Late Mousterian subsistence and cave use in Dalmatia: the zooarchaeology of Mujina Pećina, Croatia

Abstract

The faunal assemblage from Mujina Peć ina provides an initial glimpse of Late MiddlePalaeolithic food procurement, management, and site use, in Dalmatia, Croatia. Radiometric dates place the entire sequence at about 42 kyr in the middle of OIS 3 (Oxygen Isotope Stage 3) (Rink et al., 2002). Mujina Peć ina is located along a potential migration corridor for hominin populations moving into Europe from western Asia. The faunal composition shifts from a codominance of red deer and chamois þ ibex in Layer D1 þ D2 that formed during relatively cold conditions to a clear dominance of wild caprids followed by large bovids and equids in Layer B þ C that formed during relatively warm conditions. Although non-hominin carnivores played a significant role in the modification of the faunal assemblages throughout the stratigraphic sequence, the Late Mousterian faunal assemblage from Mujina Peć ina shows the hominins to be competent hunters within a context of considerable competition from non-hominin carnivores. These 'mixed' hominin-carnivore signatures are pulled apart through a detailed taphonomic analysis of this well-excavated assemblage. The Mujina Peć ina assemblage thus provides a significant point of reference for a broader-scale study of variability in Mousterian subsistence practices in their own right as well as within the context of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic in southeastern Europe.

A palaeoecological view of the last Neanderthals at the crossroads of south‐central Europe and the central Mediterranean: long‐term stability or pronounced environmental change with human responses

“…Chamois and ibex are also present throughout the stratigraphic sequence, but their frequencies rise more or less steadily from layer E2A upward. The faunal assemblage of the D‐complex and layer B is dominated by wild caprids, further supporting the aforementioned cooler conditions in the upper layers (Miracle, 2005). Other taxa are present in low frequencies and more or less constant over time (Miracle, 2005; Miracle and Radović, unpublished data).…”

“…The faunal assemblage of the D‐complex and layer B is dominated by wild caprids, further supporting the aforementioned cooler conditions in the upper layers (Miracle, 2005). Other taxa are present in low frequencies and more or less constant over time (Miracle, 2005; Miracle and Radović, unpublished data). The relative frequency of bear increases significantly in layer B, probably related to a more regular use of Mujina as a den (Miracle 2005).…”

“…Red deer is present throughout the sequence. It represents the dominant species in the E‐complex (Miracle and Radović, unpublished data) and decreases steadily towards the upper layers with a dramatic drop in layer B (Miracle, 2005). In the lower and middle stratigraphic contexts (layers E3C to E1) red deer are followed in abundance by fallow deer and roe deer.…”

Taphonomy and zooarchaeology of the Upper Palaeolithic cave of Dzudzuana, Republic of Georgia

“…While reconstruction of the age profile, and in particular the presence of neonatal individuals, enables us to determine season of death, the sample size of the different layers at Dzudzuana Cave is not sufficient to conduct detailed analyses of mortality profiles. We clustered our specimens into four major age categories: neonatal, juveniles, adult and old adult (Table 7; following Miracle, 2005). 'Neonatal' includes bones that, according to their size and texture, come from near-born fetuses or recently-born young.…”

Anthropogenic Use, Modification, and Preservation of Coastal Cave Resources in Puerto Rico

“…Coastal caves in particular can offer insights into cultural trends not manifested in interior settings. Examples of the geoarchaeologically significant coastal caves have been documented on coastlines of the western U.S. (Erlandson et al 1996;Johnson and Stright 1991), the Mediterranean (Collina-Gerard 1996; Woodward and Goldberg 2001), Patagonia (Maire et al 2009), South Africa (Hendey and Volman 1986), Croatia (Miracle 2005), and Java (Yuwono 2009).…”