Middle Paleolithic Tortoise Use at Kebara Cave (Israel) |
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| Institution: | 1. Museum of Anthropology, 4009 Museums Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079, U.S.A.;2. Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel;1. Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Paseo Sierra de Atapuerca 3, 09002 Burgos, Spain;2. Àrea de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain;3. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, C/ Marcel.lí Domingo s/n – Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain;4. Area of Neogene and Quaternary Faunas, Institut Català de Paleontologia, Campus de la UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain;5. The Gibraltar Museum, 18-20 Bomb House Lane, P. O. Box 939, Gibraltar;6. Institute of Life and Earth Sciences, University of Gibraltar, Gibraltar;1. Department of Palaeoanthropology and Messel Research, Senckenberg Research Institute, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany;2. Senckenberg Research Station of Quaternary Palaeontology, Am Jakobskirchhof 4, 99423 Weimar, Germany;3. Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel;1. The Gibraltar Museum, 18-20 Bomb House Lane, PO Box 939, Gibraltar;2. Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain;3. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, C/Marcel.lí Domingo s/n-Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain;4. Department of Archaeology, Tel-Aviv University, Institute of Archaeology, POB 39040, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel;1. Department of Anthropology, Unit 1176, 354 Mansfield Road, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA;2. Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, Performance Audits Division, 270 Washington St., SW, Ste. 1-156, Atlanta, 30334, Georgia;3. Institute of Archaeology, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan;4. Department of Anthropology, Penn Museum, 3260 South Street, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA;1. CNRS UMR 5608 TRACES, Univ. Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, Maison de la Recherche, 5 allées A. Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France;2. Trent University, Department of Anthropology, DNA Bldg Block C, 2140 East Bank Drive, Peterborough, Ontario K9J 7B8, Canada;3. CNRS UMR 5199 PACEA, Univ. Bordeaux, bâtiment B8, allée Geoffroy St-Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France |
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| Abstract: | Kebara's Neanderthal inhabitants used spur-thighed tortoises (Testudo graeca) for food and perhaps also for containers. Tortoise mean body size appears to track major paleoclimatic fluctuations documented in the oxygen-isotope record of Soreq Cave (Israel), with larger means during warmer-moister periods and smaller means during colder-drier periods. Body size also tracks site function, with larger means during periods of ephemeral site use. And body size tracks site seasonality, with larger means during warm-season occupations, when tortoises would have been least active. Body size declined sharply toward the end of the Middle Paleolithic, perhaps reflecting a pulse in human population growth that increased the level of predation pressure on these creatures. This conclusion must be regarded with caution, however, because Kebara's early Upper Paleolithic (Ahmarian) occupations were very ephemeral, and therefore should not have impacted local tortoise populations as heavily as the body-size reduction would imply. |
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