Evidence of an age and/or gender-based division of labor during the Last Glacial Maximum in Iberia through rabbit hunting

Abstract

Many archaeological assemblages from the Iberian Peninsula dated to the Last Glacial Maximum contain large quantities of European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) remains with an anthropic origin. Ethnographic and historic studies report that rabbits may be mass-collected through warren-based harvesting involving the collaborative participation of several persons. We propose and implement an Agent-Based Model grounded in the Optimal Foraging Theory and the Diet Breadth Model to examine how different warren-based hunting strategies influence the resulting human diets. We then visually compare the simulated diets with the zooarchaeological record. Our simulation outputs suggest that rabbits may have been mass collected from warrens by humans through the use of nets and an age and/or gender-based division of labor. Our results have profound implications for the comprehension of hunting behavior and the social organization of humans during the Last Glacial Maximum in the Iberian Peninsula.