Mammal remains at Rantis Cave, Israel, and Middle-Late Pleistocene human subsistence and ecology in the Southern Levant

Journal of Quaternary Science

Volumn 26, Issue 8, 2011, Pages 769-780

  Marder, Ofer ^a   Yeshurun, Reuven ^b   Lupu, Ronit ^a   Bar Oz, Guy ^b   Belmaker, Miriam ^c   Porat, Naomi ^d   Ron, Hagai ^e   Frumkin, Amos ^e  

^a ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY   (Israel)

^b UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA   (Israel)

^c HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^d GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ISRAEL   (Israel)

^e HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM   (Israel)

Author keywords

Levantine Middle Paleolithic; Middle Late Pleistocene; Paleoenvironments; Taphonomy; Zooarchaeology

Indexed keywords

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE; FAUNA; GEOMORPHOLOGICAL RESPONSE; HOMINID; HUNTER-GATHERER; LUMINESCENCE DATING; MAMMAL; PALEOECOLOGY; PALEOENVIRONMENT; PALEOLITHIC; PITFALL TRAP; PLEISTOCENE; PREY AVAILABILITY; PREY PREFERENCE; RECONSTRUCTION; SEDIMENTOLOGY; SKELETAL REMAINS; SUBSISTENCE; TAPHONOMY; UNGULATE;

ISRAEL; RANTIS CAVE;

DAMA; MAMMALIA; MICROTUS; UNGULATA;

EID: 81055157039     PISSN: 02678179     EISSN: 10991417     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/jqs.1501     Document Type: Article

References (96)

1. Aitken MJ. 1998. An Introduction to Optical Dating. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
2. Andrews P. 1990. Owls, Caves and Fossils. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
3. Bar-David S, Saltz D, Dayan T. 2005a. Predicting the spatial dynamics of a reintroduced population: the Persian fallow deer. Ecological Applications 15: 1833-1846.
4. Bar-David S, Saltz D, Dayan T, et al. 2005b. Demographic models and reality in reintroductions: the Persian fallow deer in Israel. Conservation Biology 19: 131-138.
5. Barkai R, Gopher A, Lauritzen SE, et al. 2003. Uranium series dates from Qesem Cave, Israel, and the end of the Lower Palaeolithic. Nature 423: 977-979.
6. Bar-Oz G. 2004. Epipaleolithic Subsistence Strategies in the Levant. A Zooarchaeological Perspective. ASPR Monograph Series. Brill: Boston.
7. Bar-Yosef O. 2004. Eat what is there: hunting and gathering in the world of Neanderthals and their neighbors. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 14: 333-342.
8. Bar-Yosef O, Meignen L. 2007. (eds). Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel. The Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Archaeology. Part 1. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology: Cambridge MA.
9. Bar-Yosef O, Belfer-Cohen A, Goldberg P, et al. 2005. Archaeological background to Hayonim Cave and Meged Rockshelter. In The Faunas of Hayonim Cave (Israel): A 200, 000-Year Record of Paleolithic Diet, Demography and Society, Stiner MC (ed.). Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology: Cambridge, MA; 17-38.
10. Baski A, Hsu V, McWilliams M, et al. 1992. Dating of the Brunhes-Matuyama geomagnetic reversal. Science 256: 356-357.
11. Bate DMA. 1937. Palaeontology: the fossil fauna of the Wadi el-Mughara Caves. In The Stone Age of Mount Carmel, Excavations at the Wadi Mughara, vol. I, Garrod DAE, Bate DMA (eds). Clarendon Press: Oxford; 135-240.
12. Behrensmeyer AK. 1978. Taphonomic and ecological information from bone weathering. Paleobiology 4: 150-162.
13. Belmaker M. 2008. Paleodietary analysis of medium-sized cervids in 'Ubeidiya, Israel: evidence for Mediterranean oak woodland habitat in the Early Pleistocene of the Jordan Valley and its bearing on climatic hypotheses of 'Out of Africa I'. PaleoAnthropology 2008: A3.
14. Belmaker M. in press. The Southern Levant during the Last Glacial and zooarchaeological evidence for the effects of climatic-forcing on hominin population dynamics. In Climate Change, Human Response and Zooarchaeology, Monks G (ed). Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series. Springer: Dordrecht.
15. Blumenschine RG, Marean CW, Capaldo SD. 1996. Blind tests of inter-analyst correspondence and accuracy in the identification of cut marks, percussion marks, and carnivore tooth marks on bone surfaces. Journal of Archaeological Science 23: 493-507.
16. Bodmer RE. 1990. Ungulate frugivores and the browser-grazer continuum. Oikos 57: 319-325.
17. Bunimovitz S, Barkai R. 1996. Ancient bones and modern myths: Ninth millennium BC hippopotamus hunters at Akrotiri Aetokremnos, Cyprus? Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 9: 83-94.
18. Bunn HT. 1983. Evidence on the diet and subsistence patterns of Plio-Pleistocene hominids at Koobi Fora, Kenya, and Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. In Animals and Archaeology 1: Hunters and Their Prey, Clutton-Brock J, Grigson C (eds). British Archaeological Report: Oxford; 21-30.
19. Chapman DI, Chapman NG. 1997. Fallow Deer: Their History, Distribution and Biology, 2nd edn. Coch-y-bonddu books: Machynlleth, Powys, UK.
20. Danin A. 1988. Flora and vegetation of Israel and adjacent areas. In The Zoogeography of Israel, Yom Tov Y, Tchernov E (eds). Dr. W. Junk Publishers: Dordrecht; 129-159.
21. Davis S. 1977. The ungulate remains from Kebara Cave. Eretz-Israel 13: 150-163.
22. Davis SJM, Rabinovich R, Goren-Inbar N. 1988. Quaternary extinctions and population increase in Western Asia: the animal remains from Biq'at Quneitra. Paléorient 14: 95-105.
23. Fischhendler I, Frumkin A. 2008. Distribution, evolution and morphology of caves in south-western Samaria, Israel. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 57: 311-322.
24. Ford DC, Williams PW. 2007. Karst Hydrogeology and Geomorphology. Wiley: Chichester.
25. Fortelius M, Solounias N. 2000. Functional characterization of ungulate molars using the abrasion - attrition wear gradient: a new method for reconstructing paleodiets. American Museum Novitates 3301: 1-36.
26. Frumkin A, Fischhendler I. 2005. Morphometry and distribution of isolated caves as a guide for phreatic and confined paleohydrological conditions. Geomorphology 67: 457-471.
27. Frumkin A, Gvirtzman H. 2006. Cross-formational rising groundwater at an artesian karstic basin: the Ayalon Saline Anomaly, Israel. Journal of Hydrology 318: 216-333.
28. Frumkin A, Karkanas P, Bar-Matthews M, et al. 2009. Gravitational deformations and fillings of aging caves: the example of Qesem karst system, Israel. Geomorphology 106: 154-164.
29. Frumkin A, Bar-Yosef O, Schwarcz HP. 2011. Possible paleohydrologic and paleoclimatic effects on hominin migration and occupation of the Levantine Middle Paleolithic. Journal of Human Evolution in press.
30. Galbraith RF, Roberts RG, Laslett GM, et al. 1999. Optical dating of single and multiple grains of quartz from Jinmium rock shelter, northern Australia: Part I. Experimental design and statistical models. Archaeometry 41: 339-364.
31. Garrard AN. 1982. The environmental implications of the re-analysis of the large mammal fauna from the Wadi el-Mughara Caves, Palestine. In Paleoclimates, Paleoenviroments and Human Communities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region in Later Prehistory, Bintliff JL, Van Zeist W (eds). BAR International Series: Oxford; 165-198.
32. Garrod DAE. 1942. Excavations at the cave of Shukbah (Palestine). Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 8: 1-20.
33. Garrod DAE, Bate DMA. 1937. The Stone Age of Mount Carmel. Excavations at the Wadi Mughara, vol. I. Clarendon Press: Oxford.
34. Gilead I, Grigson C. 1984. Farah II: a Middle Paleolithic open-air site in the Northern Negev, Israel. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 50: 71-97.
35. Gopher A, Barkai R, Shimelmitz R, et al. 2005. Qesem Cave: an Amudian site in Central Israel. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 35: 69-92.
36. Goren-Inbar N. 1990. Quneitra: A Mousterian Site on the Golan Heights. Qedem Monographs of Archaeology: Jerusalem.
37. Hofman R. 1989. Evolutionary steps of ecophysiological adaptation and diversification of ruminants: a comparative view of their digestive system. Oecologia 78: 443-457.
38. Horwitz LK, Smith P. 1988. The effect of striped hyena activity on human remains. Journal of Archaeological Science 15: 471-481.
39. Hovers E. 2009. The Lithic Assemblages of Qafzeh Cave. Oxford University Press: New York.
40. Hovers E, Buller A, Ekshtain R, et al. 2008. 'Ein Qashish - A New Middle Paleolithic open-air site in northern Israel. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 38: 7-40.
41. Hovers E, Kimbel WH, Rak Y. 2000. The Amud 7 skeleton - still a burial. Response to Gargett. Journal of Human Evolution 39: 253-260.
42. Hovers E, Rak Y, Lavi R, et al. 1995. Hominid remains from Amud Cave in the context of the Levantine Middle Palaeolithic. Paléorient 21: 47-61.
43. Kahlke R-D, Gaudzinsky S. 2005. The blessing of a great flood: differentiation of mortality patterns in the large mammal record of the Lower Pleistocene fluvial site of Untermassfeld (Germany) and its relevance for the interpretation of faunal assemblages from archaeological sites. Journal of Archaeological Science 32: 1202-1222.
44. Karkanas P, Shahack-Gross R, Ayalon A, et al. 2007. Evidence for habitual use of fire at the end of the Lower Paleolithic: Site-formation processes at Qesem Cave, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution 53: 197-212.
45. Klein RG, Cruz-Uribe K. 1984. The Analysis of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
46. Kuhn B. 2005. The faunal assemblages and taphonomic signatures of five striped hyenas (Hyena hyena sryaca) dens in the desert of Eastern Jordan. Levant 37: 221-234.
47. Kuhn F, Berger LR, Skinner JD. 2010. Examining criteria for identifying and differentiating fossil faunal assemblages accumulated by hyenas and hominins using extant hyenid accumulations. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 20: 15-35.
48. Lam YM, Chen X, Pearson OM. 1999. Intertaxonomic variability in patterns of bone density and the differential representation of bovid, cervid and equid elements in the archaeological record. American Antiquity 64: 343-362.
49. Livnat A. 1971. The geology of the north-western foothills of Judean Mountains (Abud-Qibya-Rantis region). MA thesis, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem (in Hebrew).
50. Lupu R, Marder O, Frumkin A, et al. 2009. Rantis Cave. Excavations and Surveys in Israel 121 (available at.
51. Lyman RL. 1994. Vertebrate Taphonomy. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
52. Marean CW, Dominguez-Rodrigo M, Pickering TR. 2004. Skeletal element equifinality in zooarchaeology begins with method: the evolution and status of the "Shaft Critique". Journal of Taphonomy 2: 69-98.
53. Marean CW, Kim SY. 1998. Mousterian large mammal remains from Kobeh Cave: behavioral implications for Neandertals and Early Modern Humans. Current Anthropology 39: S79-S113.
54. Marean CW, Spencer LM. 1991. Impact of carnivore ravaging on zooarchaeological measures of element abundance. American Antiquity 56: 645-658.
55. Marks AE, Freidel DA. 1977. Prehistoric settlement patterns in the Avdat/Aqev area. In Prehistory and Paleoeviroments in the Central Negev, Israel. Vol. 2 The Avdat/Aqev Area, Part 2 and Har Harif, Marks AE (ed). SMU Press: Dallas; 131-158.
56. McCown TD, Keith A. 1939. The Stone Age of Mt. Carmel II. The Fossil Human Remains from the Levalloiso-Mousterian. Clarendon Press: Oxford.
57. Mendelssohn H, Yom-Tov Y. 1999. Fauna Palestina: Mammalia of Israel. The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities: Jerusalem.
58. Metcalfe D, Jones KT. 1988. A reconsideration of animal body part utility indices. American Antiquity 53: 486-504.
59. Murray AS, Wintle AG. 2000. Luminescence dating of quartz using improved single-aliquot regenerative-dose protocol. Radiation Measurements 32: 57-73.
60. Neuville R. 1951. Le Paleolithique et le Mesolithique du Desert de Judee. Masson: Paris.
61. Oliver JS. 1989. Analogues and site context: bone damages from Shield Trap Cave (24CB91), Carbon County, Montana, U.S.A. In Bone Modification, Bonnichsen R, Sorg MH (eds). University of Maine Center for the Study of First: Americans: Orono; 73-98.
62. Peleg Y, Marder O, Belmaker M, et al. 2010. Emanuel Cave. Excavations and Surveys in Israel 122 (available online at.
63. Pickering TR. 2002. Reconsideration of criteria for differentiating faunal assemblages accumulated by hyenas and hominids. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 12: 127-141.
64. Pickering TR, Marean CW, Dominguez-Rodrigo M. 2003. Importance of limb bone shaft fragments in Zooarchaeology: a response to: "On in situ attrition and vertebrate body parts profiles" (2002) by M. C. Stiner. Journal of Archaeological Science 30: 1469-1482.
65. Porat N. 2007. Analytical Procedures in the Luminescence Dating Laboratory. Geological Survey of Israel (2007) Technical Report TR-GSI/2/2007 (in Hebrew).
66. Porat N, Rosen SA, Avni Y, et al. 2006. Dating the Ramat Saharonim Late Neolithic Desert Cult Site. Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 1341-1355.
67. Rabinovich R. 1990. Taphonomic research of the faunal assemblage from the Quneitra site. In Quneitra: A Mousterian Site on the Golan Heights, Goren-Inbar N (ed.). Qedem Monographs of Archaeology: Jerusalem; 189-219.
68. Rabinovich R. 2003. The Levantine Upper Palaeolithic faunal record. In More Than Meets The Eye: Studies on Upper Palaeolithic Diversity in the Near East, Goring-Morris AN, Belfer-Cohen A (eds). Oxbow: Oxford; 33-48.
69. Rabinovich R, Bar-Yosef O, Vandermeersch B, et al. 2004. Hominid-carnivore interactions in the Palaeolithic site of Qafzeh Cave, Israel. Revue de Paleobiologie, Geneve 23: 627-637.
70. Rabinovich R, Hovers E. 2004. Faunal analysis from Amud Cave: preliminary results and interpretations. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 14: 287-306.
71. Rabinovich R, Tchernov E. 1995. Chronological palaeological and taphonomical aspects of the Middle Palaeolithic site of Qafzeh, Israel. In Archaeozoology of the Near East II, Buitenhuis H, Uerpmann H-P (eds). Backhuis Publishers: Leiden; 5-44.
72. Reed DN. 2005. Taphonomic implications of roosting behavior and trophic habits in two species of African owl. Journal of Archaeological Science 32: 1669-1676.
73. Saltz D. 1998. A long-term systematic approach to planning reintroductions: the Persian fallow deer and Arabian Oryx in Israel. Animal Conservation 1: 245-252.
74. Sass E, Bein A. 1978. Platform carbonates and reefs in the Judean Hills, Carmel and Galilee. Tenth International Congress on Sedimentology, Jerusalem, 1978. International Association of Sedimentologists: Jerusalem; 239-274.
75. Sharon G, Grosman L, Fluck H, et al. 2010. The first two excavation seasons at NMO: a Mousterian site at the Bank of the Jordan River. Eurasian Prehistory 7: 135-157.
76. Sneh A, Bartov Y, Rosensaft M. 1998. Geological Map of Israel, 1:200, 000, Sheet 2. Geological Survey of Israel: Jerusalem.
77. Speth JD, Tchernov E. 2007. The Middle Palaeolithic occupations at Kebara Cave: a faunal perspective. In Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel. The Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Archaeology, Part 1, Bar-Yosef O, Meignen L (eds). Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology: Cambridge; 165-260.
78. Steele TE. 2005. Comparing methods for analyzing mortality profiles in zooarchaeological and palaeontological samples. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 15: 404-420.
79. Stiner MC. 1994. Honor among Thieves: A Zooarchaeological Study of Neandertal Ecology. Princeton University Press: Princeton.
80. Stiner MC. 2002. On in situ attrition and vertebrate body part profiles. Journal of Archaeological Science 29: 979-991.
81. Stiner MC. 2005. The faunas of Hayonim Cave (Israel): A 200, 000-Year Record of Paleolithic Diet, Demography and Society. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology: Cambridge, MA.
82. Stiner MC, Achyuthan H, Arsebuk G, et al. 1998. Reconstructing cave bear paleoecology from skeletons: a cross-disciplnary study of Middle Pleistocene bears from Yarimburgaz Cave, Turkey. Paleobiology 24: 74-98.
83. Stiner MC, Barkai R, Gopher A. 2009. Cooperative hunting and meat sharing 400-200 kya at Qesem Cave, Israel. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106: 13207-13212.
84. Stiner MC, Gopher A, Barkai R. 2011. Hearth-side socioeconomics, hunting and paleoecology during the late Lower Paleolithic at Qesem Cave, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution 60: 213-233.
85. Tchernov E. 1992. Biochronology, paleoecology, and dispersal events of hominids in the Southern Levant. In The Evolution and Dispersal of Modern Humans in Asia, Akazawa T, Aoki K, Kimura T (eds). Hokusen-Sha: Japan; 149-188.
86. Tchernov E. 1998. The faunal sequences of the Southwest Asian Middle Palaeolithic in relation to hominid dispersal events. In Neandertals and Modern Humans in Western Asia, Akazawa T, Aoki K, Bar-Yosef O (eds). Plenum Press: New York; 77-90.
87. Tchernov E, Tsoukala E. 1997. Middle Pleistocene (Early Toringian) carnivore remains from Northern Israel. Quaternary Research 42: 122-136.
88. Torre I, Arrizabalaga A, Flaquer C. 2004. Three methods for assessing richness and composition of small mammal communities. Journal of Mammalogy 85: 524-530.
89. Vaks A, Bar-Matthews M, Ayalon A, et al. 2006. Paleoclimate and location of the border between Mediterranean climate region and the Saharo-Arabian desert as revealed by speleothems from the northern Negev Desert, Israel. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 249: 384-399.
90. Vaks A, Bar-Matthews M, Ayalon A, et al. 2007. Desert speleothems reveal climatic window for African exodus of early modern humans. Geology 35: 831-834.
91. Vandermeersch B. 1981. Les Hommes Fossiles de Qafzeh, Israel. CNRS Editions: Paris.
92. Villa P, Mahieu E. 1991. Breakage patterns of human long bones. Journal of Human Evolution 21: 27-48.
93. Weinstein-Evron M, Bar-Oz G, Zaidner Y, et al. 2003. Introducing Misliya Cave: a new continuous Lower/Middle Palaeolithic sequence in the Levant. Eurasian Prehistory 1: 31-55.
94. Yeshurun R. 2010. Middle Paleolithic prey-choice patterns as revealed from a natural pitfall trap: Rantis Cave, Israel. Poster presented at the ICAZ meeting, August 2010, Paris, France.
95. Yeshurun R, Bar-Oz G, Weinstein-Evron M. 2007. Modern hunting behavior in the early Middle Paleolithic: faunal remains from Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution 53: 656-677.
96. Yom-Tov Y, Wool D. 1997. Do the contents of barn owl pellets accurately represent the proportion of prey species in the field? The Condor 99: 972-976.