The Natufian economy at el-Wad Terrace with special reference to gazelle exploitation patterns |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel;2. Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel;1. Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan;2. Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresources in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China;3. Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan;1. Institut d’archéologie de l’Académie nationale des sciences d’Ukraine, avenue des Héros-de-Stalingrad 12, Kiev 04210, Ukraine;2. Université nationale Taras Chevtchenko de Kiev, rue Vladimirskaya 60, Kiev, Ukraine;1. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Interdisciplinary Studies, 2500 Campus Road, Hawaiʻi Hall 110, Honolulu, HI 96822, United States;2. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, 1910 East-West Road, Sherman 101, Honolulu, HI 96822, United States;3. University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science, 200 West Kāwili Street, Hilo, HI 96720, United States;1. Department of Anthropology, 354 Mansfield Rd., Unit 1176, University of Connecticut, CT 06269, USA;2. Institute of Archaeology, University of Jordan, Amman 28170, Jordan;3. Department of Anthropology, Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 3260 South St., Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA;1. Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near East Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel;2. Geological Survey of Israel, 32 Yeshayahu Leibowitz St., Jerusalem, Israel;3. Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology and D-REAMS Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel;4. Institute for Evolutionary Sciences of Montpellier, 34900, Montpellier, France;5. National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel;6. Evolutionary Studies Institute and School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;7. Department of Plant Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa;1. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun 248001, India;2. Department of Biology, Stanford University, California 94305, USA |
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| Abstract: | We carried out a detailed taphonomic and zooarchaeological analysis of the faunal remains from the new excavation of the Late Natufian layers of el-Wad Terrace. We focused on gazelle exploitation patterns and examined them within the context of the established Epipalaeolithic sequence from the coastal plain of Israel. Mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella) is the most heavily exploited species. The taphonomic history of the assemblage suggests minor loss of bones caused by post-depositional processes and indicates that bone destruction occurred during occupation. Cut marks from all stages of activities, absence of selective transport, and body part representation suggest that gazelle were butchered at the site. Analysis of gazelle sex composition shows male overrepresentation during the Natufian. Size trends show an increase of gazelle body-size during the Natufian in comparison to previous periods. The patterns of body-size increase show the same tendency in proximal and distal limb-bones. The trends in gazelle body-size from the Epipalaeolithic of the coastal plain do not demonstrate any sign of morphological dwarfism, increased variation, or allometric changes in the morphology of Natufian gazelles and thus do not support the previously suggested hypothesis of “proto-domestication”. |
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