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

Abstract

We explore the relationship between the edaphic potential of soils and the mineral properties of the underlying geology as a means of mapping the differential productivity of different areas of the Pleistocene landscape for large herbivores. These factors strongly control the health of grazing animals irrespective of the particular types of vegetation growing on them, but they have generally been neglected in palaeoanthropological studies in favour of a more general emphasis on water and vegetation, which provide an incomplete picture. Taking the Carmel-Galilee-Golan region as an example, we show how an understanding of edaphic potential provides insight into how animals might have exploited the environment. In order to simplify the analysis, we concentrate on the Lower Palaeolithic period and the very large animals that dominate the archaeofaunal assemblages of this period. Topography and the ability of soils to retain water also contribute to the differential productivity and accessibility of different regions and to patterns of seasonal movements of the animals, which are essential to ensure a supply of healthy fodder throughout the year, especially for large animals such as elephants, which require substantial regions of good grazing and browsing. Other animals migrating in groups have similar needs. The complex topography of the Southern Levant with frequent sudden and severe changes in gradient, and a wide variety of landforms including rocky outcrops, cliffs, gorges, and ridges, places major limits on these patterns of seasonal movements. We develop methods of mapping these variables, based on the geology and our substantial field experience, in order to create a framework of landscape variation that can be compared with the locations and contents of archaeological sites to suggest ways in which early hominins used the variable features of the landscape to target animal prey, and extend the analysis to the consideration of smaller mammals that were exploited more intensively after the disappearance of the elephants. We consider some of the ways in which this regional-scale approach can be further tested and refined, and advocate the development of such studies as an essential contribution to understanding the wider pattern of hominin dispersal.

Edaphic and Topographic Constraints on Exploitation of the Central Kenya Rift by Large Mammals and Early Hominins

“…Here, we concentrate on the site of Kariandusi, and consider how far the location of the site can be explained in terms of its unusually advantageous position in relation to the topographic and edaphic variables identified above, as opposed to other factors such as access to water supplies or lithic raw materials, and whether we can infer some form of ' ambush hunting' from its location, following the identification of similar combinations of edaphic and topographic features elsewhere, notably at Gesher Banat Yaqov in Israel (Devès et al, 2014), and at Olorgesailie in the southern Kenyan Rift (Kübler et al, 2015).…”

“…4. Show how mapping of roughness and soil edaphics can help to place fossil and archaeological sites into a wider regional context, and more specifically test the hypothesis that, by the time of the appearance of the genus Homo and Acheulean biface manufacture, human groups were actively exploiting topographic barriers and bottlenecks in the landscape for ambush hunting, following the discovery of similar evidence in Acheulean settings elsewhere (Devès et al, 2014;Kübler et al, 2015).…”

Palaeolithic artefact deposits at Wadi Dabsa, Saudi Arabia; a multi-scalar geoarchaeological approach to building an interpretative framework

“…Wadi (King & Bailey, 2006;Devès et al, 2014); and (iv) and the potentially favourable edaphic properties of soils developed on volcanic deposits (Kubler, Owenga, Reynolds, Rucina, & King, 2015;Kübler et al, In Press). Initial survey of the basin in 2015 recorded numerous basalt artefacts lying on the surface of the tufa, at relatively high densities at one location in the centre of the basin .…”

“…Understanding the patterning of surface assemblages may inform us about the ways in which landscape features such as water or raw material sources and topography may have influenced mobility and activity within a landscape, and thus the mechanisms and conditions of dispersals (Finlayson, 2013;Devès, Sturdy, Godet, King, & Bailey, 2014;Holdaway, King, Douglass, & Fanning, 2015;Winder et al, 2015;Breeze et al, 2016;).…”

Evolution and dispersal of the genus Homo : A landscape approach

“…We have elaborated these concepts elsewhere with supporting detail and applications in a variety of landscape settings in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and North America (King and Bailey, 1985King et al, 1994King et al, , 1997Bailey et al, , 2012Dev es et al, 2014;Holdaway et al, 2015), and take this previous work as a starting point for the present discussion.…”