Middle Paleolithic Prey Choice Inferred from a Natural Pitfall Trap: Rantis Cave, Israel

Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology

Volumn , Issue 9789400767652, 2013, Pages 45-58

  Yeshurun, Reuven ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA   (Israel)

Author keywords

Dama mesopotamica; Gazella gazella; Hunting; Middle Paleolithic; Prey choice; Projectile technology; Southern Levant; Zooarchaeology

Indexed keywords

EID: 84891664106     PISSN: 18779077     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6766-9_4     Document Type: Chapter

References (76)

1. Adler, D. S., & Bar-Oz, G. (2009). Seasonal patterns of prey acquisition and inter-group competition during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic of the Southern Caucasus. In J.-J. Hublin & M. P. Richards (Eds.), The evolution of hominin diets: Integrating approaches to the study of Palaeolithic subsistence (pp. 127–140). Dordrecht: Springer.
2. Albert, R. M., Bar-Yosef, O., Meignen, L., & Weiner, S. (2003). Quantitative phytolith study of hearths from the Natufian and Middle Palaeolithic levels of Hayonim Cave (Galilee, Israel). Journal of Archaeological Science, 30, 461–480.
3. Bar-Matthews, M., Ayalon, A., Gilmour, M., Matthews, A., & Hakesworth, C. J. (2003). Sea-land oxygen isotopic relationships from planktonic foraminifera and speleothems in the Eastern Mediterranean region and their implications for palaeorainfall during interglacial intervals. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 67, 3181–3199.
4. Bar-Oz, G. (2004). Epipaleolithic subsistence strategies in the Levant: A zooarchaeological perspective. Boston: Brill.
5. Bar-Oz, G., Yeshurun, R., & Weinstein-Evron, M. (in press). Specialized hunting of gazelle in the Natufian: Cultural cause or climatic effect? In O. Bar-Yosef & F. R. Valla (Eds.), Natufian Foragers in the Levant: Terminal Pleistocene Social Changes in Western Asia. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory.
6. 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.
7. Bar-Yosef, O., & Meignen, L. (2007). Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel. The Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Archaeology, Part 1. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
8. Bar-Yosef, O., & Vandermeersch, B. (1993). Modern humans in the Levant. Scientific American, 4, 94–100.
9. Bate, D. M. A. (1937). Palaeontology: The fossil fauna of the Wadi el-Mughara caves. In D. A. E. Garrod & D. M. A. Bate (Eds.), The Stone Age of Mount Carmel, Vol. 1. Excavations at the Wadi Mughara (pp. 135–240). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
10. Bar-Yosef, O., & Bordes, J.-G. (2010). Who were the makers of the Châtelperronian culture? Journal of Human Evolution, 59, 586–593.
11. Belmaker, M., & Hovers, E. (2011). Ecological change and the extinction of the Levantine Neanderthals: Implications from a diachronic study of micromammals from Amud Cave, Israel. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30, 3196–3209.
12. Boëda, E., Geneste, J. M., Griggo, C., Mercier, N., Muhesen, S., Reyss, J. L., et al. (1999). A Levallois point embedded in the vertebra of a wild ass (Equus africanus): Hafting, projectiles and Mousterian hunting weapons. Antiquity, 73, 394–402.
13. Churchill, S. E. (1993). Weapon technology, prey size selection and hunting methods in modern hunter-gatherers: Implications for hunting in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. In G. L. Peterkin, H. M. Bricker, & P. Mellars (Eds.), Hunting and animal exploitation in the Later Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Eurasia (pp. 11–24). Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 4.
14. Churchill, S. E., & Rhodes, J. A. (2009). The evolution of the human capacity for killing at a distance: The human fossil evidence for the evolution of projectile weaponry. In J.-J. Hublin & M. P. Richards (Eds.), The evolution of hominin diets: Integrating approaches to the study of Palaeolithic subsistence (pp. 201–210). Dordrecht: Springer.
15. Danin, A. (1988). Flora and vegetation of Israel and adjacent areas. In Y. Yom Tov & E. Tchernov (Eds.), The zoogeography of Israel (pp. 129–159). Dordrecht: Dr. W. Junk Publishers.
16. Davis, S. J. M. (1982). Climatic change and the advent of domestication: The succession of ruminant artiodactyls in the Late Pleistocene-Holocene in the Israel region. Paléorient, 8, 5–15.
17. Davis, S. J. M., 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.
18. Dusseldorp, G. L. (2010). Prey choice during the South African Middle Stone Age: Avoiding dangerous prey or maximising returns? African Archaeology Review, 27, 107–133.
19. Ellis, C. J. (1997). Factors influencing the use of stone projectile tips: An ethnographic perspective. In H. Knecht (Ed.), Projectile technology (pp. 37–78). New York: Plenum Press.
20. Enzel, Y., Amit, R., Dayan, U., Crouvi, O., Kahana, R., Ziv, B., et al. (2008). The climatic and physiographic controls of the Eastern Mediterranean over the late Pleistocene climates in the Southern Levant and its neighboring deserts. Global and Planetary Change, 60, 165–192.
21. Faith, J. T. (2008). Eland, buffalo, and wild pigs: Were Middle Stone Age humans ineffective hunters? Journal of Human Evolution, 55, 24–36.
22. Frumkin, A., Bar-Yosef, O., & Schwarcz, H. P. (2011). Possible paleohydrologic and paleoclimatic effects on hominin migration and occupation of the Levantine Middle Paleolithic. Journal of Human Evolution, 60, 437–451.
23. Gamble, C. (1999). The Palaeolithic societies of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
24. Garrard, A. N. (1982). The environmental implications of the re-analysis of the large mammal fauna from the Wadi el-Mughara Caves, Palestine. In J. L. Bintliff & W. Van Zeist (Eds.), Paleoclimates, paleoenvironments and human communities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region in Later Prehistory (pp. 165–187). Oxford: BAR International Series S133.
25. Garrod, D. A. E., & Bate, D. M. A. (1937). The Stone Age of Mount Carmel, Vol. 1. Excavations at the Wadi Mughara. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
26. Gilead, I., & Grigson, C. (1984). Far’ah II: A Middle Paleolithic open-air site in the Northern Negev, Israel. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 50, 71–97.
27. Grayson, D. K., & Delpech, F. (2008). The large mammals of Roc de Combe (Lot, France): The Châtelperronian and Aurignacian assemblages. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 27, 338–362.
28. Griggo, C. (2004). Mousterian fauna from Dederiyeh Cave and comparisons with fauna from Umm el Tlel and Douara Cave. Paléorient, 30, 149–162.
29. Hovers, E. (2009). The Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition: What news? In M. Camps & P. Chauhan (Eds.), Sourcebook of Paleolithic transitions: Methods, theories, and interpretations (pp. 455–462). New York: Springer.
30. Hovers, E., Buller, A., Ekshtain, R., Oron, M., & Yeshurun, R. (2008). Ein Qashish—a new Middle Paleolithic open-air site in northern Israel. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 38, 7–40.
31. Jelinek, A. J., Farrand, W. R., Hass, G., Horowitz, A., & Goldberg, P. (1973). New excavations at the Tabun Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel: A preliminary report. Paléorient, 1, 151–183.
32. Kahlke, R.-D., & Gaudzinski, 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.
33. Kaufman, D. (1999). Archaeological perspectives on the origins of modern humans: A view from the Levant. Westport: Bergin and Garvey.
34. Kaufman, D. (2002). Re-evaluating subsistence skills of Levantine Middle and Upper Palaeolithic hunters: A comparison of the faunal assemblages. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 21, 217–229.
35. Klein, R. G. (1989). Biological and behavioural perspectives on modern human origins in Southern Africa. In P. Mellars & C. Stringer (Eds.), The human revolution: Behavioural and biological perspectives on the origins of modern humans (pp. 529–546). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
36. Klein, R. G. (2009). The human career. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
37. Klein, R. G., & Cruz-Uribe, K. (1984). The analysis of animal bones from archaeological sites. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
38. Lev, E., Kislev, M. E., & Bar-Yosef, O. (2005). Mousterian vegetal food in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel. Journal of Archaeological Science, 32, 475–484.
39. Lyman, R. L. (2008). Quantitative paleozoology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
40. Marder, O., Yeshurun, R., Lupu, R., Bar-Oz, G., Belmaker, M., Porat, N., et al. (2011). Mammal remains at Rantis Cave, Israel, and Middle-Late Pleistocene human subsistence and ecology in the Southern Levant. Journal of Quaternary Science, 26, 769–780.
41. Marean, C. W., Dominguez-Rodrigo, M., & Pickering, T. R. (2004). Skeletal element equifinality in zooarchaeology begins with method: The evolution and status of the shaft critique. Journal of Taphonomy, 2, 69–98.
42. Bar-Yosef, O., & Bordes, J.-G. (2010). Who were the makers of the Châtelperronian culture? Journal of Human Evolution, 59, 586–593
43. Mendelssohn, H., & Yom-Tov, Y. (1999). Fauna Palaestina: Mammalia of Israel. Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
44. Monchot, H. (2005). Un assemblage original au Paléolithique moyen: le repaire à hyènes, porcs-épics et hominidés de la grotte Geula (Mont Carmel, Israël). Paléorient, 31, 27–42.
45. Munro, N. D. (2009). Epipalaeolithic subsistence intensification in the Southern Levant: The faunal evidence. In J.-J. Hublin & M. P. Richards (Eds.), The evolution of hominin diets: Integrating approaches to the study of Palaeolithic subsistence (pp. 141–155). Dordrecht: Springer.
46. Bar-Yosef, O., & Bordes, J.-G. (2010). Who were the makers of the Châtelperronian culture? Journal of Human Evolution, 59, 586–593.
47. Oswalt, W. H. (1973). Habitat and technology: The evolution of hunting. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
48. Rabinovich, R. (1990). Taphonomic research on the faunal assemblage from the Quneitra site. In N. Goren-Inbar (Ed.), Quneitra: A Mousterian Site on the Golan Heights (Vol. 31, pp. 189–219). Jerusalem: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Monographs of the Institute of Archaeology, Qedem.
49. Rabinovich, R. (2003). The Levantine Upper Palaeolithic faunal record. In A. N. Goring-Morris & A. Belfer-Cohen (Eds.), More than meets the eye: Studies on Upper Palaeolithic diversity in the Near East (pp. 33–48). Oxford: Oxbow.
50. Rabinovich, R., & Hovers, E. (2004). Faunal analysis from Amud Cave: Preliminary results and interpretations. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 14, 287–306.
51. Rabinovich, R., Bar-Yosef, O., Vandermeersch, B., & Horwitz, L. K. (2004). Hominid-carnivore interactions in the Palaeolithic site of Qafzeh Cave, Israel. Revue de Paléobiologie, Genève, 23, 627–637.
52. Shahack-Gross, R., Ayalon, A., Goldberg, P., Goren, Y., Ofek, B., Rabinovich, R., et al. (2008). Formation processes of cemented features in karstic cave sites revealed using stable oxygen and carbon isotopic analysis: A case study at Middle Paleolithic Amud Cave, Israel. Geoarchaeology, 23, 43–62.
53. Sharon, G., Grosman, L., Fluck, H., Melamed, Y., Rak, Y., Rabinovich, R., 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.
54. Shea, J. J. (2003). The Middle Paleolithic of the East Mediterranean Levant. Journal of World Prehistory, 17, 313–394.
55. Shea, J. J. (2006). The origins of lithic projectile point technology: Evidence from Africa, the Levant, and Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science, 33, 823–846.
56. Shea, J. J. (2008). Transitions or turnovers? Climatically-forced extinctions of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the East Mediterranean Levant. Quaternary Science Reviews, 27, 2253–2270.
57. Shea, J. J., & Sisk, M. L. (2010). Complex projectile technology and Homo sapiens dispersal into Western Eurasia. PaleoAnthropology, 2010, 100–122.
58. Speth, J. D., & Clark, J. L. (2006). Hunting and overhunting in the Levantine Late Middle Palaeolithic. Before Farming, 3, 1–42.
59. Speth, J. D., & Tchernov, E. (1998). The role of hunting and scavenging in Neandertal procurement strategies: New evidence from Kebara Cave, Israel. In T. Akazawa, K. Aoki, & O. Bar-Yosef (Eds.), Neandertals and modern humans in Western Asia (pp. 223–239). New York: Plenum Press.
60. Speth, J. D., & Tchernov, E. (2001). Neandertal hunting and meat processing in the Near East: Evidence from Kebara Cave (Israel). In C. B. Stanford & H. T. Bunn (Eds.), Meat-eating and human evolution (pp. 52–72). New York: Oxford University Press.
61. Speth, J. D., & Tchernov E. (2007). The Middle Palaeolithic occupations at Kebara Cave: A faunal perspective. In O. Bar-Yosef & L. Meignen (Eds.), Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel. The Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Archaeology, Part 1 (pp. 165–260). Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
62. Speth, J. D. (2010). The paleoanthropology and archaeology of big-game hunting: Protein, fat or politics? New York: Springer.
63. Stiner, M. C. (1990). The use of mortality patterns in archaeological studies of hominid predatory adaptations. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 9, 305–351.
64. Stiner, M. C. (2002). Carnivory, coevolution, and the geographic spread of the genus Homo. Journal of Archaeological Research, 10, 1–63.
65. Stiner, M. C. (2005). The Faunas of Hayonim Cave (Israel): A 200,000-year record of Paleolithic diet, demography and society. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
66. Stiner, M. C., 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.
67. Tchernov, E. (1992). Biochronology, paleoecology, and dispersal events of hominids in the Southern Levant. In T. Akazawa, K. Aoki, & T. Kimura (Eds.), The evolution and dispersal of modern humans in Asia (pp. 149–188). Tokyo: Hokusen-Sha.
68. Tchernov, E., & Tsoukala, E. (1997). Middle Pleistocene (Early Toringian) carnivore remains from Northern Israel. Quaternary Research, 42, 122–136.
69. Thieme, H. (1997). Lower Palaeolithic hunting spears from Germany. Nature, 385, 807–810.
70. Vaks, A., Bar-Matthews, M., Ayalon, A., Matthews, A., Frumkin, A., Dayan, U., 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.
71. Weaver, T. D., Steele, T., & Klein, R. G. (2011). The abundance of eland, buffalo, and wild pigs in Middle and Later Stone Age sites. Journal of Human Evolution, 60, 309–314.
72. Weinstein-Evron, M., Bar-Oz, G., Zaidner, Y., Tsatskin, A., Druck, D., Porat, N., et al. (2003). Introducing Misliya Cave: A new continuous Lower/Middle Palaeolithic sequence in the Levant. Eurasian Prehistory, 1, 31–55.
73. Yeshurun, R., Bar-Oz, G., & Weinstein-Evron, M. (2007a). Modern hunting behavior in the early Middle Paleolithic: Faunal remains from Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution, 53, 656–677.
74. Yeshurun, R., Marom, N., & Bar-Oz, G. (2007b). Differential fragmentation of different ungulate body-size—comparison of gazelle and fallow deer bone fragmentation in Levantine prehistoric assemblages. Journal of Taphonomy, 5, 137–148.
75. Yeshurun, R., Zaidner, Y., Eisenmann, V., Martinez-Navarro, B., & Bar-Oz, G. (2011). Lower Paleolithic hominin ecology at the fringe of the desert: Faunal remains from Bizat Ruhama and Nahal Hesi, northern Negev, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution, 60, 492–507.
76. Zaidner, Y., Tsatskin, A., Yeshurun, R., Frumkin, A., Weissbrod, L., Weinstein-Evron, M., et al. (2010). The new Mousterian sequence at Nesher-Ramle Quarry: Preliminary results from the 2010 season. Paper presented at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Israel Prehistoric Society, Tel-Hai.