortoises As Prey Itemsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Across ungulate body size classes, MSA people are implicated as the primary accumulators, with perhaps slightly less human input of small ungulates in the lowermost M3 phase (Thompson and Henshilwood, 2011). Pleistocene to the present (Blasco, 2008;Flannery and Wheeler, 1986;Sampson, 2000;Schneider and Everson, 1989;Speth and Tchernov, 2002;Stahl and Oyuela-Caycedo, 2007;Thompson, 2010a;Werner, 1990). Skeletal element abundances suggested that humans were also the primary accumulators for the M3 sample, as raptors do not tend to deposit large quantities of carapace and plastron elements (Sampson, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour

Thompson

Henshilwood

2014

Journal of Human Evolution

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The site of Blombos Cave (BBC), Western Cape, South Africa has been a strong contributor to establishing the antiquity of important aspects of modern human behaviour, such as early symbolism and technological complexity. However, many linkages between MSA behaviour and the subsistence record remain to be investigated. Understanding the contribution of small fauna such as tortoises to the human diet is necessary for identifying shifts in overall foraging strategies as well as the collecting and processing behaviour of individuals unable to participate in large-game hunting. This study uses published data to abundance data show that during the ca. 75 ka upper Still Bay M1 phase at BBC tortoises contributed twice as many calories to the diet relative to ungulates than they did during the ca. 100 ka lower M3 phase. However, in spite of the abundance of their fossils, their absolute caloric contribution relative to ungulates remained modest in both phases. At the end of the site's MSA occupation history human subsistence strategies shifted to emphasise high-return hunted mammals, which likely precipitated changes in the social roles of hunters and gatherers during the Still Bay.

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Section: Tortoises As Prey Itemsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour

Thompson

Henshilwood

2014

Journal of Human Evolution

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“…Furthermore, in several areas, including Andalusia, Gibraltar and perhaps Murcia, Neanderthals used marine resources. In general, faunal patterns define the existence of complex resource management strategies by Neanderthals (e.g., Montes Bernárdez, 1988;Villaverde et al, 1996;Aura et al, 2002;Barroso et al, 2006a,b;Blasco, 2008;Sanchis and Fernández Peris, 2008;Stringer et al, 2008;Martínez Valle, 2009;Colonese et al, 2011;Cortés-Sánchez et al, 2011;Sanchis, 2012;Walker et al, 2012;Blasco and Fernández Peris, 2012a,b).…”

Section: Zooarchaeological Dietary Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of these, level IV has a large assemblage that includes 30 species, which represents an increase over the lower levels (Blasco, 2008;Blasco and Fernández Peris, 2012b). According to %NISP and MNI, there is a preponderance of rabbit and red deer.…”

Section: The Early Late Pleistocene (Mis 5e)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

Salazar‐García

Power

Serra³

et al. 2013

Quaternary International

112

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a b s t r a c tDuring recent decades, Neanderthal diet has been a major research topic in palaeoanthropology. This has been accelerated by the maturation of different techniques, which have produced a plethora of new information. However, this proliferation of data has led to confusing and contradictory results. Furthermore, most of the ecological dietary studies have been carried out on specimens drawn from different time periods and regions, almost exclusively those characterized by cold, open environmental conditions. Subsistence models based on these fragmentary data have been applied to Neanderthals living in a variety of different regions and environments, even though their dietary strategies may have been as variable as regions they inhabited. In this paper we integrate different dietary approaches (studies of the zooarchaeology, stable isotopes and plant remains) from the central and southeastern Mediterranean coast of Iberia in order to develop a broader and more complex picture of Neanderthal diet in different Mediterranean environmental conditions. Our results suggest that there may have been some minor dietary variation due to climatic or environmental differences, but that Neanderthal diet focussed on large terrestrial game, supplemented by plant foods when these were available.Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. Neanderthal dietary ecologyThe dietary behaviours of Neanderthals and the relationship between their diet and their social organization, technological abilities, and even their eventual disappearance, have been hotly debated in the anthropological literature. Examining the diets of Neanderthals requires the synthesis of data that have been collected by numerous researchers over the last 150 years. In many cases, the differences between Neanderthal and early modern human diets have been emphasized, at the expense of cogent discussion of the variation within each group. Early modern humans lived in a wide variety of environmental contexts and likely pursued a variety of behaviours throughout this range of environments. The exclusively Eurasian distribution of Neanderthals did not include as many environments, but neither was it the exclusively cold Arctic climate that many have supposed it to be. A more detailed examination of the Neanderthal range and the effects of shifting global climates reveals that this group would have been exposed to a diverse range of environments (Hoffecker, 2009;MacDonald et al., 2009). Just as modern human dietary behaviour likely varied with environments, so, too, can we predict that Neanderthals had different diets in different environments.Our understanding of the diets of Neanderthals comes from three main lines of evidence. The first is the study of the human remains themselves, including the isotope signal recorded in their bones, the microwear on their teeth, and how factors of their lifehistory are related to diet. The second line of evidence includes the study of the remains of their food, in the form of animal and plant remains preserved ...

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The turtles from the middle Paleolithic site of Gruta Nova da Columbeira (Bombarral, Portugal): Update through an archaeozoological perspective

Boneta

Cardoso

Pérez‐García

2023

The Anatomical Record

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Twenty‐five years after the preliminary systematic study of the turtle remains (Agrionemys [=Testudo] hermanni and Emys or Mauremys) recovered from Gruta Nova da Columbeira site (Bombarral, Portugal), the results of its review from systematic and archaeozoological perspectives are presented here. Tortoise remains studies from pre‐Upper Paleolithic sites worldwide have provided relevant data confirming its role as a dietary supply for hominid populations and informing about their ability to adapt to local environmental resources. The Iberian Peninsula record in general, and specifically, that from Portugal, have yielded substantial evidence to this highly debated topic. In this sense, turtle remains recovered in Gruta Nova da Columbeira site, discovered in the 1960s and the main ensemble chronologically ascribed to the MIS‐5 (87.1 ± 6.3 ka BP), offer new information to this debate. Its detailed restudy, has allowed us the identification, justification, and figuration of remains attributed to two Iberian turtle taxa, Chersine hermanni and Emys orbicularis. Therefore, this update on the data concerning the turtle record from Gruta Nova da Columbeira provides new justified taxonomic evidence regarding the Iberian turtle taxa distribution during the Upper Pleistocene. The previously suggested hypothesis about the tortoise human consumption on the site is here evaluated through the development of an archaeozoological and taphonomical analysis, as well as considering the potential documentation of anthropic alterations (e.g., burning, cutmarks, percussion marks). In this sense, this hypothesis is confirmed. In addition, the presence of carnivore activity evidence indicates the engagement of other agents in the deposit formation.

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Human consumption of tortoises at Level IV of Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain)

Cited by 119 publications

References 33 publications

Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour

Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

The turtles from the middle Paleolithic site of Gruta Nova da Columbeira (Bombarral, Portugal): Update through an archaeozoological perspective

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