Killing Site Research Articles

Language bias, not knowledge shortfall, underestimates the evidence of megafauna kill sites in South America

The Megafauna Kill Sites (MKS), with irrefutable empirical evidence of human-megafauna interactions over the late Quaternary, have widely been recognized in North America and historically overlooked in South America. Here, we systematically reviewed the MKS from the Americas and showed that the neglected evidence from South American MKS is as robust as or even more robust, in both quantity and quality, than the evidence from North America. However, the South American studies are often limited to low-reach publications (gray literature or local journals) written in Latin languages, which are less cited than English-written publications. Our findings clearly indicate that the neglect of South American MKS is due to its limited scientific impact caused by language bias, and not due to the lack of robust knowledge, inadequate data, or questionable evidence. To reverse this context and put the rich evidence of South American MKS on an international audience, we strongly recommend that South American researchers prioritize publishing their studies in English, the universal language of science since sec. XX. We also suggest making all archaeological evidence readily available in online databases, such as the KillSite database (www.killsitedatabase.com). We believe our recommendations align with the current scope of science, which predominantly operates in English and benefits from the widespread accessibility provided by the internet, and will help South American publications reach international audiences interested in human-megafauna interaction and animal exploitation.

Death and life Valley. Environmental memory of the Pomeranian crime of 1939 in Chojnice

This article concerns Chojnice’s Death Valley, Poland – the execution site from the Second World War. We discuss the historical and archaeological contexts related to German mass crimes committed near the town during the war. Next, we outline the theoretical framework of our argument. The key chapters of the text are a case study that shows Death Valley also as a place full of life. Thanks to environmental anthropology, it is possible to identify those elements of mass killing sites that have not yet been included in the mainstream of historical and archaeological research on this type of landscape.

A Predator on the Doorstep: Kill Site Selection by a Lone Wolf in a Peri-Urban Park in a Mediterranean Area.

The aim of the study was to assess which kill site characteristics were selected by a lone wolf living in a protected Mediterranean coastal area near the city of Pisa, Italy, where both wild and domestic ungulates were available as potential prey. Between 2017 and 2019, we monitored the wolf's predatory behaviour through a combination of camera trapping and active search for kill sites and prey carcasses. The main prey found was the fallow deer (n = 82); only two wild boars and no domestic ungulates were found preyed upon. The features and habitat of kill sites were modelled to test for selection by the wolf. The habitat type of kill site was composed of meadows and pastures (89.3%), woods (7.3%), degraded coastal areas (1.9%), roads and rivers (1.1%), and marshes (0.5%). We calculated their distance from landscape features and ran a binomial generalised linear model to test the influence of such landscape variables. The distance of kill sites from landscape elements was significantly different from random control sites, and a positive selection for fences was found. In fact, the wolf pushed fallow deer towards a fence to constrain them and prevent them from escaping. We also analysed the body condition of predated fallow deer as a percentage of fat content in the bone marrow of the hind legs. Our results revealed the selection of the lone wolf for deer in good body condition. This is a possible outcome of the habitat selection shown by fallow deer in the study area, where fenced open pastures are the richest in trophic resources; therefore, our findings suggest a high efficacy for the lone wolf hunting strategy, but also the adoption of a high risk feeding strategy by deer. This study suggests that a lone predator can take advantage of human infrastructures to maximise its predatory effectiveness.

Trauma Heritage as Memory Justice: Sites and Dilemmas in Rwanda

Abstract: After the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, killing sites were preserved as memorials to maintain evidence of crimes for public viewing. Rather than be seen as exceptional, those engagements in memory justice activism comprise part of a larger "era of trauma heritage" emerging largely from the Global South in the late twentieth century and continuing today. Trauma heritage refers to spatialized memories of violence that have been systematically marginalized or hidden. These are sites of truth-telling that aim to enact change in the contexts of impunity and gross negligence that they resist. But they are inordinately hard to see, both for those who are close and at a distance. Reflecting from Rwanda, this article engages the tensions inherent to trauma heritage and their potential as sites of repair.

Allied Aerial Imagery of the Jasenovac Concentration Camp and Killing Center

Abstract Allied aerial imagery of the Jasenovac concentration camp and killing site taken between 1944 and 1945 contributes to our understanding of the camp’s topography and function. These images, previously unknown to the scholarly community, provide insight into the daily life of Jasenovac’s inmates, and show traces of mass murder and genocide. They provide evidence of the Allied bombing of the camp in 1945, and corroborate testimonies detailing the Ustaša attempts to eradicate the traces of mass murder in the final weeks of the war.

Uncommemorated Sites of Past Violence as Landscapes of Manhunts

The article discusses uncommemorated sites of violence in the framework of landscape theories. In particular, it asks how the sites of past violence can be understood through the lens of the ‘dynamic’ theory of landscape offered by Tim Ingold in his seminal The Temporality of the Landscape (1993). The ‘dwelling perspective’ he proposes to understand sites as dynamic ‘taskscapes’ allows us to inscribe past violent actions and engagements of local users into today’s meanings of sites of trauma. This conceptualization is further operationalized in relation to George Chamayoux’ philosophical history of manhunts (or more broadly: cynegetic practices, 2012). In the article it has been asked: how can a landscape be ‘pregnant with the past’ – as it is claimed in Ingold’s approach – if the past actions involved tracking, hunting and killing people who tried to escape death in ghettos or camps? How can we ‘read the past’, ‘remember it’ or ‘call back an internal image’ of previous actions developed in the area, if the activity co-constituted an act of genocide? Are we able to read today the past threat of a perpetrator–predator searching for victims, and, if so, with what tools? Can environmental studies help us to understand the uncanny relation to landscapes that connote past manhunts, and violent deaths on killing sites? The author will propose the concept of cynegetic landscapes to approach landscapes of manhunts.

Testimony in Place: Witnessing the Holocaust in Belarus

ABSTRACT Holocaust killing sites in Eastern Europe are of increasing interest to scholars and the public. This article analyzes the production of video testimonies in situ to consider the question of witnessing the Holocaust in Belarus, where mass graves of Jews are at once ubiquitous and invisible. Foregrounding the French organization Yahad–In Unum's efforts to identify and memorialize these killing sites, the article proposes a spatially aware reading of the audio-visual historiography produced in the former Pale of Jewish settlements. Place here functions as both a trigger of memory and a reminder of the nature of the genocide in Belarus as embedded in a larger context of violence and destruction. Confronted with a unique set of spatial parameters, viewers of these video testimonies are exposed to the legacies of the atrocities in the present and encouraged to develop an understanding of the Holocaust that recognizes its social and environmental repercussions.

Sites of violence and their communities: Critical memory studies in the post-human era (Kraków, 24–25 September 2019)

This discussion gathers voices of an international group of researchers and practitioners from various disciplines and institutions who focus on diverse aspects of sites of past violence in their work: archaeology, history, ethics, literature and art, curatorial practices, oral history, education and commemoration. The debate, which took place during the conference “Sites of Violence and Their Communities: Critical Memory Studies in the Post-Human Era” in Kraków in September 2019, itself centres on six main topics: the question of archives of uncommemorated killing sites; research methodology; the position of the researchers themselves; the problem of complicity during conflict and the right to be a witness to past crimes; the place of the Righteous Among the Nations within Polish collective memory and the international debate on the Holocaust; and, finally, new ways of commemoration and education about mass violence. Participants: Katarzyna Bojarska, Michał Chojak, Ewa Domańska, Zuzanna Dziuban, Karolina Grzywnowicz, Aleksandra Janus, Karina Jarzyńska, Maria Kobielska, Rob van der Laarse, Bryce Lease, Erica Lehrer, Jacek Leociak, Tomasz Łysak, Tomasz Majkowski, Christina Morina, Matilda Mroz, Adam Musiał, Agnieszka Nieradko, Łukasz Posłuszny, Roma Sendyka, Caroline Sturdy Colls, Katarzyna Suszkiewicz, Aleksandra Szczepan, Krijn Thijs, Jonathan Webber, Anna Zagrodzka, Tomasz Żukowski

The Upper Paleolithic hard animal tissue under the microscope: Selected examples from Moravian sites

The microscopic study fills the morphological and taphonomical gaps produced on the macroscopic research level of human and animal hard tissues. In this paper 17 burned and unburned animal bone fragment samples (smaller than 4 cm) were subjected to histological non-metric and metric analyses. Characterization of 3 wolf teeth aimed analysis of daily secretion rates and Retzius periodicity to compare its value to dogs. All samples were selected from Mid- and Late Upper Paleolithic Moravian sites, namely settlement areas Dolní Věstonice I and II, Pavlov I and Milovice IV (dated ~ 34–29 ka cal BP), and a killing site Stránská skála IV (dated ~ 22 ka cal BP). We aimed to evaluate the importance and risk of selected analytical micro-scale methods, including a) species determination from indeterminate burned and unburned fragments, b) crown enamel mineralization and growth differences between species, and c) agents of micro-taphonomic changes in the histological structure of bones and teeth hindering the examination of thin sections.

An artifact embedded in an extinct proboscidean sheds new light on human-megafaunal interactions in the Quaternary of South America

The drivers of the global Quaternary megafaunal extinction are constantly being updated and discussed. Most paleoarchaeological sites in South America with proboscideans and humans in association are considered as clear killing sites, an interpretation that might not consider their taphonomic aspects and neglect other ecological interactions. Here we describe a unique example of megafaunal killing by humans in South American, a skull of a young Notiomastodon platensis from Brazil with an artifact embedded in its rostral area. This fossil proboscidean is from Lagoa Santa Karst, the homeland of some of the oldest evidence for humans in South America, the Lagoa Santa culture. The late Pleistocene/early Holocene deposits from Lagoa Santa may record a bottleneck ecological process for megafaunal populations, and the hunting activity of past humans perhaps played an important role in Notiomastodon platensis extinction.

The Postholocaust Landscape of Chelmno on the Ner (Kulmhof an der Nehr): An Ecological Perspective

ABSTRACTThis article shows how the ecology and nature of the Rzuchów Forest (in the Rzuchów district of the Koło forestry inspectorate in Greater Poland) was indirectly affected by the extermination of the Jewish population as a result of it being used to camouflage evidence of the crimes. Tracing the environmental history of commemoration in the forested part of the former death camp at Chełmno on the Ner (Chełmno nad Nerem/ Kulmhof an der Nehr) will give an indication of the ecological consequences of efforts to preserve the material traces of the camp and its natural surroundings. These efforts continued into the late 1980s. The ecology of commemoration and environmental commemoration form the two poles of this ecological continuum. It is possible to bring them closer together by furthering debates on the relationship between genocide and ecocide, while also expanding existing narratives on the Holocaust by turning to environmental aspects. This research is guided by the idea that it is necessary to rethink existing (and planned) forms of commemoration of crimes against humanity in the context of environmental ethics, with this approach leading to forms of commemoration at killing sites that give more consideration to the environment.

Foreign policy and physical sites of memory: competing foreign policies at the Jasenovac memorial site

This article contributes to the growing scholarship on the relationship between political memory and foreign policy by analyzing how physical sites of traumatic memory serve as locations of foreign policy construction. Specifically, I explore how physical sites (such as concentration camps, killing sites, or memorials) serve to construct foreign policy through the enduring meaning they have as material reminders of collective trauma. I illustrate the argument with a case study of Jasenovac, the commemorative site of the largest concentration camp administered by the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. The Jasenovac site is a particularly useful case for my argument because it is a site of contested memory and conflicting national narratives. Most significantly, it is the site of production of three distinct foreign policies—of Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia’s Republika Srpska—which all use the Jasenovac site to pursue very different and mutually exclusive foreign policy claims.

Looking for provisioning places of shaped tools of the late Neanderthals: A study of a Micoquian open-air site, Pietraszyn 49a (southwestern Poland)

The purpose of this article is to yield new insights into the topic of provisioning places of late Neanderthals using records from the central European Micoquian workshop Pietraszyn 49a, located in southwestern Poland. The site has been radiometrically dated back, using optically stimulated luminescence, to the final phase of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 or the beginning of MIS 3. The technological study, supported by numerous refits, shows that the main goals of manufacturing were shaped tools typologically corresponding to knives, handaxes, and bifacial scrapers. Considering the large variety of lithic raw materials and technical features, it can also be concluded that this assemblage resulted from the activity of at least several individuals. A microscopic investigation of use-wear traces indicates that this place was integrated within other elements of foraging zones, such as killing or butchering sites.

Last Stop in Lwów: Janowska as a Hybrid Camp

The Janowska camp complex in Lwow, which was responsible for the murder of at least 80,000 Jews, has received relatively little academic treatment. The camp is of particular interest due to its hybrid nature as slave labor camp, transit camp, and dedicated killing site. Using a wide variety of source materials and approaches, this article details and analyzes these connected functions, arguing that this unique combination of activities reveals many new insights into our typology of camps as well as the role of Janowska in the Holocaust in Galicia.

Characteristics of Winter Wolf Kill Sites in the Southern Yellowstone Ecosystem

Abstract Understanding the spatial use of wolves and how that might relate to prey species may help predict areas with increased likelihood of wolf–prey interactions, areas where wolves may have a higher impact on prey populations, or areas of wolf–livestock conflict. After reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park in 1995, wolves Canis lupus expanded south and recolonized areas in and around Grand Teton National Park in the southern Yellowstone ecosystem in Wyoming, USA. Elk Cervus elaphus in this area are supplementally fed at three feedgrounds artificially increasing elk density. We tracked radio-collared and uncollared wolves annually in winter (December–March) from 2000 to 2008 to investigate kill sites. Our objective was to investigate potential differences in habitat variables (e.g., canopy cover, elevation) between kill sites (n = 295) and available (random; n = 2,360) locations and investigate whether factors influencing winter wolf kill sites differed in a natural setting (i.e., native winter range) vs. an artificial setting (i.e., near or on feedgrounds). Wolf kills occurred at sites with lower elevation, canopy cover, and terrain roughness compared with random locations. Wolf kills were also slightly farther from packed surfaces (i.e., roads or groomed snowmobile trails) and elk feedgrounds, although still in areas of higher intensity of use by elk compared with random locations. Kill sites on native winter range were considerably more rough (odds ratio = 4.47) than those on feedgrounds. Our results suggest wolves hunt where the likelihood of encountering prey is high, although in areas where prey distribution is more sparse (i.e., native winter range), wolves may need to rely on rougher terrain for successful hunts. The relationship between areas of high prey use and increased wolf activity has important implications for both wildlife managers and livestock producers. In the future, managers will continue to face the issue of having high concentrations of ungulates, either wild or domestic, and the obvious attraction this has for wolves.

Tabuji padajo - učimo se dialoga : LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii in LIT - Lingua Imperii Titi

LIT—Lingua Imperii Titi is the deformed language of Titoism. With it, the communist minority tried to control the majority. In this article, it is emphasized on the examples of mass killing sites and graves that the Titoist elite is trying to conceal the crimes of Titoism, which is why most casualties of the Second World War and the revolution became taboo. LIT has falsely presented communists to be national heroes as the only heroes from the Partisan movement. LIT claims and emphasizes that a majority of the population followed Titoism. However, more than half of the casualties of the Second World War and the revolution became taboo, and Titoism repressed more than half of the population. Those who contributed to the fall of Titoism with non-violent resistance remained forgotten. The resistance of the threatened farmers in the village of Srednja vas in Bohinj is described as an example of the resistance of farmers.

Habitat Correlates of Jaguar Kill-Sites of Cattle in Northeastern Sonora, Mexico

Predation on cattle by the endangered jaguar (Panthera onca) can be a serious ecological and economic confl ict. We investigated habitat characteristics of kill sites of cattle in Sonora, Mexico, from 1999 to 2004 to see whether habitat management or cattle distribution could be used as effective nonlethal methods to limit predation. Kill-sites were positively associated with oak, semitropical thornscrub, and xeric thornscrub vegetation types, whereas they were negatively associated with upland mesquite. Sites of cattle kills were also positively associated with proximity to permanent water sources and roads. A model including these relationships fi t kill locations well (AUC = 0.933) and correctly classifi ed 93% of all kill-site locations. Because kill-sites were associated with specifi c habitat attributes, management practices that alter cattle distribution, such as placement of permanent water sources in uplands, herding, and fencing riparian areas characterized by frequent depredations, can be used to minimize co-occurrence of jaguars and cattle and, thus, potentially limit predation without illegal killing of jaguars. These practices could also lead to more uniform use of pastures and, consequently, higher stocking rates, resulting in increased profi tability to landowners. Managing habitat attributes that predispose cattle to predation may provide a viable alternative for maintaining both livestock enterprises and a large endangered carnivore in areas of confl ict.

Tightening Chronology of Paleoindian Bison Kill Sites on the Northern and Southern Plains

Researchers on the Great Plains of North America have come to terms with a need to better understand the chronological sequence of the Paleoindian period. Dating this period has been problematic; however, current improved methods are now available to reevaluate this chronology. To evaluate change through time of hunting strategies and land use practices we need to step back and clarify chronology. This article looks at six Paleoindian bison kill sites, three from the northern and three from the southern Plains, and revaluates the dates from each.

Effects of Vegetation Structure on the Location of Lion Kill Sites in African Thicket.

Predator-prey relationships are integral to ecosystem stability and functioning. These relationships are, however, difficult to maintain in protected areas where large predators are increasingly being reintroduced and confined. Where predators make kills has a profound influence on their role in ecosystems, but the relative importance of environmental variables in determining kill sites, and how these might vary across ecosystems is poorly known. We investigated kill sites for lions in South Africa’s thicket biome, testing the importance of vegetation structure for kill site locations compared to other environmental variables. Kill sites were located over four years using GPS telemetry and compared to non-kill sites that had been occupied by lions, as well as to random sites within lion ranges. Measurements of 3D vegetation structure obtained from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) were used to calculate the visible area (viewshed) around each site and, along with wind and moonlight data, used to compare kill sites between lion sexes, prey species and prey sexes. Viewshed area was the most important predictor of kill sites (sites in dense vegetation were twice as likely to be kill sites compared to open areas), followed by wind speed and, less so, moonlight. Kill sites for different prey species varied with vegetation structure, and male prey were killed when wind speeds were higher compared to female prey of the same species. Our results demonstrate that vegetation structure is an important component of predator-prey interactions, with varying effects across ecosystems. Such differences require consideration in terms of the ecological roles performed by predators, and in predator and prey conservation.

Targeting Mechanisms for Natural Killer Cell Dysfunction in Patients with Multiple Myeloma

Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) have a multi-faceted immune dysfunction with poor NK cell cytotoxic function. We show that NK cells in MM have a disturbed homeostasis, featured by an increased frequency of terminally differentiated CD57+ NK cells and almost complete absence of the less mature CD56hi NK cell subset. MM patient NK cells have reduced levels of killer activating receptors (KAR) [Nkp46, Nkp44 and NKG2D] and increased levels of killer inhibitory receptor (KIR) [KIR2DL1 and KIR2DL3]. Despite expressing normal levels of the NK effector transcription factors Tbet and eomesdermin, and the effector protein perforin, MM patient NK cells demonstrate poor cytotoxic function against myeloma cell lines and lower levels of the cytotoxic proteins granzyme B (gzmB).Elotuzumab (Elo, Bristol Myers Squibb) is a human IgG1 antibody which targets SLAM-F7, a protein highly expressed on myeloma plasma cells and on specific subsets of immune cells. Elo mediates dual activation of NK cells and has shown promising clinical responses when combined with lenalidomide; however the complete mechanism(s) whereby Elo mediates these effects have not been fully described. Thus, this project investigates the Elo mechanisms of action in myeloma. To explore whether MM patient NK cells were capable of ADCC, we examined NK cell subset degranulation (CD107a) and IFN-γ secretion when co-cultured with the SLAM-F7 expressing OPM-2 myeloma cells and Elo. Healthy donor NK cells degranulated in response to Elo-labeled OPM-2 cells, which correlated with loss of the CD56lo CD16+ NK cell subset. In contrast, newly diagnosed (NEW) and refractory/relapsed MM (RRMM) patient NK cells had a decreased response to Elo-labeled OPM-2 cells as the CD56lo CD16+ NKsubset was retained, and they degranulated at a significantly lower level than that observed in healthy donor NK cells. Therefore, all MM patient NK subsets (CD56lo CD16+, CD161+ and CD57+) assessed were low responders to Elo-labeled OPM-2 cells.We then visually examined NK cell killing kinetics of Elo-labeled myeloma target cells using time lapse live video microscopy (TLLVM). NK cells used ADCC to kill OPM-2 cells in the presence of Elo, the killing kinetics of was equivalent to direct killing induced in presence of the human IgG isotype control, the delivery of the lethal hit occurring in under three minutes. Elo also mediated serial killing of OPM-2 cells. Interestingly, Elo did delay the NK cell detachment from dying myeloma plasma cell targets, which results in prolonged signaling to the NK cell and consequently higher levels of secreted cytokines and pro-inflammatory chemokines. Taken together, this data indicates Elo-induces a profound change in the NK-mediated killing kinetics of myeloma cells and that likely recruits other immune effectors to the myeloma killing site.Given that NK cells can also express SLAM-F7, we assessed whether they were likely to be a target for other NK cells when bound to Elo, and induce fratricide. We used killing assays, flow cytometry and TLLVM to show that in the presence of Elo, healthy donor NK cells were capable of NK fratricide under the assay conditions tested. Interestingly, fratricide induced death saw the depletion of the CD56lo CD16+ NKsubset. This data may partially explain why there is a rapid but transient reduction of NK cells from the peripheral blood of MM patients who received single agent Elo.In summary, MM patient NK dysfunction is due to aberrant NK cell homeostasis featured by terminal differentiation of the NK cells to a subset with poor natural cytotoxic function and high KIR expression. In vitro, Elo is less effective at inducing ADCC responses by NK cells from MM patients compared to normal donors. Nonetheless, Elo induces efficient normal donor NK cell killing of myeloma target cells, the killing kinetics is featured by a protracted immune synapse time and secretion of high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines by 24 hours, plus serial killing of myeloma target cells. These data likely explain the single agent efficacy of Elo in RRMM patients. The data also underlines the exciting potential of Elo to induce NK mediated ADCC of myeloma plasma cells, and recruit multiple arms of the immune system to the killing site. To harness its full potential, combination of Elo with other drugs (eg. Lenalidomide and anti-KIR) maybe required to normalize MM patient NK cell function and initiate the immune attack. DisclosuresRobbins:Bristol-Myers Squibb: Employment, Other: shareholder. Neeson:BMS: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.