Before Farming: the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers

ref: Before Farming 2009/3 article 1

Specialisation & diversification: animal exploitation
strategies in the terminal Pleistocene, Mediterranean Turkey

Levent Atici
Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-5003 USA
Levent.Atici@unlv.edu

Keywords: Epipalaeolithic, Anatolia, specialised hunting, resource diversification, caprines

Abstract

The results of a zooarchaeological analysis on seven archaeofaunal assemblages from Karain B and Öküzini caves help us to develop a high-resolution picture of Terminal Pleistocene animal exploitation patterns (ca 20,000-13,500 calibrated BP) in the western Taurus Mountains of Mediterranean Turkey. The Epipalaeolithic subsistence in this area can be characterised as stable specialised caprine hunting complemented by fallow deer hunting between 19,800 and 13,900 years ago. A trend toward ‘relatively’ broader dietary breadth is evident by 13,900 with the addition of high-yield tertiary taxa such as roe deer and wild boar, small- and fast-moving taxa such as hare and partridge, and small- and slow-moving taxa such as tortoise. The observed trend of a shift in species at Karain B and Öküzini, however, took place during the environmentally more favourable Bølling/Allerød (BA) climate optimum. Thus, dietary expansion can be seen as a result of the availability, accessibility, predictability, and abundance of both high- and low-yield animal taxa. Given the geographically restricted and thus somewhat biased nature of archaeological research in the Near East, new data from the poorly-known Turkish Epipalaeolithic provide researchers with new opportunities to study human adaptations through the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene.

ref: Before Farming 2009/3 article 2

Specialisation & diversification: a tale of two subsistence strategies from Late Glacial Italy

Nellie Phoca-Cosmetatou
Keble College, Oxford OX1 3PG, UK
nellie.phoca-cosmetatou@keble.ox.ac.uk

Keywords:Subsistence specialisation, subsistence diversification, Late Glacial, Italy, ibex exploitation

Abstract

This paper provides a critical commentary on the definition and use of the notions of subsistence specialisation and diversification, the ways they can be applicable and meaningful in studying past subsistence strategies, and assesses their past reality drawing on examples from Late Glacial Italy (14,700 – 11,500cal BP). The discussion of subsistence specialisation focuses on the definitions that have been proposed and the relationship between specialisation as ‘narrow-focused activities’ and a faunal assemblage dominated by a single prey species. The separation between these two notions, of past activities and an archaeological measure, is proposed so as to make the concept of specialisation better defined and thus more useful. The concept of subsistence diversification is discussed next. As similar theoretical and methodological issues pertain to both concepts, the discussion concentrates on the increase in broad spectrum exploitation widely held to have occurred during the Late Glacial. Differences in the characteristics, timing and causes of this increase, as proposed by various researchers, caution against the necessary expectation of such an increase during the new environmental conditions of this period. An examination of faunal assemblage diversity, both in terms of the whole range of prey exploited and of ungulates specifically, from sites across the Upper Palaeolithic of Italy illustrates that during the Late Glacial there was a wider variability in subsistence strategies. It is within this context that the increased focus on specific resources, both ungulates and small game, has to be viewed. Based on a case study of subsistence and mobility patterns in northeast Italy it is argued that a narrow focus on the hunted species need not imply a similarity in the character of these sites, nor a narrow focus of on-site activities.

ref: Before Farming 2009/3 article 3

Prey choice, site occupation intensity & economic diversity in the
Middle – early Upper Palaeolithic at the Üçağızlı Caves, Turkey

Mary C Stiner
School of Anthropology, PO Box 210030, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0030, USA
mstiner@email.arizona.edu

Keywords:Upper Palaeolithic, Middle Palaeolithic, zooarchaeology, Turkey, northern Levant, site occupation intensity, diet breadth, hunting, demography, division of labour

Abstract

Recent excavations at Üçağızlı Caves I and II on the Hatay coast of Turkey have yielded abundant well-preserved archaeofaunas of the Middle Palaeolithic, Initial Upper Palaeolithic, and Ahmarian periods. Patterns of small game use in this region testify to an exceptionally early shift in human diet breadth between ca 50,000-42,000 years ago. The phenomenon is paralleled by increasing feature complexity and expanded artefact repertoires at the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic (MP, UP) transition and through the Ahmarian phases. The density of material accumulations, including the repetition or stacking of simple features, in the sediments varies independently of these variables and is less helpful for identifying changes in site occupation intensity. Differences in lithic raw material economics are informative, but systemic cultural differences in land use seem to complicate any interpretations of why some of the occupations were more intensive than others through the MP-UP series. The zooarchaeological results, in combination with aspects of site structure, expose a fundamental contrast in how these Palaeolithic populations were able to fill gaps in the availability of large game. The implied greater flexibility in foraging regimens during the UP is linked to changes in the patterns of labour allocation and networks of cooperation.

ref: Before Farming 2009/3 article 4

Dietary changes during the Upper Palaeolithic at Klissoura Cave 1 (Prosymni), Peloponnese, Greece

Britt M Starkovich
School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, 1009 E. South Campus Drive, Tucson
Arizona 85721-0030 USA
clovis@email.arizona.edu

Keywords: Aurignacian, dietary change, Greece, Upper Palaeolithic, zooarchaeology

Abstract

Faunal evidence from Klissoura Cave 1 (Prosymni) in Peloponnese, Greece, indicates that dietary shifts occurred during the Upper Palaeolithic to accommodate increased human hunting pressures as well as environmental changes. Foraging intensification is examined based on changes in prey species composition, body part analysis and carcass processing patterns. Fallow deer was the primary large game species exploited at Klissoura 1, though a somewhat more even representation of several ungulate species is apparent in the earliest Aurignacian and again in the Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic. The variation in ungulate species representation was conditioned foremost by changes in local vegetation communities. Small game was also important throughout the sequence. High-ranked, slow-moving small game animals such as tortoises were exploited more in the Early Upper Palaeolithic than in later time periods. Lower-ranked, fast-moving hares were collected throughout the Upper Palaeolithic, but increased in
importance starting in the late Aurignacian. The frequency of birds, also small, fast, low-ranking prey types, fluctuates with time, but their importance in Upper Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic diets follows the growth and decline of open grasslands in the area. Quantitative tests of density-mediated attrition indicate that non-human destructive processes were not a significant factor at Klissoura 1. Fallow deer body part profiles are fairly even, indicating that the carcasses were transported to the site largely complete, except for the vertebral column in some cases. Many components of the UP fauna at Klissoura 1 are similar to trends found elsewhere in the Mediterranean, in particular the shift in small game exploitation. Other observations, such as changing proportions of large game species and fluctuations in the frequency of avian fauna likely represent local environmental shifts in southern Greece during the Late Pleistocene.