Abstract
Ungulate mortality profiles are commonly used to study Neanderthal subsistence strategies. To assess the hunting strategies used by Neanderthals, we studied the ages at death of the cervids and equids found in levels E, H, I, Ja, Jb, K, L and M of the Abric Romaní sequence. These levels date between 43.2 ± 1.1 ka BP (14C AMS) and 54.5 ± 1.7 ka BP (U-series). The degree of eruption and development of the teeth and their wear stages were used to determine the ages of these animals at death, and mortality profiles were constructed using these data. The equids display prime dominated profiles in all of the analyzed levels, whereas the cervids display variable profiles. These results suggest that the Neanderthals of Abric Romaní employed both selective and non-selective hunting strategies. The selective strategy focused on the hunting of prime adults and generated prime dominated profiles. On the other hand, non-selective strategies, involved the consumption of animals of variable ages, resulting in catastrophic profiles. It is likely that in the selective hunting events were conducted using selective ambushes in which it was possible to select specific prey animals. On the other hand, encounter hunting or non-selective ambush hunting may have also been used at times, based on the abundances of prey animals and encounter rates. Specific hunting strategies would have been developed accordance with the taxa and the age of the individual to be hunted. The hunting groups most likely employed cooperative hunting techniques, especially in the capture of large animals. Thus, it is not possible to uniquely associate a single mortality profile with the predation tactics of Neanderthals at Abric Romaní.
Highlights
Mortality profiles are an instrument traditionally used to infer the origins of fossil assemblages in archaeology and paleontology [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The results of our analysis indicate that the differences in the mortality profiles within the Abric Romanı sequence are the result of various hunting strategies: 1) Selective hunting strategies were employed for equids in all levels and for cervids in levels E, H, I and Jb. 2) Non-selective hunting strategies were employed for cervids in levels Ja, K, L and M
The mortality profiles identified in the faunal assemblages of the Abric Romanı are useful for studying the hunting strategies of the Neanderthals who occupied the shelter
Summary
Mortality profiles are an instrument traditionally used to infer the origins of fossil assemblages in archaeology and paleontology [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Mortality profiles were later employed at North American Paleoindian archaeological sites [10,11,12] These studies focused on bison kill sites where mass predation events occurred in order to establish hunting seasonality [10,11,12]. Non-destructive methods have been developed for these assessments, such as the measurement of the crown heights of teeth [3, 13, 14] and analyses of occlusal surface wear [15,16,17] Both methods are based on comparing the assessed tooth wear stage with reference collections that include animals whose ages at death are known. Cementochronology is based on counting the layers of cyclically deposited cement, which alternate between relatively thin and relatively thick and reflect a growth periodicity that generally corresponds to an annual cycle [18,19,20]
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