A Butchered elephant skull and associated artifacts from the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya'Aqov, Israel

Abstract

Le crâne d'un éléphant à défense droite, Palaeoloxodon antiquus, a été découvert en 1989 à Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, site du Pleistocene moyen, en Israël. Ce crâne étroitement associé à des artefacts en pierre et en bois fait partie intégrante de la composition du sol d'occupation acheuléen. Son emplacement et les dommages qu'il a subis suggèrent des fractures intentionnelles pour l'extraction de la cervelle. Un nucleus en basalte, un bloc de pierre et un morceau de chêne se trouvaient sous le crâne et ont pu être utilisés pour le retourner. On décrit ici un scénario possible de chasse et de démembrement, en s' inspirant de parallèles archéologiques et modernes. Ces trouvailles corroborent d'autres éléments mis en évidence sur le site qui indiquent un comportement sophistiqué des habitants de cette région, il y a 500.000 ans.

Culture and cognition in the Acheulian industry: a case study from Gesher Benot Yaʿaqov

“…The exploitation behaviours also relate to the abundant edible botanical remains documented throughout the GBY sequence, which include different parts (nuts, seeds, etc.) of the flora that grew in the vicinity of the site and in adjacent areas [32,45,48]. We interpret this continuity as reflecting hominin ability to transfer inter-generational information throughout the sequence of occupations.…”

“…-Knapping involved percussors of different types and sizes, evidenced by various flake attributes and the recovery of hard and soft percussors. Basalt percussors range from boulders to fistsized pebbles, limestone pebbles occur in all of the archaeological horizons and antler percussors have been reported [18,45,57,58]. Although the production process reflects various technological strategies, the final large flakes were all modified into extremely homogeneous bifacial tools of similar sizes and shapes [11,31] (figure 5).…”

“…This entailed knowledge of animal behaviour together with a complex range of techno-morpho-typological expertise in stone tool production and manipulation (e.g. [45]). …”

Hominin reactions to herbivore distribution in the Lower Palaeolithic of the Southern Levant

“…(Tchernov et al, 1994;Goren-Inbar et al, 1994;Rabinovich and Biton, 2011). Many other herbivore species are present, including hippopotamus, steppe rhinoceros, horse, warthog, pig, giant and red deer, gazelle and large bovids.…”

“…More specifically, we aim to develop proxy measures that can be used to map the variable attractiveness of different areas within a regional landscape for concentrating herd animals of importance in hominin subsistence and for channelling their seasonal movements. We concentrate on the large herbivores, and particularly the elephants, because they were clearly a dominant presence in the faunal community of the region over a long period, and their bones are well represented in archaeological sites as prey items and major sources of food (see in particular Goren-Inbar et al, 1994;Horowitz, 2002;Horwitz and Monchot, 2002;Bello et al, 2009;Ben-Dor et al, 2011). We do not imply that other food resources were ignored or unimportant, such as smaller mammals, plants and aquatic foods, which are in evidence in the region from an early period (Goren-Inbar et al, 2002).…”