Rabbits as Food at the end of the Upper Palaeolithic at Molí del Salt (Catalonia, Spain)

Abstract

Many factors have been causally linked to the diversification of hunting during the European Palaeolithic: declining supplies of high‐ranked prey, considerable human demographic growth, reduced residential mobility, larger populations of ubiquitous small mammals and significant technological developments. However, small prey exploitation was not uniform: the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is the most frequent species in the Upper Palaeolithic archaeological record of the Iberian Peninsula – south and Mediterranean area – and Southern France. This is demonstrated at Molí del Salt, an Upper Palaeolithic site located at Vimbodí (Catalonia, Spain), whose mammal fauna stands out for the predominance of rabbits [91% of minimum number of individuals (n = 136)]. We analysed the faunal remains from one level [Asup (c. 12 700–13 000 cal BP)] in order to identify the agent responsible for the faunal accumulation, and to reconstruct aspects of procurement and consumption that shed light on Palaeolithic subsistence strategies in the Northeast Iberian Peninsula. Our results indicate that human agency rather than carnivore activity was responsible for the bone accumulation at Molí del Salt. We identified all the stages in the consumption sequence from skinning to ingestion. We argue that the rabbits were mostly harvested during summer or winter or both seasons. Clearly, the European rabbit was a target species for the human groups which lived at Molí del Salt providing meat, and skin. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Rabbit meat: valuable nutrition or too-cute-to-eat?

“…The first consumption of rabbit meat was situated in the Palaeolithic era, although it must not have been among the most rewarding bounties for 'Man the fat hunter' , in an ecosystem that was rich in zoomass and where protein poisoning or 'rabbit starvation' was to be avoided (Ben-Dor et al, 2011;Smil, 2013;Petracci et al, 2018). During the Upper Palaeolithic in the Iberian Peninsula, however, the high protein level and high bioavailability of micronutrients of rabbit meat became an important supplement to the ancestral diet (Hockett and Bicho, 2000;Blasco et al, 2013;Martínez-Polanco et al, 2017). Along with their nutritional contribution, rabbits also served an economic purpose early on (because of their skin and fur) and may have played some other important social roles in hunter-gatherer culture (e.g., as totem animal), although little is known about the latter (Figure 1).…”

Another non-anthropic leporid accumulation in Southwestern Iberia? The case of a leporid sample from Morgado superior (Tomar, Portugal)

“…This large corpus of data has been largely applied to Palaeolithic and Mesolithic assemblages, aiming to understand possible human influence in their accumulation and modification (e.g. Aura et al 2002;Cochard 2004;Hockett and Haws 2002;Ibáñez and Saladié 2004;Pérez Ripoll 2004, 2005Sanchis and Fernández Peris 2008;Yravedra 2008;Lloveras et al 2009;, 2012Llorente 2010;Rodríguez-Hidalgo et al 2011;Sanchis 2012;Martínez-Polanco et al 2017;Rosado-Méndez et al 2018;Rufà et al 2018;Rufí et al 2020;Almeida et al 2022a). Southwestern Iberia Late Prehistory and Protohistory palaeoeconomy have been a matter of research in the last decades through archaeobotanical, isotopic and zooarchaeological studies.…”