What is the taphonomic agent responsible for the avian accumulation? An approach from the Middle and early Late Pleistocene assemblages from Payre and Abri des Pêcheurs (Ardèche, France)
Introduction
The study of bird bone remains and their implication in human behavior and subsistence strategies has often been tackled from a palaeoenvironmental perspective, largely because it is generally accepted that birds did not play an important role in the pre-Upper Paleolithic human diet. It has been mainly discussed with respect to caves and shelters, where the presence of bird remains can be associated with mammalian carnivores and/or raptors that commonly occupied these places. In general, anthropogenic activities on small prey remains are usually under-represented in the archaeological record because these could be consumed without using tools (Lyman, 1994, Laroulandie, 2001, Steadman et al., 2002). For this reason, other characteristics are needed to distinguish accumulations produced by hominids, as previously attempted (Bochenski et al., 1998, Bochenski et al., 1999, Laroulandie, 2001, Laroulandie, 2002, Laroulandie, 2005, Laroulandie et al., 2008); these include human tooth marks, patterns of breakage, and/or burning. Other valid criteria to identify the origin of avian remains can be the skeletal representation, as Mourer-Chauviré, 1979, Mourer-Chauviré, 1983, Vilette, 1983, Bramwell et al., 1987, and Díez Fernández-Lomana et al. (1995) pointed out. These authors argue that the abundance of some skeletal parts, such as coracoids, humeri, and femora, is related to human activity, while the predominance of tarsometatarsi and carpometacarpi is mainly associated with raptor accumulations. Even if these methods are relevant, they are subject to criticism and should be used with caution as additional proxies (e.g. Livingston, 1989, Laroulandie, 2010).
The presence of hominid processing marks on bird bones during the pre-Upper Paleolithic is still scarce, but cut marks have been documented in some localities, such as the Early Pleistocene sites of Sima del Elefante (Spain) (Huguet, 2007) and Dursunlu (Turkey) (Güleç et al., 1999) or those framed within the Middle Pleistocene such as Lazaret (France) (Lumley et al., 2004, Roger, 2004) and Bolomor Cave (Blasco and Fernández Peris, 2009, Blasco and Fernández Peris, 2012, Blasco et al., 2013). In later periods, avian processing can be found in Salzgitter-Lebenstedt in Germany (Gaudzinski-Windheuser and Niven, 2009), the French Mousterian sites of Pech de l'Aze I (Mourer-Chauviré, 1979, Soressi et al., 2008), Pech de l'Aze IV (Dibble et al., 2009), Mandrin Cave (Romandini et al., 2014), Combe-Grenal, and Les Fieux (Morin and Laroulandie, 2012), as well as at the Mousterian sites of Grotta di Fumane and Grotta del Rio Secco in Italy (Fiore et al., 2004, Peresani et al., 2011, Romandini et al., 2014), and Krapina in Croatia (Radovčić et al., 2015). Some of these localities attest to the exploitation of non-edible avian products, such as talons of raptors, which seem to have been used as ornamental elements. In addition, new results from Gibraltar sites (Finlayson et al., 2012, Blasco et al., 2014) also indicate the presence of cut marks on avian remains during the Mousterian, confirming that bird processing for feathers and consumption is not as strange as previously thought. Even though solid evidence supports avian consumption, its systematic acquisition is still debated.
In past years, archaeological sites such as Payre (Ardèche, France, MIS 8–5) took an active part in this discussion through analysis of lithic residue and use-wear, which show a processing of small fast prey (rabbits and birds) earlier than 125 ka (Hardy and Moncel, 2011). No further analyses on small prey specimens from this site have been carried out since to support this hypothesis. The present work attempts to present new data about bird processing in the cave, based on a taphonomic approach. In addition, an assemblage as a reference within the region is obtained by including the Middle Paleolithic site of Abri des Pêcheurs (Ardèche, France, MIS 5–3) in this study. At Abri des Pêcheurs, human activity is evident on larger fauna (Moncel et al., 2010), but, as in the case of Payre, bird remains still have not been studied from a taphonomic perspective. New analyses at both sites could provide further knowledge about hominid subsistence and diet within the region. In that sense, three main objectives were set out: 1) to detect what taphonomical agents act on the avian specimens; 2) to demonstrate whether birds were consumed by hominids at Payre; and 3) to establish processing patterns if anthropogenic consumption of birds is evident.
Section snippets
Payre
Payre is an archaeological site situated 25 km from Valence, on the right side of the Rhône River. It is part of an active karstic system located 60 m above the Payre River, at a confluence point with the Rhône Valley (Ardèche region, France). Its location results in a convergence of different environments, which makes it a strategic point for the exploitation of different ecosystems (Fig. 1). The sequence, which is 5 m thick and comprises eight archaeological levels, is in turn divided into
Payre
A total of 57 remains were recovered from the Payre site for all archaeological levels (Table 2). Levels A and D are the most abundant in terms of numbers of remains and in MNE (21 and 19 for each level, respectively), with sublevels Fb, Fc, Fd, and Gb being the lowest in NR and MNE (from 3 to 1 bones). At least four different family groups are represented, but Corvidae and Phasianidae stand out. Nonetheless, among non-identified specimens, medium-sized bones play an important role, surpassing
Discussion
The data obtained from the taphonomical study on bird bones at Payre and Abri des Pêcheurs indicate that hominids do not seem to play any significant part in these accumulations. The number of specimens is much lower at Payre than at Abri des Pêcheurs, but the remains share some common characteristics that allow us to link both avian accumulations. Firstly, an important number of anatomical elements are absent, especially those of the cranial and axial skeleton –only some beaks were recovered
Conclusions
Taphonomical analysis carried out on avian specimens from Payre and Abri des Pêcheurs shows visible absence of anthropogenic activity on birds. The assessment of anatomical representation, the level of fragmentation, and mechanical and digestive modifications pointed to a mixture of mammalian carnivore and nocturnal raptor accumulations at different intensities, depending on the level. Nevertheless, the scarcity of bird specimens recovered at Payre makes further assessment difficult. The
Acknowledgements
This work was carried out in the framework of the session entitled “Human-birds interactions during the Prehistory” from the XVII UISPP World Congress (Burgos, 1–7 September 2014).This research was supported by funding of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, project ref. HAR2013-48784-C3-1-P and CGL-BOS-2012-34717, and of the Generalitat de Catalunya-AGAUR, project ref. 2014 SGR 900. Anna Rufà has a predoctoral research fellow FPU by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture
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2020, Quaternary InternationalCitation Excerpt :In our case erosion traces are weak and do not allow a certain attribution; therefore we treated them as being “eroded probably digested". Descriptive terminology of damages and suggestions for analysis and interpretation are derived from the works of several researchers (Cassoli and Tagliacozzo, 1997a; Laroulandie, 2000, 2005; Fiore et al., 2004; Bochenski, 2005; Laroulandie et al., 2008; Peresani et al., 2011; Finlayson et al., 2012; Blasco et al., 2014 , Fernández-Jalvo and Andrews, 2016 and references therein; Fiore et al., 2016; Romandini et al., 2016; Rufa et al., 2016; Pedergnana and Blasco, 2016; Gala et al., 2018). Experimental tests have been carried out (Fiore, 2018) on a sample of present day bird bones six individuals of Helmeted Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris)and several individuals of chicken (Gallus gallus).