Neolithic and Bronze Age ungulate footprint-tracks of the Severn Estuary: Species,age, identification and the interpretation of husbandry practices

Ungulate footprint-tracks provide information regarding the species and age of animals. Combined with other datasets, this contributes to interpretation of seasonal husbandry patterns in the Severn Estuary, focusing on Bronze Age intertidal footprint-tracks at Redwick and Goldcliff East and the Late Neolithic site of Oldbury. Metric dimensions and morphology of modern contemporary ungulate footprint-tracks are used as analogues to help understand the species and age of prehistoric ungulates. Findings indicate that Dexter cattle and Soay sheep are metrically similar to British prehistoric ungulates. The prehistoric sites have a concentration of neonatal and juvenile individuals. Along with evidence provided by environmental data, faunal skeletal assemblages and lipid and isotopic analysis, this leads to the conclusion that the presence of younger animals and evidence at Brean Down for dairying is consistent with saltmarsh grazing activity in spring and summer.     

Paleoindian subsistence strategies and late Pleistocene paleoenvironments in the northeastern and southwestern United States: a tooth wear analysis

Paleoindians of North America entered a continent undergoing rapid climatic and environmental changes. This paper is a preliminary contribution toward obtaining a better picture regarding how climate and environmental change might have impacted the first settlers of North America. The Paleoindian sites we analyzed are, from the oldest to the youngest, Ingleside (Texas), Blackwater Draw Locality No. 1 (New Mexico), Hiscock Site (New York), and Plainview Quarry (Texas). Paleoenvironmental reconstruction involves identifying the dietary traits of ungulate species that might reflect the environmental conditions where they were living, and also where they might have been hunted by Paleoindians. Such an approach is realized through tooth microwear and mesowear analyses. Results indicate that a variety of food resources were available for the ungulates at these sites as well as the likely presence of mosaic environments around these sites which allowed Paleoindians to exploit resources in a large variety of habitats. The application of a method that allows for the estimation of the duration of occupation at archaeological sites reveals that results for Blackwater Draw and Hiscock Site indicate a long-term occupation of probably several months. However, during short events, Paleoindians were most likely hunting herds of horse and bison when these prey were available near the site. Results indicate that Plainview Quarry was likely used only for short-term occupations, with large game hunting focusing on bison. These patterns identified at the archeological sites studied are related to the fact that Paleoindians follow a high-technology forager model and frequently shifted their territory depending on the composition and distribution of the large mammal fauna.     

Stone age predation on large African bovids

Crown height measurements are used to establish age distributions for several species of larger bovids represented in faunal samples from the Middle Stone Age (earlier Upper Pleistocene) deposits of the Klasies River Mouth Caves and the Later Stone Age (later Upper Pleistocene/Holocene) deposits of Nelson Bay Cave, South Africa. There are no obvious differences between the sites in the age distributions of the species they share, but there are significant differences in age distributions among species. Two basic patterns are apparent. In the first, characterizing the blue antelope (Hippotragus leucophaeus), roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus), Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer), and giant buffalo (Pelorovis antiquus), the archaeological samples contain numerous very young animals and relatively few prime-age adults. At least in the buffalo samples, there is also a fair representation of old adults. In the second pattern, characterizing the bastard hartebeest (Damaliscus dorcas or D. niro) and especially of the eland (Taurotragus oryx), prime adults are far more prominent relative to younger and older age groups. The first pattern is similar to the natural pattern of attritional mortality that probably characterizes all healthy, stable populations of free-ranging large ungulates, while the second is more reminiscent of the age structure of live herds. The first pattern may reflect hunting focused on individual animals, particularly those whose age made them most vulnerable, while the second may reflect the susceptibility of certain species to driving, so that whole groups could be killed in traps in which differences in age had no meaning.