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Reconstructing Middle Palaeolithic subsistence strategies in the South of France
Author(s) -
Boyle Katherine V.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
international journal of osteoarchaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1099-1212
pISSN - 1047-482X
DOI - 10.1002/1099-1212(200009/10)10:5<336::aid-oa560>3.0.co;2-5
Subject(s) - mousterian , subsistence agriculture , neanderthal , archaeology , zooarchaeology , geography , natural (archaeology) , taphonomy , agriculture , cave
This paper considers some of the evidence for the subsistence strategies adopted by Neanderthal hunter‐gatherers in southern France between, approximately, 100 000 and 33 000 bp. It represents part of a larger scale project, which has considered land‐use patterning during the Middle Palaeolithic in the area under study, and describes a first attempt to reconstruct the natural ‘faunal resource profile’ of the area. This is then compared with the actual archaeological faunal data which we have available from Mousterian sites, such as Lazaret, Hortus, Les Canalettes and La Moula. Although much of the faunal data used in this study have been taken from published sources, the proposed approach shows that regional‐scale predictions may be made. These may be based upon ‘secondary’ data which relate well to site‐specific case studies based on detailed quantitative butchery and carcass management data, and which provide the essential cultural or palaeoeconomic, as well as palaeoecological setting. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.