People and large carnivores as biostratinomic agents in Lateglacial cave assemblages

Abstract

Biostratinomic analysis (processes acting between death and burial) of Lateglacial mammal bone assemblages from three caves in northern England demonstrates the value of re-examining archived assemblages. With AMS radiocarbon dating of key specimens, these assemblages shed light on the ecology of a region at the northern limit of Lateglacial human activity in Britain. During the Lateglacial Interstadial bears, wolves and humans expanded into the region, bears by around 12 500 14 C yr BP, and the earliest evidence for human presence is around 12 300 14 C yr BP. At Victoria Cave, wolf activity included predation and scavenging of large ungulates and scavenging bear carcasses apparently resulting from hibernation deaths. The scavenging of bear carcasses is possibly confined to the first part of the Lateglacial Interstadial, whereas evidence for wolf scavenging large ungulates increases later in the Interstadial, after about 11 800 14 C yr BP, perhaps reflecting changes in the productivity of the Lateglacial ecosystem, and in human subsistence patterns. The assemblage from Sewell's Cave is wolf den debris from the very end of the Lateglacial Interstadial around 10 800 14 C yr BP, whilst that from Kinsey Cave is dominated by large-bodied carnivores, and is argued to have a quite different taphonomic history.

Taphonomy and zooarchaeology of a high-altitude Upper Pleistocene faunal sequence from Hovk-1 Cave, Armenia

“…Such accumulations are characterized by high proportions of immature and aged individuals. These suggest deaths of the more vulnerable individuals during hibernation which is a high-risk period and an important cause of bear mortality (Gargett, 1996;Kurten, 1958;Lord et al, 2007;Stiner, 1998). Other studies show that cave assemblages that are dominated by young and old-adult cave bears may be due to scavenging carnivore accumulations (Argenti and Mazza, 2006;Gargett, 1996;Niven, 2006).…”

Thermal ionization mass spectrometer U-Th dates on Pleistocene speleothems from Victoria Cave, North Yorkshire, UK: Implications for paleoenvironment and stratigraphy over multiple glacial cycles

“…They demonstrate calcite deposition during each of the interglacial periods from MIS 5 to MIS 13 and, possibly, MIS 15. The four intervening clay deposits therefore belong to MIS 12, MIS 10, MIS 6, and MIS 2 (the latter having been dated by 14 C on bones; Lord et al, 2007).…”

“…The status of the site as a SAM and SSSI limits the amount of fi eld scientifi c research that can be carried out. Therefore, following the example of Gascoyne et al (1981) and Lord et al (2007), of using archival material in favor of the less environmentally destructive practice of fresh sampling, we fi rst focused on redating as much archival material as possible. The remains of the samples documented in Gascoyne and Ford (1984) are now archived in the School of Geography and Geology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.…”

“…Gascoyne et al (1983aGascoyne et al ( , 1983b and Gascoyne and Ford (1984) used the Victoria Cave dates as part of a metastudy of the relationship between landform development, speleothem growth, and climate. Gascoyne's focus was not the sediments, and he largely relied on the sedimentary interpretations from Tiddeman, as have all the publications since (e.g., Murphy and Lord, 2003;Lord et al, 2007). Essentially the sedimentary sequence has not been revised since the earliest work.…”

Characterization of a current coprogenic sample originated by Canis lupus as a tool for identifying a taphonomic agent

“…The research into taphonomic modifications caused by digestion by wolves (C. lupus) is practically non-existent, except for the studies by Binford (1981) and Barja and Corona (2007), although suspected wolf activities seems to be common (Pacher, 2004;Lord et al, 2007).…”