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Palaeoenvironmental and seasonal context of the Late Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic occupations in Crimea: an approach using dental wear patterns in ungulates

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Abstract

The Crimean Peninsula has a rich archaeological record characterised by numerous multi-layered sites from the Middle Palaeolithic and by a number of important sites representing the transition from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic. Absolute dates place the region as one of the last Neanderthal refuges in Europe. Combining dental meso- and microwear analyses of worn molars found at faunal assemblages from different sites across Crimea, we can characterise the feeding habits of ungulates at different scales in their lifetime. The proxy data resulting from these analyses provide evidence not only on diet but also on (1) the habitat where fauna were hunted and (2) the duration of the events of human occupation in each archaeological level. For this palaeoecological reconstruction, we analysed three sites: Kabazi II and Chokurcha I from the Middle Palaeolithic and Siuren I from the Early Upper Palaeolithic. We focused particularly on the repeated Neanderthal subsistence pattern observed at Kabazi II throughout the sequence (around 80 to 48 ky). Analyses revealed that Equus hydruntinus (wild ass) was feeding on abrasive grasses, suggesting it was occupying open habitats, while Saiga tatarica (saiga antelope) was mixed feeding and probably consuming significant amounts of browse and lichens in relatively open habitats. Furthermore, variability in microwear signalled short seasonal occupations for all assemblages. During the Middle Palaeolithic and the early Upper Palaeolithic, these sites were occupied during the warm season.

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Funding

The research of FR and IRP is supported by projects 2017 SGR 836 from the Generalitat de Catalunya, project HAR2016-76760-C3-1-P and PID2019-103987GB-C31 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and the CERCA Program/Generalitat de Catalunya. The sampling of teeth from the Crimean sites of Kabazi II, Siuren I and Chokurcha I at Institut de Paléontologie Humaine of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) in Paris was funded by a grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) ‘The dispersal of modern humans into an Eastern European refugial area of late Neanderthals: interdisciplinary studies of contemporaneous industries from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Crimea (Ukraine)’ (UT 41/2-1) given to Thorsten Uthmeier. The sampling of extant saiga specimens at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna was supported by the European Commission’s Research Infrastructure Action via the SYNTHESYS Project AT-TAF-4385 to FR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Iván Ramírez-Pedraza & Florent Rivals

  2. Departament d’Història i Història de l’Art, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain

    Iván Ramírez-Pedraza & Florent Rivals

  3. ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010, Barcelona, Spain

    Florent Rivals

  4. Institute für Prehistory and Protohistory, Department of Classical World and Asian Cultures, Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Kochtsrasse 4, 91054, Erlangen, Germany

    Thorsten Uthmeier

  5. National Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology, Heroiv Stalingrada avenue 12, Kyiv, 04210, Ukraine

    Victor Chabai

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  1. Iván Ramírez-Pedraza
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Ramírez-Pedraza, I., Rivals, F., Uthmeier, T. et al. Palaeoenvironmental and seasonal context of the Late Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic occupations in Crimea: an approach using dental wear patterns in ungulates. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 12, 268 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01217-9

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