Shoot first, ask questions later: Interpretative narratives of Neanderthal hunting

Abstract

Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Using palaeolandscape reconstructions and animal ethology as our context, we adopt a multifaceted approach that views hunting as a chaîne opératoire involving the decisions and actions of both the hunter and the hunted, which together help reconstruct a forensic picture of past events as they unfolded. Our conclusions indicate that Neanderthals did not necessarily pre-select individuals from a herd, who they then isolated, pursued and killed, but rather ambushed whole groups, which they slaughtered indiscriminately. There is strong evidence, however, that Neanderthals were highly selective in the carcasses they then chose to process. Our conclusions suggest that Neanderthals were excellent tacticians, casual executioners and discerning diners.

Neanderthal hunting strategies inferred from mortality profiles within the Abric Romaní sequence

“…The two young individuals are subadult juveniles between 3 and 4 years of age and are very close to reaching the weight of an adult animal. Therefore, cooperative organization of hunting groups would have been an effective way to reduce risk in the capture of these large ungulates [ 27 , 28 , 58 , 59 , 138 ]. Cervid hunting may have also been cooperative, as with the equids, although it is possible that these animals were brought down by individual hunters, especially the young individuals [ 24 , 54 , 65 , 135 ].…”

“…In the hunting of prime adults (equids and deer), it seems that the selective ambush tactic may have been the most commonly used [ 1 , 5 , 24 , 28 , 128 ]. Young cervids can be captured in multiple ways—by traps, projectiles or pursuit [ 24 , 54 , 138 ]—but would not have constituted a challenge to hunters. Finally, the catastrophic profiles noted for cervids most likely resulted from encounter hunting by stalking or non-selective ambush hunting [ 127 , 138 ].…”

“…Young cervids can be captured in multiple ways—by traps, projectiles or pursuit [ 24 , 54 , 138 ]—but would not have constituted a challenge to hunters. Finally, the catastrophic profiles noted for cervids most likely resulted from encounter hunting by stalking or non-selective ambush hunting [ 127 , 138 ].…”

A Review of Ethnographic Use of Wooden Spears and Implications for Pleistocene Hominin Hunting

“…These experiments help test hypotheses about weapon performance, but an overview of ethnohistoric and eth- nographic data on wooden spear use will add key data to debates including the suitability of this weapon for different hunting strategies, prey sizes and types, and use in various ecological settings. Although ethnohistoric and ethnographic uses of spears have played roles in theories about archaic hominin and H. sapiens hunting technologies and strategies, including in comparative analysis (Churchill 1993;Gaudzinski-Windheuser et al 2018;Oakley et al 1977;Shea & Sisk 2010;White, Pettitt & Schreve 2016), no publication has yet provided a systematic overview of what is known from ethnohistoric and ethnographic records about this longest-serving weapon. Previous overviews of weapons that include ethnographic data on spear use have not focused specifically on wooden spears or were geographically limited (Churchill 1993;Davidson 1934ba;Ellis 1997;Hitchcock & Bleed 1997;Palter 1977).…”

When Lithics Hit Bones: Evaluating the Potential of a Multifaceted Experimental Protocol to Illuminate Middle Palaeolithic Weapon Technology

“…Furthermore, stable isotope analysis from Neanderthal fossils repeatedly illustrates values that are consistent with the consumption of large quantities of terrestrial animal protein (Bocherens et al 2001(Bocherens et al , 2005Richards et al 2001;Richards and Trinkaus 2009;Britton et al 2011;Naito et al 2016;Jaouen et al 2019). Despite the frequency and abundance of Middle Palaeolithic sites with butchered faunal remains, reconstructing underlying acquisition methods (Smith 2015; e.g., hunting strategy; see White et al 2016) and technologies (e.g., wooden javelins, stonetipped spears) often remains ambiguous (Thieme 1997;Shea 2006;Schoch et al 2015;Gaudzinski-Windheuser 2016;Iovita and Sano 2016;Gaudzinski-Windheuser et al 2018;Milks et al 2019). Due to unfavourable preservation conditions, the remains of organic spears and hafts from Palaeolithic contexts are rare (Thieme 1997;Schoch et al 2015).…”