Consumption of canid meat at the Gravettian Předmostí site, the Czech Republic

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Předmostí is one of the most famous Gravettian sites in Central Europe. Its fame is based on a unique human assemblage, sadly largely destroyed during the Second World War, a huge mammoth assemblage and a very rich large canid assemblage. It has been shown previously that mammoth played an important role in the subsistence practices of the Gravettian inhabitants of Předmostí. Detailed analyses of the large canid postcranial material were carried out to investigate whether these canid remains can be assigned to different size groups and whether these remains show evidence of being butchered and consumed by humans. Based on defleshing marks and impact traces on the long bones, it is proposed here that large canids were consumed by the Gravettian inhabitants of Předmostí, thus further elucidating the specific human-large canid relationships that existed during the Upper Palaeolithic.</jats:p>

Excess protein enabled dog domestication during severe Ice Age winters

“…Palaeolithic humans are known to have engaged in interaction with the predatory species 6 . Carnivores are found at Palaeolithic sites with cut marks suggesting ritual butchery such as brain removal, and there is evidence of wolf burials at Upper Palaeolithic sites 7 , 8 . The first signs of proto-dogs appear in Upper Palaeolithic deposits in Eurasia (map 1, Supplementary Materials).…”

The Late Gravettian Site of Kostënki 21 Layer III, Russia: a Chronocultural Reassessment Based on a New Interpretation of the Significance of Intra-site Spatial Patterning

“…These marks are related to filleting, marrow extraction and/or tool fabrication. Just as at several Gravettian sites from Central Europe (Fladerer 2001;Wojtal et al 2012Wojtal et al , 2018Germonpré et al 2017b), it is likely that large canids were consumed in the northern complexes of Kostënki 21/III: the specimens found at the northern complexes of the site can be described as "wolf-like in size" or "wolf-range in size". No reindeer antler has been discovered from this zone although cranial and postcranial reindeer fragments are wellrepresented.…”

“…The Palaeolithic dogs reference group contains canids from Upper Palaeolithic sites from Belgium, the Czech Republic and the Russian Plain (Germonpré et al 2017a). The second reference group includes recent northern dogs from Siberia, Sakhalin and Greenland (Germonpré et al 2015(Germonpré et al , 2017b. The third reference group contains Pleistocene wolves from the Trou des Nutons cave in Belgium (Germonpré et al 2009), the Jaurens and Maldidier Caves in France (Boudadi-Maligne 2010) and the Geographical Society Cave in Primorsky Krai, far eastern Russia (Baryshnikov 2015) (see also Germonpré et al 2017b).…”

“…The sites where the Pleistocene wolves were found presumably date to the Pleniglacial. The final reference group consists of recent northern wolves from Sweden and Russia (see also Germonpré et al 2017b). Skeletal elements are termed "dog-like in size" when at least one of their measurements falls within the observed range (OR) of the recent northern dogs and/or Palaeolithic dogs and is smaller than the lower limit of the ORs in our wolf data sets (cf.…”

“…when their dimensions are larger than those of the dogs and/or fall within the ORs of the wolf groups but are smaller than the mean of the ORs of the wolves in our data sets (cf. Germonpré et al 2017b).…”