Small mammal utilization by Middle Stone Age humans at Die Kelders Cave 1 and Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, Western Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

Reported here are the results of a taphonomic analysis of the small mammals (between 0.75 kg and 4.5 kg adult body weight) and size 1 bovids (≤20 kg adult body weight) from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites of Die Kelders Cave 1 (DK1) and Pinnacle Point Site 5-6 (PP5-6), Western Cape Province, South Africa. This study provides a comprehensive taphonomic analysis of MSA small mammals with a focus on discerning the role of humans in their accumulation and the implications for human behavioral adaptations. Based on comparisons with control assemblages of known accumulation, it is evident that humans accumulated many of the Cape dune mole-rats, hares, and size 1 bovids at DK1. The patterning of cut-marked and burned mole-rat remains at DK1 provides evidence in the MSA for the systematic utilization of small mammals for their skins and as a protein source. Unlike DK1, small mammals and size 1 bovids constitute only a small portion of the PP5-6 mammals and they exhibit little evidence of human accumulation. Nocturnal and diurnal raptors accumulated most of the small fauna at PP5-6. The nominal presence of small mammals in the PP5-6 fauna is atypical of MSA sites in the Cape Floristic Region, where they are abundant and often constitute large portions of MSA archaeofaunas. DK1 humans maximized the environmental yield by exploiting low-quality resources, a strategy employed possibly in response to localized environmental conditions and to greater human population densities. In comparison, the MIS5-4 humans at PP5-6 did not exploit small mammals and instead focused on higher-quality resources like shellfish and large ungulates. Humans and predators accumulated few small mammals at PP5-6, suggesting that these taxa may have been less abundant near the site and/or that humans could afford to concentrate on high-quality resources, perhaps because of a higher-yield local environment. This study suggests that an adaptive response to the environmental conditions of MIS4 was to maximize the resource yield of local habitats to include lower-quality resources when necessary. The incorporation of these resources in the face of changing environmental and perhaps population pressures is a subsistence adaptation that played a crucial role in the population stability and expansion evidenced by the number of sites in the Cape dating to MIS4.

A taphonomic investigation of small vertebrate accumulations produced by the snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) and its implications for fossil studies

“…Shipman and Walker, 1980) and human consumption (e.g. Stahl, 1982;Fiedler, 1990;Simonetti and Cornejo, 1991;Henshilwood, 1997;Armstrong, 2016;Mallye and Laroulandie, in press). Among these scenarios, many consider predation by non-human predators to be the main factor in the accumulation of small vertebrate remains (e.g.…”

Human occupational intensity and palaeoecology at Klasies River from MIS 5–3: Preliminary taphonomic analyses of faunal remains from the Deacon and Wurz excavations

“…Likewise, given its ubiquity in the region, we should see more evidence of the exploitation of small fauna such hyrax in the sample. However, any evidence of human processing on small fauna would be rare (Armstrong, 2016) since tools are not needed to process these taxa (Henshilwood, 1997). In any case, the sample from which hyrax were taphonomically analysed is significantly smaller than the larger D sample, so it is possible further analyses of larger samples could reveal more evidence of small fauna exploitation.…”

Who Killed the Small Mammals of Ittenheim (Northeastern France)? An Integrative Approach and New Taphonomic Data for Investigating Bone Assemblages Accumulated by Small Carnivores

“…For example, most neotaphonomic experiments and reference collections did not take into account the variability [29,[100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107] that can be observed between individuals [3,27,99,108] or reflect population-level variability [3,75,105,109]). Moreover, several experimental studies have involved captive animals [17,35,76,79,81,93,110], leading Gidna et al [111] and Comay and Dayan [97] to caution against the inappropriate use of actualistic data derived from inadequate contexts, which can lead to erroneous analogies and, subsequently, unreliable interpretations of prehistoric faunal assemblages. More diverse statistically representative reference collections in terms of the number of individuals or types of remains are necessary to reliably incorporate both the natural diversity and taphonomic implications of distinct contexts in analyses [26,37,78,112,113].…”

“…Small-and medium-sized mammal fossil remains are regularly preserved in both archaeological and palaeontological sites and can result from series of complex processes. Over the last 40 years, numerous taphonomic studies have investigated faunal assemblages and associated bone modifications in order to characterise each possible scenario responsible for these accumulations (e.g., [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], including bone collectors [8][9][10], human predation and consumption [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], and attritional or accidental-natural mortality [20]. Among these potential scenarios, while accumulations by mammalian carnivores are regularly cited [3,[21][22][23][24][25], there is a paradoxical lack of detailed analyses, and studies are often limited to specific questions.…”