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Bear in Mind: Bear Hunting in the Mesolithic of the Southern Caucasus
Abstract
We present new faunal data from Kotias Klde rockshelter, Republic of Georgia, where a substantial part of the faunalv assemblage consists of brown bear remains (Ursus arctos) found in clear association with Mesolithic artifacts. Bear remains are unusually well represented in comparison with other faunal assemblages from the Caucasus and Eurasia in general. The diversity of species, dominance of young individuals, full representation of skeletal elements, and skinning butchery marks indicate that bears were actively hunted. Such an endeavor of hunting denotes the complex network of relationships that linked the Mesolithic hunting societies with the animal world surrounding them. Anthropology Accepted Manuscript
... This distinctive taphonomic pattern is associated with the debris from subsistence activities of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. It has also been documented in the site of Kotias Klde from the later Mesolithic period in western Georgia (Bar-Oz et al., 2009). Important clues on the nature and formation of the Hovk-1 assemblage can be gleaned from the taxonomic composition and evidence on mortality patterns of different taxa. ...
... In contemporary anthropogenic assemblages carnivores are generally rare (<6%;Table 7). The Mesolithic site of Kotias Klde, in which there is a high frequencies of brown bear (Ursus arctos) remains, is an assemblage which is characterized by clear evidence of bear hunting, including an abundance of skinning and butchery marks on the skeletal remains (Bar-Oz et al., 2009) and is an exception to the general pattern seen in earlier periods. Age data on wild goats indicate the presence of individuals from a broad range of ages. ...
... El aprovechamiento de carnívoros en el Paleolítico revela las capacidades adaptativas de los homininos, su posición trófica, su nicho ecológico y la relación directa con otras especies animales. Por ello, este tipo de estudios ha aportado conclusiones muy interesantes de cara a conocer el comportamiento humano durante este periodo Gómez-Olivencia et al., 2018;Russo et al., 2023) que llevan, en muchos casos, a discutir sobre la competencia del ser humano frente a otras familias de carnívoros, como félidos, cánidos o hiénidos (Bar-Oz et al., 2009;Blasco et al., 2010;Castaños, 1990;Gabucio et al., 2014). 1 Este artículo se enmarca dentro del Proyecto pid2019-103987gb-c33: "En los límites de la diversidad: comportamiento neandertal en el centro y sur de la Península Ibérica", financiado por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, cuyos ii. pp. ...
Resumen: La relación entre los neandertales y el oso cavernario-Ursus spelaeus durante el Pleistoceno Superior ha sido objeto de controversia debido a que la historiografía tradicional sugería ideas relativas a un posible culto hacia esta especie, junto con otras teorías que respaldan la caza masiva de estos animales. Sin embargo, las pruebas que vinculan una interacción entre el Homo neanderthalensis y el Ursus spelaeus en Europa son limitadas y fragmentarias, y proceden
mayormente de Italia, Alemania o Francia, en los alrededores de los Alpes. Hasta la fecha, no se habían encontrado restos de Ursus spelaeus con evidencias de actividad humana en el Paleolítico Medio en la Península Ibérica. No obstante, este artículo presenta y analiza las consecuencias del descubrimiento de una ulna de Ursus spelaeus con marcas de corte, hallada en los niveles musterienses de la cueva del Esquilléu en Cantabria. Este hallazgo, identificado tras un minucioso estudio de la muestra osteológica disponible, representa un nuevo aporte a este debate, ya que amplía el ámbito geográfico y sugiere que las revisiones tafonómicas podrían ser una fuente de nuevas evidencias.
... Ca. 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals were replaced by anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) who appropriated these caves, and conducted more effective campaigns, as besides the Caucasian tur, considerable remains of aurochs (Bos primigenius) and steppe bison (Bison priscus)(Bar-Oz et al., 2002;2004; Adler et al. 2006) have been found; these large ungulates made up over 40% of all animal remains. The hunting habits of Homo sapiens changed over time, as by the Middle Stone Age, evidence of pigs (wild boar Sus scrofa) and brown bears (Ursus arctos)(Meshveliani et al. 2007;Bar- Oz et al. 2009) has been found. ...
... Ekain, Azé 1-3, Divje Babe, Fosse et al., 2002 : Fig. 4) in Europe and in the Caucasus (Hovk-1 cave, Bar-Oz et al., 2012 ). This type of skeletal representation is also found in the Mesolithic rock shelter of Kostias Klde in the Republic of Georgia where brown bears have been hunted by humans ( Bar-Oz et al., 2009 ), highlighting the differential survivorship of different skeletal elements. ...
While bears (Ursidae) are well represented in Western Europe and the Caucasus during the Pleistocene, bear remains from this period are rare in Southwest Asia. Only a limited number of sites, both natural
and archaeological, have yielded evidence of brown bear (Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758). Skeletal remains for this species are often represented by a limited number of elements. The discovery of 192 remains identified as brown bear in WezmehCave (Kermanshah Province, Iran) is exceptional. This paper presents a detailed description of the Wezmeh osteological assemblage, which confirms that U. arctos was already present in Zagros during the Upper Pleistocene.
... The identified plants and large mammals indicate a generally forested environment. Similar landscape is also reconstructed from later Paleolithic sites of the area, such as Kotias Klde 41,42 and Satsurblia 33,42 . Apart from sample SKK 2, all samples from stalagmites SKK 16 3 and 5 contained aDNA from one or more genera. ...
Metagenomic analysis is a highly promising technique in paleogenetic research that allows analysis of the complete genomic make-up of a sample. This technique has successfully been employed to archaeological sediments, but possible leaching of DNA through the sequence limits interpretation. We applied this technique to the analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) from Late Quaternary stalagmites from two caves in Western Georgia, Melouri Cave and Solkota. Stalagmites form closed systems, limiting the effect of leaching, and can be securely dated with U-series. The analyses of the sequence data from the Melouri Cave stalagmite revealed potential contamination and low preservation of DNA. However, the two Solkota stalagmites preserved ancient DNA molecules of mammals (bear, roe deer, bats) and plants (chestnut, hazelnut, flax). The aDNA bearing layers from one of the two Solkota stalagmites were dated to between ~84 ka and ~56 ka BP by U-series. The second Solkota stalagmite contained excessive detrital clay obstructing U-series dating, but it also contained bear bones with a minimum age of ~50 BP uncalibrated years and ancient DNA molecules. The preservation of authentic ancient DNA molecules in Late Quaternary speleothems opens up a new paleogenetic archive for archaeological, paleontological and paleoenvironmental research.
... 13 Redman 1982;Fujii 1988. 14 Bar-Oz et al. 2009. 15 Gabunia 2000Gabunia and Kalandadze 1982;Gabunia and Tsereteli 2003. ...
... Subsistence strategies appear to have changed with a focus on the hunting of dangerous prey, such as wild boar (Sus scrofa) and particularly brown bear (Ursus arctos). These two species constitute c. 75% of the faunal assemblage from excavations at the Kotias Klde rock shelter south of the Kvirila River (dated 12,400 to 10,300 BP), and it has been postulated that this shift not only reflects an advance in lithic hunting technology, but also the beginnings of ceremonial bear hunting linking this Mesolithic society with the animal world surrounding it (Bar-Oz et al. 2009). ...
... In support of this view, Central Asia has been considered the possible homeland for Ychromosome haplogroups P and R (Derenko et al. 2006;, two paternal lineages that have given rise to numerous other haplogroups commonly seen in the region, with the latter also playing an intriguing part in the peopling of the (Соловьев 1961: 11); Kep Baraz Grotto (Соловьев 1949); Atsinskaya Cave (Крайнов 1958); and Kvatchara, Iashtkhva, Dzhampala, and Darkveti (see Bar-Oz et al. 2009;Небиеридзе 1978;Церетели 1974). The only known open-air Epipaleolithic site is Entseri (Григолая and Церетели 1967) (along with Tsivi and Achara). ...
This study investigates the genetic diversity and ethnohistory of Svaneti and its neighboring highland Georgian and breakaway regions in order to better understand the complex population history of the South Caucasus. The objectives of this project are to (1) document the biological diversity in contemporary settlements in the region of Svaneti; (2) compare patterns of gene diversity with Svaneti’s western and eastern neighbors, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, respectively; and (3) determine whether gene frequencies in Svaneti are evently distributed across geographic space by characterizing any village-level structuring. We will contextualize the findings within broader studies that address major regional population settlement events during the Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Metal Ages, as well as the putative ‘Alan migration’ in the 4th century AD. To accomplish these goals, biological samples were collected from participants in Svaneti for genetic analysis, providing a more thorough coverage of village districts in Svaneti than has been achieved in previous studies. In addition, local-level ethnohistorical interviews were conducted in an effort to distinguish patterns of diversity resulting from long-term inhabitation versus those arising from recent immigration into the region. These DNA samples were characterized for mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome variation, and the resulting data analyzed with statistical and phylogenetic methods to define the biological affinities of highland Georgian populations, and reconstruct the migration and settlement history of the region. Data from published and unpublished sources on the genetic diversity of the greater Near East and Caucasus, specifically Abkhaz and Ossete populations, were used for phylogeographic and statistical comparison. The results revealed reduced Y-chromosome haplogroup diversity in Svans, with a predominance of G2a, although their paternal lineages occurred at frequencies comparable to those of neighboring highland populations. By contrast, mtDNA haplogroup diversity in Svans was both very high and reasonably similar in terms of frequency to other regional populations, with W6 and X2 occurring at unusually high frequencies. Interestingly, there was no geographic patterning of Y-chromosome or mitochondrial DNA diversity within Svaneti at the village level. Nevertheless, strong Y-chromosome affinities with eastern and western populations (i.e., Ossete and Abkhaz, respectively) living adjacent to the Svans indicated a common gene pool for these three ethno-linguistic groups in spite of linguistic differences at the language family level, and minimal contribution to the Ossete gene pool from Indo-European-speaking Alans.
... Modern ethnographic sources also connect lions with symbolic beliefs, especially through manhood rituals and prestige hunting activities with inherent risks, as conducted, for example, by the Maasai people [87]. Other human groups did the same with other carnivores, such as bear hunting for obtaining furs, in different prehistoric and historic periods (e.g., [88,89] and references therein). This mythification of dangerous prey could explain the evidence in the Upper Paleolithic cave of lion hunting and pelt exploitation in Zone IV of LG, as it could have been motivated by ideological considerations that justify its presence in a context interpreted as the practice of ritual activities [35,36]. ...
Pleistocene skinning and exploitation of carnivore furs have been previously inferred from
archaeological evidence. Nevertheless, the evidence of skinning and fur processing tends
to be weak and the interpretations are not strongly sustained by the archaeological record.
In the present paper, we analyze unique evidence of patterned anthropic modification and
skeletal representation of fossil remains of cave lion (Panthera spelaea) from the Lower
Gallery of La Garma (Cantabria, Spain). This site is one of the few that provides Pleistocene
examples of lion exploitation by humans. Our archaeozoological study suggests that
lion-specialized pelt exploitation and use might have been related to ritual activities during
the Middle Magdalenian period (ca. 14800 cal BC). Moreover, the specimens also represent
the southernmost European and the latest evidence of cave lion exploitation in Iberia.
Therefore, the study seeks to provide alternative explanations for lion extinction in Eurasia
and argues for a role of hunting as a factor to take into account.
... In all of the above-mentioned sites except Satsurblia there is a predominance of a single taxon suggesting a focus on specialised hunting, a pattern that differs from the one we report here for Satsurblia in which the faunal assemblage consists of a more diverse array of woodland dwelling ungulates. A somewhat similar pattern and composition of taxa was identified in Mesolithic Kotias Klde [43]. ...
The region of western Georgia (Imereti) has been a major geographic corridor for human migrations during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic (MP/UP). Knowledge of the MP and UP in this region, however, stems mostly from a small number of recent excavations at the sites of Ortvale Klde, Dzudzuana, Bondi, and Kotias Klde. These provide an absolute chronology for the Late MP and MP–UP transition, but only a partial perspective on the nature and timing of UP occupations, and limited data on how human groups in this region responded to the harsh climatic oscillations between 37,000–11,500 years before present. Here we report new UP archaeological sequences from fieldwork in Satsurblia cavein the same region. A series of living surfaces with combustion features, faunal remains, stone and bone tools, and ornaments provide new information about human occupations in this region (a) prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) at 25.5–24.4 ka cal. BP and (b) after the LGM at 17.9–16.2 ka cal. BP. The latter provides new evidence in the southern Caucasus for human occupation immediately after the LGM. The results of the campaigns in Satsurblia and Dzudzuana suggest that at present the most plausible scenario is one of a hiatus in the occupation of this region during the LGM (between 24.4–17.9 ka cal. BP). Analysis of the living surfaces at Satsurblia offers information about human activities such as the production and utilisation of lithics and bone tools, butchering, cooking and consumption of meat and wild cereals, the utilisation of fibers, and the use of certain woods. Microfaunal and palynological analyses point to fluctuations in the climate with consequent shifts in vegetation and the faunal spectrum not only before and after the LGM, but also during the two millennia following the end of the LGM
The Caucasus, situated strategically in terms of natural geography and abundant raw materials, has been attractive to the interest of prehistoric hunter-gatherers throughout ancient times. Recent discoveries at the Neolithic site of Makhvilauri in the Ajara region, affirm this historical focus. The Makhvilauri flaked stone tool assemblage encompasses various lithic resources, of which ~11 % (n = 59) comprise obsidian, a raw material whose closest sources are 170 km away. Using the XRF method at the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University
of Missouri Reactor Research (MURR) to elementally characterise 23 of the obsidian artifacts (~39 % of the total) we can demonstrate that the Makhvilauri assemblage was made from at least five geochemically distinct sources.
This analysis not only sheds light on the mobility patterns of ancient communities but also underscores the extensive contacts established during the Neolithic period (6th millennium BC).
We describe a study of obsidian artifacts from an early Holocene period site located at Kobuleti, Georgia, in the southeastern Black Sea region. A collection of obsidian artifacts discovered there were analyzed by X-ray fluorescence to determine their provenance. Two of the three types of obsidian identified correspond to the Chikiani and Sarikamis sources indicating early human mobility and cultural contact within Caucasia. One unprovenanced artifact did not match any of the currently known sources.
The region of western Georgia (Imereti) in the Southern Caucasus has been a major geographic corridor for human migrations during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Data of recent research and excavations in this region display its importance as a possible route for the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH) into northern Eurasia. Nevertheless, within the local research context, bone-working and personal ornaments have yet contributed but little to the Upper Palaeolithic (UP) regional sequence’s characterization. Here we present an archaeozoological, technological and use-wear study of pendants from two local UP assemblages, originating in the Dzudzuana Cave and Satsurblia Cave. The ornaments were made mostly of perforated teeth, though some specimens were made on bone. Both the manufacturing marks made during preparation and use-wear traces indicate that they were personal ornaments, used as pendants or attached to garments. Detailed comparison between ornament assemblages from northern and southern Caucasus reveal that they are quite similar, supporting the observation of cultural bonds between the two regions, demonstrated previously through lithic techno-typological affinities. Furthermore, our study highlights the importance attributed to red deer (Cervus elaphus) by the UP societies of the Caucasus in sharing aesthetic values and/or a symbolic sphere.
Humans have been living with other animals side by side since the beginning of their journey on this planet, and have inevitably been dependent on them for various needs and conditions. In one hand, completely relying on natural resources, the prehistoric people had to hunt and heavily exploit other animals for meat and animal products which were very essential for their survival. On the other hand, animals were worshiped, respected and considered to be very vital in different symbolic activities of human groups since Palaeolithic period. Consequently, as like present human societies, the human-animal relationships in prehistoric period were also very complex and multi-dimensional.
Throughout many periods of cultural evolution, perhaps the most crucial stage of human-animal relationships occurred in Neolithic period, particularly during the early phase of Aceramic Neolithic period when human groups were advancing towards a settled socio-cultural and subsistence pattern giving up their nomadic hunting-gathering lifestyle. Contrary to previous periods, Neolithic societies started to live permanently in a certain place throughout the year and hunt animals mainly available in their local environment. Animal species too were forced to cope with this very strange and completely new change in their habitat. Consequently, both humans and animals were going through some very significant and life-changing mutual relationships, which eventually encouraged the domestication of certain ungulate animals in Anatolia and West Asia. Therefore, the essence of the detail study on these complex relationships during this transitional period comes first, if studying any crucial aspect of the human-animal relationships.
Providing that the Central Anatolia is among the most important core regions of Neolithisation, this study attempts to explore multi-scale aspects of human-animal-environmental interactions in Central Anatolian Pre-Pottery Neolithic Settlements throughout a period of about one thousand five hundred years.
This article is a preliminary attempt to explain the settlement of Armenia in the Lower Palaeolithic period, and to estimate the factors that played a decisive role in the 'exploitation' of specific ecological niches and natural landscapes. In recent years, new and highly interesting finds and sites of the Lower Palaeolithic have reinvigo-rated study in this field. A number of projects have focused on the study of the environment, the sources of raw material, and reconstructions of the palaeogeographical situation and ancient climate. Although many questions remain-cultural frontiers, seasonality, the character of hunting specializations of specific fauna-we remain hopeful that excavations planned for 2010-2011 at the newly discovered Lower Palaeolithic sites in the gorge of the Debed River and in the Ararat Depression may augment our understanding on these matters.
This article is a preliminary attempt to explain the settlement of Armenia in the Lower Palaeolithic period, and to estimate the factors that played a decisive role in the 'exploitation'of specific ecological niches and natural landscapes. In recent years, new and highly interesting finds and sites of the Lower Palaeolithic have reinvigorated study in this field. A number of projects have focused on the study of the environment, the sources of raw material, and reconstructions of the palaeogeographical situation and ancient climate. Although many questions remain-cultural frontiers, seasonality, the character of hunting specializations of specific fauna-we remain hopeful that excavations planned for 2010-2011 at the newly discovered Lower Palaeolithic sites in the gorge of the Debed River and in the Ararat Depression may augment our understanding on these matters.
We present a detailed zooarchaeological and taphonomic study of Bondi Cave, western Georgia, containing Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic levels. The faunal assemblages are dominated by Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica) and European bison (Bison cf. bonasus). High proportions of specimens bearing cut marks and percussion marks indicate that human activity was the main depositional agent. Carcass transport was selective according to the animal’s size. Assemblage characteristics suggest short occupations of the cave by mobile Upper Paleolithic foragers. The general composition of the fauna probably refects a more open setting for the Upper Paleolithic human occupations in this region, compared to the Holocene.
skeletal remains. We have begun with Portugal because it is at the southwest corner of Europe and is an area
where we have all had experience in the analysis of skeletal material (figure 1). Future papers will expand
north and east.
We will group information by site, giving radiocarbon dates and, when available, associated stable isotope
results. We will provide a brief summary, focusing on material directly dated to the Mesolithic. However,
this series will also comment on materials assumed to be Mesolithic, but whose dating shows them to be
either older or younger, and on material thought to be Mesolithic but otherwise undated. We stress that even
critical analysis of skeletal provenance can sometimes be in error, as has been shown by the revision of a
number of Upper Palaeolithic finds using direct radiocarbon dating of bone (e.g. Vogelherd/Stetten ob Lontal;
Conard et al. 2004). Some actually now enter the Mesolithic.
Portuguese Mesolithic human material is dominated by skeletons from shell middens. The best known are
those from the sites on the Rio Muge at the head of the Tagus (Tejo) estuary, first excavated in 1863. When
“The skeletal remains of Mesolithic Man in Western Europe” was published (Newell et al. 1979) only the
three main sites on the Muge were considered securely dated to the Mesolithic, no further sites were listed in
any subsidiary category (older, younger, unknown/unclear), and there were no direct dates on human bone.
The list now includes fifteen sites, of which seven still lack directly dated human material. Although the
Muge sites still dominate in terms of published work, there are an equal number of sites with dated material
from the Sado valley in the Alentejo. The following discussion will be by region and site, beginning with the
Muge region, followed by the Sado and the single site from coastal Alentejo. To date, the only loose human
bone (LHB) find is from the site of Fiais.
Cave bears, an extinct subgenus (Spelearctos) of Ursus, were versatile enough to inhabit large areas of the northern hemisphere during the middle and late Pleistocene, yet they had evolved a specialized dentition that emphasized grinding functions, implying a heavy dietary reliance on tough, fibrous foods (i.e., plants). Isotope studies have yielded conflicting results on cave bear diet, however, often without consideration of the provenance of the samples or the possible contradictions that taphonomic and morphologic evidence might pose to dietary interpretations. It is likely that cave bear habits varied somewhat in response to environmental circumstance, and the limits on their abilities to do so remain unknown. If the larger goal of paleontological inquiry is to reconstruct the adaptations of cave bear species, then variation and commonalities among populations must be tracked closely, and the disparate lines of evidence currently available examined together on a case by case basis. Clearly, no single analytical technique can achieve this. By way of example we present the results of a cross-disciplinary collaboration that combines osteometric, isotopic, and taphonomic approaches to studying the paleoecology of a bear assemblage from Yarimburgaz Cave in northwest Turkey. Reference information on the linkages between diet, hibernation, and population structure in modern bears provides test implications for the investigation. Osteometric techniques demonstrate the presence of two coextant middle Pleistocene bear species in the sample - Ursus (Spelearctos) deningeri, a form of cave bear, and U. arctos or brown bear - the former abundant in the sample, the latter rare. An attritional mortality pattern for the bears and the condition of their bones show that most or all of the animals died in the cave from nonviolent causes in the context of hibernation. The study also elucidates several characteristics of the cave bear population in this region. Osteometric techniques show that the adult sex ratio of the cave bears is only slightly skewed toward females. This pattern lies near one extreme of the full range of possible outcomes in modern bear species and can only reflect a strong dietary dependence on seasonally available plants and invertebrates, showing that hibernation was a crucial overwintering strategy for both sexes; the results specifically contradict the possibility of regular, heavy emphasis on large game (hunted or scavenged) as a winter food source. The nature of wear and breakage to the adult cave bear teeth indicates that food frequently was obtained from cryptic sources, requiring digging and prying, and that extensive mastication was necessary, leading to complete obliteration of some cheek tooth crowns in old individuals. The patterns of tooth damage during life corroborate the dietary implications of the adult sex ratio and also argue for a diet rich in tough, abrasive materials such as nuts, tubers, and associated grit. The carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions of cave and brown bear tooth enamel from the site are virtually identical, and there is no evidence of a strong marine signal in either species, despite the cave's proximity to a modern estuary of the Sea of Marmara; nitrogen isotope ratios could not be examined because of poor protein preservation. The isotope results suggest that both bear species were highly omnivorous in the region during the middle Pleistocene and obtained nearly all of their food from terrestrial and fresh-water habitats. Bone pathologies, usually originating from trauma, occur in some of the adult bears, testifying to long lifespans of some individuals in this fossil population. The Yarimburgaz cave bears also exhibit great size dimorphism between the sexes, based on weight-bearing carpal bone dimensions, with adult males attaining roughly twice the body mass of adult females.
In growing numbers, archeologists are specializing in the analysis of excavated animal bones as clues to the environment and behavior of ancient peoples. This pathbreaking work provides a detailed discussion of the outstanding issues and methods of bone studies that will interest zooarcheologists as well as paleontologists who focus on reconstructing ecologies from bones. Because large samples of bones from archeological sites require tedious and time-consuming analysis, the authors also offer a set of computer programs that will greatly simplify the bone specialist's job. After setting forth the interpretive framework that governs their use of numbers in faunal analysis, Richard G. Klein and Kathryn Cruz-Uribe survey various measures of taxonomic abundance, review methods for estimating the sex and age composition of a fossil species sample, and then give examples to show how these measures and sex/age profiles can provide useful information about the past. In the second part of their book, the authors present the computer programs used to calculate and analyze each numerical measure or count discussed in the earlier chapters. These elegant and original programs, written in BASIC, can easily be used by anyone with a microcomputer or with access to large mainframe computers.
Occupying an intermediate position between Africa, Asia, and Europe the southern Caucasus has represented a northern geographic terminus for major expansions and migrations of human populations, both Archaic and Modern, throughout much of prehistory. During the Middle Palaeolithic, the high elevations and glaciated passes of the Caucasus served as a natural barrier to mobility in a northerly direction. Therefore the southern Caucasus provides an opportunity to examine Neanderthal behavioral patterns within an environmental and geographical cul de sac. Unfortunately, our current understanding of Middle Palaeolithic settlement and subsistence patterns within this region suffers from a dearth of well-excavated, dated, and documented sites. Previous excavations at the rockshelter Ortvale Klde, Djruchula Cave, and Bronze Cave, located in the western Georgian Republic, hint at a variable system of settlement and subsistence linked closely to prevailing environmental and topographical conditions. Although mountainous, warm, humid, and well forested, the numerous deep river valleys that drain the Caucasus form a patchwork of ecological niches populated by a wide array of floral and faunal species. The discontinuous nature of environmental communities and the natural impediments to mobility presented by deep valleys, fast rivers, and high elevations, likely influenced the settlement and subsistence behaviors of Neanderthals more than the cultural factors often cited. Likewise, we argue that climate change fed a cycle of regional abandonment and resettlement, which in turn fostered the technological diversity witnessed in the archaeological record. Traditional views of settlement and subsistence within the southern Caucasus are presented and evaluated in light of data retrieved during the recent re-excavation and dating of Ortvale Klde. Résumé. Occupant une position intermédiaire entre l'Afrique, l'Asie et l'Europe, le Caucase méridional a constitué une barrière géographique pour nombre d'expansions et de migrations de populations humaines, tant archaïques que modernes, au cours de la Préhistoire. Au Paléolithique moyen, l'altitude et l'enneigement des cols ont rendu la chaîne du Caucase infranchissable, de même que les mers, Noire et Caspienne, ont joué le rôle MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC PATTERNS OF SETTLEMENT AND SUBSISTENCE IN THE SOUTHERN CAUCASUS 93 DANIEL S. ADLER, NICHOLOZ TUSHABRAMISHVILI 92 d'une barrière naturelle vers le Nord. Le Caucase méridional se prête de ce fait à l'étude du comportement néandertalien dans une situation environnementale, géographique et bio-culturelle de cul-de-sac. Une difficulté non négligeable pour notre compréhension des habitats et des modes de subsistance du Paléolithique moyen, au sein de cette région, est due au manque de sites bien fouillés, documentés et datés. La fouille récente de l'abri d'Ortvale Klde et des grottes Djruchula et Bronze, situées à l'Ouest de la République géorgienne, suggère des modes d'occupation et de subsistance variables, étroitement liés aux conditions topographiques et environnementales. Malgré un environnement montagneux, des conditions chaudes et humides et une couverture forestière dense, les nombreuses profondes vallées, qui drainent le Caucase, forment une mosaïque de niches écologiques avec un large spectre d'espèces animales et florales. Nos observations tendent à montrer que cette discontinuité environnementale, à côté des barrières naturelles que constituent les vallées profondes, les cours d'eau torrentiels et l'altitude des cols, davantage que les facteurs culturels souvent cités, ont influencé de façon déterminante le comportement des groupes néandertaliens. Par ailleurs, nous suggérons que l'existence de phases d'expansion et de contraction régionales, peut-être stimulées par des changements climatiques, ont entraîné la diversité technologique observée dans l'inventaire archéologique. Les visions traditionnelles d'occupation et de subsistance pour le Caucase méridional sont présentées et évaluées à la lumière des résultats et datations issus des fouilles récentes d'Ortvale Klde.
The excavations at Kotias Klde, a karstic cave in the western region of the Republic of Georgia, uncovered a sequence of Neolithic layer topped by some Bronze Age remains (A1 and A2), a complex Mesolithic layer (B), and the top of layer C, tentatively recognized as late Upper Palaeolithic. The preliminary report describes the contents of the Mesolithic deposit with its particular industry, characterized by triangles of various shapes and a faunal assemblage of hunted brown bear, dated to 12,400-10,380 cal. BP. Les fouilles conduites à Kotias Klde, une grotte karstique de l'Ouest de la Géorgie, ont permis de mettre au jour une séquence formée de quelques restes de l'âge du Bronze qui surmontent une séquence néolithique (A1 et A2), une couche complexe mésolithique (B) et le sommet d'une couche C, qui relèverait d'un Paléolithique supérieur tardif. Ce rapport préliminaire porte sur les assemblages du dépôt mésolithique daté de 12400-10380 cal. BP, dont l'industrie particulière se caractérise par des formes variées et par un assemblage faunique composé de restes de chasse à l'ours brun.
European cave deposits often contain the remains of extinct cave bears (Urslls spelaells and U deningeri) and artifacts or human remains. Two twen-tieth-century explanations for the apparent association of the remains and artifacts are: 1) late Pleistocene hominids preyed upon the bears; and 2) late Pleistocene hominids and bears occupied the caves at different times thus making the remains and artifacts appear behaviorally associated when they are not. The former option is dismissed in most cases based on taphonomic criteria and ursid mortality data. In caves with multiple entrances-particularly cases where at least one entrance is a vertical shaft comprising a natural trap-another option serves to better ex-plain the presence of ursid remains and artifacts in the same deposits. Ursid-bone assemblages created by accidental entrapment of bears in vertical shafts result in a distinctive mortality pattern. This pattern reveals proportionally more prime adult individuals than expected in a living population. A consideration of North American black bear (U americalllls) physiology and behavior reveals that this distinctive mortality pattern should be expected from natural trap assemblages. Thus, in assemblages from caves with horizontal and vertical entrances, mortality data can be used to decipher whether ursids died from natural hibernation deaths, human predation, or accidental falls through vertical shafts. RESUMEN.-Los dep6sitos en las cuevas europeas frecuentemente conlienen res-tos de 0505 extintos (UrslIs spe/aells y U denil1gm) y artefactos. Dos explicaciones a la aparente asocfaci6n de testos y artefactos son: 1) que los osos fueron victimas de los hominidos del pleistoceno tardio; y 2) que estas cuevas fueron ocupadas en diferentes momentos tanto por hominidos como por los 0505; permitiendo que la presencia de artefactos y restos aparezcan como temporalmente asociados, cuando en realidad no 10 estein. Esta ultima situaci6n, que ocurri6 poco frecuen-temente si en realidad ocurri6, puede ser abandonada en la mayorfa de los casas empleando crHerios de taphonomfa y datos sobre mortalidad de los osos. En cue-vas con multiples entradas podemos encontrar otra explicaci6n a la presencia de restos de osos y artefactos; particularmente en los casos donde una de las entradas es vertical y profunda en la cual el oso cae en una trampa natural. La contextu-lidad de los restos de oso representativos de este tipo de muerte accidental de-muestran caracterfsticas muy distintivas. Considerando la fisiologia y el compor-tamiento del oso negro de norte america (U alllericallos) este tipo de trampa revela patrones distintivos en la mortalidad de los osos. En este caso los datos de los reslos encontrados en cuevas con entradas verticales y horizontales pueden ser empleados para decifrar si los osos murieron por hibernaci6n natural, predaci6n
We describe a multivariate approach that reconstructs the taphonomic histories of zooarchaeological assemblages. The approach applies a sequence of zooarchaeological analyses to bone assemblages to determine the most significant agents of assemblage formation. By examining the differential survivorship of bones from subgroups within an assemblage, problems of equifinality in skeletal part studies can be overcome. The multivariate approach follows three primary analytical stages including: a) a descriptive stage that summarizes the representation of key taphonomic variables of each assemblage; b) an analytical stage that investigates the completeness and fragmentation of skeletal parts; and c) a comparative stage that evaluates taphonomic variation amongst subgroups within a zooarchaeological assemblage. In a case study of six Epipaleolithic assemblages from the southern Levant, the multivariate approach reveals that intensive bone processing by humans for marrow and possibly grease was the primary determinant of gazelle bone survivorship, while small game taxa experienced independent taphonomic histories.
This article addresses the taphonomic issues surrounding artifact-bear associations in Yarimburgaz Cave, northwestern Turkey. Our purpose is to evaluate the circumstances of bone assemblage formation in the Middle Pleistocene deposits of the cave, identifying the agencies responsible for the accumulations and the causes of bone damage before and following deposition. Pleistocene species representation, bone damage, body part representation, and mortality data indicate that cave bear remains in Yarimburgaz are unrelated to hominid use of the same site. None of the observations on the cave bear remains contradicts the expectations developed from modern wildlife accounts of modern bear behavior; these accumulations resulted from mortality normally associated with hibernation over many generations of den use. Nonursid carnivores also played roles in bone collection and/or modification. We conclude that at least three distinct biological processes contributed to the formation of the Middle Pleistocene faunas: hibernating bears, bone-collecting carnivores such as wolves, and hominids in descending order of importance. The Yarimburgaz faunas represent palimpsests or overlays of many short-term depositional events, the close spatial associations of which are explained by slow or uneven sedimentation rates inside the cave. Although occupations by hominids appear to have been ephemeral in nature, hominids ultimately discarded nearly 1700 stone artifacts in Yarimburgaz Cave. The hominids did not discard many ungulate bones in the same circumstances. These observations suggest that hominid foraging efforts focused on resources other than large game while at the cave. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
In the study of fragmented human remains the plausibility of a cannibalism hypothesis rests primarily on the correct identification of the cause of breakage. Here the use of fracture morphologies and fragmentation indices for distinguishing green from postdepositional bone breakage is assessed using three assemblages of human bone broken by unique and well known causes, i.e., marrow fracturing of green bone, sediment pressure and impact on subfossil bone. Of the tested attributes, five appear to have diagnostic value at the statistical, assemblage level: fracture outline, fracture angle, shaft circumference, shaft fragmentation and breadth/length ratios of shaft splinters.
Anthropology We present the results of a detailed taphonomic and zooarchaeological study of the faunal remains from the Upper Palaeolithic layers of Dzudzuana Cave, Republic of Georgia. This study presents the first carefully analysed Upper Palaeolithic faunal assemblage from the southern Caucasus and thus serves as a significant point of reference for inter-regional studies of Upper Palaeolithic subsistence in Eurasia. A series of intra-site taphonomic comparisons are employed to reconstruct the depositional history of the bone assemblages within the different occupational phases at the site and to investigate subsistence, meat procurement and bone-processing strategies. Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica), aurochs (Bos primigenius) and steppe bison (Bison priscus) were the major prey species throughout the Upper Palaeolithic. Their frequencies do not change significantly over time, and nor does bone preservation vary by layer. The assemblage is characterised by significant densitymediated biases, caused by both human bone-processing behaviours and in situ post-burial bone attrition. Bone marrow extraction produced large numbers of unidentified bone fragments, many exhibiting green bone fractures. The density and size of bone assemblages and the extent of fragmentation indicate that Dzudzuana Cave was repeatedly occupied by Upper Palaeolithic foragers over many years. Skeletal part representation and butchery marks from all stages of carcass processing suggest that prey occasionally underwent field butchery. Intra-site taphonomic comparisons highlight uniform patterns of cultural and economic behaviours related to food procurement and processing strategies.
Over the past several decades a variety of models have been proposed to explain perceived behavioral and cognitive differences between Neanderthals and modern humans. A key element in many of these models and one often used as a proxy for behavioral "modernity" is the frequency and nature of hunting among Palaeolithic populations. Here new archaeological data from Ortvale Klde, a late Middle-early Upper Palaeolithic rockshelter in the Georgian Republic, are considered, and zooarchaeological methods are applied to the study of faunal acquisition patterns to test whether they changed significantly from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic. The analyses demonstrate that Neanderthals and modern humans practiced largely identical hunting tactics and that the two populations were equally and independently capable of acquiring and exploiting critical biogeographical information pertaining to resource availability and animal behavior. Like lithic techno-typological traditions, hunting behaviors are poor proxies for major behavioral differences between Neanderthals and modern humans, a conclusion that has important implications for debates surrounding the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition and what features constitute "modern" behavior. The proposition is advanced that developments in the social realm of Upper Palaeolithic societies allowed the replacement of Neanderthals in the Caucasus with little temporal or spatial overlap and that this process was widespread beyond traditional topographic and biogeographical barriers to Neanderthal mobility.
Bear bones and Paleolithic stone artefacts often co-occur in Pleistocene cave deposits of Eurasia, raising the question of how these associations come about and the need for effective methods with which to obtain a clear answer. Building upon knowledge of modern bears, I present a method for testing two competing hypotheses about the causes of bear mortality in hibernation contexts. The first hypothesis proposes that age-dependent deaths resulted from non-violent causes (principally starvation), implying that bears' presence in a cave was not linked in time to human activities there. The second hypothesis proposes that random bear deaths in caves resulted from hunting by humans or other large predators, implying a temporal link between them; the expectation of a nonselective age pattern in this circumstance arises from the fact that the individual characters of hibernating bears are hidden from predators. Three elements of the method and its development are presented: (1) a brief review of the biological bases of hibernation-related mortality in modern Ursus, its paleontological consequences, and test expectations drawn therefrom; (2) a detailed, illustrated technique for age-scoring isolated bear cheek teeth based on tooth eruption-wear sequences, developed primarily for cave and brown bears; and, (3) a simple, accurate way to evaluate real cases in terms of contrasting mortality models. The final step is demonstrated by application to a Middle Pleistocene cave bear assemblage (Ursus deningeri) from Yarimburgaz Cave in Turkey, a large collection found in general stratigraphic association with Paleolithic artefacts. The advantages of the method include its ability to (a) handle small samples, (b) use isolated tooth specimens, and (c) evaluate cases simultaneously in terms of idealized age structure models and the variation that normally is associated with each under natural conditions. While the more obvious benefit of bear mortality analysis may be to research on ancient bear demography, the principles and procedures offered here are equally pertinent to archaeological studies of carnivore-mediated formation processes in cave sites. As is generally true in taphonomic research, however, bear mortality patterns are most effective when used in combination with independent lines of evidence to address questions about assemblage formation.
Bones of recent mammals in the Amboseli Basin, southern Kenya, exhibit distinctive weathering characteristics that can be related to the time since death and to the local conditions of temperature, humidity and soil chemistry. A categorization of weathering characteristics into six stages, recognizable on descriptive criteria, provides a basis for investigation of weathering rates and processes. The time necessary to achieve each successive weathering stage has been calibrated using known-age carcasses. Most bones decompose beyond recognition in 10 to 15 yr. Bones of animals under 100 kg and juveniles appear to weather more rapidly than bones of large animals or adults. Small-scale rather than widespread environmental factors seem to have greatest influence on weathering characteristics and rates. Bone weathering is potentially valuable as evidence for the period of time represented in recent or fossil bone assemblages, including those on archeological sites, and may also be an important tool in censusing populations of animals in modern ecosystems.
Knowledge of the Levantine Epipaleolithic period plays a critical role in understanding the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer foraging groups to sedentary communities on the threshold of agriculture. In this study, Bar-Oz has clarified many aspects of the relationship between Epipaleolithic foragers and their prey. The Epipaleolithic foragers all utilized similar hunting methods, as evidenced by culling patterns they used for gazelle and fallow deer. Multivariate inter-site zooarchaeological and taphonomic research from a single geographical area and ecological setting (the coastal plain of Israel) provides important records of the Epipaleolithic cultural sequence. A wide variety of data highlights uniform patterns of cultural and economic behaviors related to food procurement and processing strategies and demonstrates cultural continuity in subsistence strategies within the Levantine Epipaleolithic sequence.
Mary Stiner uses ecological niche theory to analyze and interpret several Middle Paleolithic archaeological and paleontological sites in southern Europe. Her concern is with how the hunting, scavenging, and foraging behavior of Neandertals compared and contrasted with the subsistence behavior of other large predators living in the region at the time - lions, hyenas, and wolves, for example - and with how Neandertal subsistence behavior related to the behavior of the anatomically modern humans who subsequently came to dominate the area in the Upper Paleolithic. Her conclusion, very broadly stated, is that Neandertals entered the Middle Paleolithic in direct and successful competition with lions, hyenas, and wolves, but ended the period in direct and ultimately unsuccessful competition for the ecological niche that we came to occupy with our slightly more advanced technology and slightly more sophisticated ambush hunting strategies and techniques
In recent years archaeologists and paleontologists have become increasingly interested in how and why vertebrate animal remains become, or do not become, fossils. Vertebrate Taphonomy introduces interested researchers to the wealth of analytical techniques developed by archaeologists and paleontologists to help them understand why prehistoric animal remains do or do not preserve, and why those that preserve appear the way they do. This book is comprehensive in scope, and will serve as an important work of reference for years to come.
\textless}p{\textgreater}{\textless}br/{\textgreater}A} pair of mandibular rami from a brown bear {(Ursus} {arctosL.)} was found at the rock shelter of the {Grande-Rivoire} in the Castelnovian level. Both exhibit a peculiar deformation affecting the bone between the first and second molars and the roots of these {teeth.{\textless}br/{\textgreater}The} perfect symmetry of this deformation, the absence of pathological features, and the misplacement of the teeth suggest that a thong had been placed around the mandible while the animal was young; the mandible then grew around the {thong.{\textless}br/{\textgreater}The} interest of this find is that it both demonstrates the taming of a bear and the complexity of the relationships between humans and animals during the late Mesolithic.{\textless}/p{\textgreater
Reported here are the results of a mortality analysis of an Ursus spelaeus death assemblage from Grotta Lattaia, southern Tuscany (central Italy), excavated in 1939. The Grotta Lattaia cave bears are among the latest representatives of the species. The large amount of cave bear remains indicates that the cavern was a lair for hibernating bears which repeatedly, but not necessarily yearly, occupied it. The mortality evidence indicates that deaths occurred primarily during hibernation from violent predation, and, therefore, that the bears had direct interaction with other carnivores. However, no sign of interrelation with humans could be found, even though Middle Paleolithic human remains and tools had been recovered associated with the bear material. Grotta Lattaia can be thus considered an example of cumulative, non-human-caused violent deaths in a hibernation context.
1. At the end of the Last Glacial Maximum brown bears Ursus arctos recolonized the glacial landscape of Central and Northern Europe faster than all other carnivorous mammal species of the Holocene fauna. Ursus arctos was recorded in Northern Europe from the beginning of the Late-Glacial. The recolonization of northern Central Europe may have taken place directly after the maximum glaciation. The distribution of the brown bear was restricted to glacial refugia only during the Last Glacial Maximum, for probably no more than 10 000 years.
2. Genetic analyses have suggested three glacial refugia for the brown bear: the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian Peninsula and the Balkans. Subfossil records of Ursus arctos from north-western Moldova as well as reconstructed environmental conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum in this area suggest to us a fourth glacial refuge for the brown bear. Because of its connection to the Carpathians, we designate this as the ‘Carpathian refuge’.
3. Due to the low genetic distance between brown bears of northern Norway, Finland, Estonia, north-eastern Russia and the northern Carpathians (the so-called eastern lineage), the Carpathians were considered the geographical origin of the recolonization of these regions. During the recolonization of northern Europe the brown bear probably reached these areas rapidly from the putative Carpathian refuge.
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 14C yr BP, and the earliest evidence for human presence is around 12 300 14C 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 14C 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 14C yr BP, whilst that from Kinsey Cave is dominated by large-bodied carnivores, and is argued to have a quite different taphonomic history. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The exploitation of large mammals, particularly large herbivores, has dominated perceptions of Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic subsistence behaviour in north-western Europe. This paper critically reviews the evidence for the exploitation of a complementary resource which has received little attention within the archaeological literature — carnivores and other fur-bearing mammals. Evidence for exploitation of individual species is described and discussed. A model is then developed to explain the apparent expansion of the subsistence base to include a wide range of fur-bearing mammals during the Lateglacial and Mesolithic. This paper concludes by arguing that although the use of carnivore meat and pelts cannot be viewed as a dominant trend in European hunter-gatherer subsistence practices, their contribution to hunter-gatherer economies cannot be ignored.
Post-depositional processes have affected most archaeozoological assemblages, often causing fragmentation or destruction of bone which can vary by assemblage and hamper interpretations of the original element representation (Klein & Cruz-Uribe, 1984, The Analysis of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.). Prior to performing interassemblage comparisons analysts must first assess the post-depositional destruction for each assemblage. Hammerstone breakage and hyaena ravaging experiments show that compact bones (carpals, tarsals, fibulae) are rarely fragmented, therefore fragmentation of these bones in archaeozoological assemblages should be the result of post-depositional destruction. A “Completeness Index” for compact bones provides a description of the magnitude of post-depositional destruction because the “Completeness Index” is independent of differential fragmentation and transport by bone collectors, and quantification variation between researchers. The efficacy of the “Completeness Index” for showing varing completeness of archaeological bone is demonstrated by comparing two Late Pleistocene archaeological sites in Kenya. When guided by experimental results the “Completeness Index” allows an evaluation of the impact of post-depositional destruction on the two Kenyan assemblages. Published archaeozoological reports must provide a measure of post-depositional destruction or else the usefulness of the data for comparative analysis is compromised.
The results of a detailed zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of two faunal assemblages from Hefzibah (HEF), a major Geometric Kebaran open-air site on the central coastal plain of Israel were compared with two other assemblages from the same general period, site type, and geographic region using multivariate taphonomic analyses. A comprehensive analysis of taphonomic evidence for each assemblage based on the comparison of 28 taphonomic variables points to a preservational bias that accounts for the apparent economic differences found in one of the four Epipalaeolithic assemblages. Preservational indices, surface modification, bone density, and bone fragmentation indicate that inter-assemblage differences are related to post-depositional processes. These processes account for marked differences in species diversity, the percentage of juveniles, and the proportion of small game. The marked difference in preservation highlights the potential role of taphonomic biases in producing overt patterns that bear no real cultural or economic significance in zooarchaeological assemblages. High similarity in the length of fresh percussion fractures, the ratio and distribution of butchery marks, and prey body part representation suggest analogous traditions of food transport, preparation, and processing.
In growing numbers, archeologists are specializing in the analysis of excavated animal bones as clues to the environment and behavior of ancient peoples. This pathbreaking work provides a detailed discussion of the outstanding issues and methods of bone studies that will interest zooarcheologists as well as paleontologists who focus on reconstructing ecologies from bones. Because large samples of bones from archeological sites require tedious and time-consuming analysis, the authors also offer a set of computer programs that will greatly simplify the bone specialist's job. After setting forth the interpretive framework that governs their use of numbers in faunal analysis, Richard G. Klein and Kathryn Cruz-Uribe survey various measures of taxonomic abundance, review methods for estimating the sex and age composition of a fossil species sample, and then give examples to show how these measures and sex/age profiles can provide useful information about the past. In the second part of their book, the authors present the computer programs used to calculate and analyze each numerical measure or count discussed in the earlier chapters. These elegant and original programs, written in BASIC, can easily be used by anyone with a microcomputer or with access to large mainframe computers.
Archaeologists have always viewed the origin of figurative art as a crucial threshold in human evolution. Here I report the discovery of three figurines carved from mammoth ivory at Hohle Fels Cave in the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany, which provides new evidence for the appearance of figurative art more than 30,000 years ago. The finds include the oldest known representation of a bird, a therianthropic sculpture and an animal that most closely resembles a horse. The Aurignacian sculptures of the Swabian Jura belong to one of the oldest traditions of figurative art known worldwide and point to the Upper Danube as an important centre of cultural innovation during the early Upper Palaeolithic period.
Ursid mortality data have long been used to evaluate associations between cave-bear remains (Ursus deningeri and U. spelaeus) and hominin (Homo sp.) remains. Typically, such ursid assemblages produce mortality patterns that indicate that juvenile and old bears died during hibernation, a pattern that is used to suggest that humans and bears occupied the same caves at different times. However, a different kind of mortality pattern can also be used to suggest human influence on cave bears, particularly under circumstances when bears and humans compete for habitat. In particular, data from Lawson Cave and Jerry Long Cave, Missouri indicate that young-adult North American black bears (Ursus americanus) are prone to capture in natural-trap caves. Similar faunal data from Sima de los Huesos in Spain, where cave-bear and hominin remains are found in the same deposit, might also suggest that the bears died from falling into a natural trap. It is concluded that mortality analysis of ursid remains from caves is a useful tool with which to evaluate accumulation histories of cave deposits and relations between humans, artifacts, and cave-bear remains. In particular, ursid mortality data are relevant to the Kurtén Response, a hypothesis reiterated in the recent literature that implicates human encroachment on ursid habitat (e.g., cave den sites) as a potential cause in cave-bear extinction.
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