Hares and rabbits at Regourdou (Montignac-sur-Vézère, Dordogne, France): paleontological and taphonomic study of two naturally-occurring accumulations of bones.

• Main Authors: Pelletier, Maxime, Royer, Aurélien, Holliday, Trenton, Maureille, Bruno
• Other Authors: Laboratoire méditerranéen de préhistoire Europe-Afrique (LAMPEA), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Ministère de la Culture (MC), Biogéosciences UMR 6282 Dijon (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Paléobiodiversité et Evolution (PALEVO), École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL), Departement of Anthropology, Tulane University, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg (WITS), De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Bordeaux (UB), ANR-11-IDEX-0001,Amidex,INITIATIVE D'EXCELLENCE AIX MARSEILLE UNIVERSITE(2011), ANR-10-IDEX-0003,IDEX BORDEAUX,Initiative d'excellence de l'Université de Bordeaux(2010)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2015
• Subjects: Taphonomy; Palaeontology; 2D geometric morphometry; Attritional mortality; Accidental mortality; Lepus timidus; Oryctolagus cuniculus; taphonomie; paléontologie; morphométrie géométrique 2D; mortalité attritionnelle; mortalité accidentelle; archeo; hist
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01265375

Since the end of the nineteenth century, a great deal of work studyingsubsistence patterns of prehistoric societies in Western Europe has been done. During the Middle Paleolithic, humanswere interested in small game, particularly the Leporidae, taxa that were abundant in their territories. However,distinguishing the exact nature of their origin in an archaeological site is not an easy task, given that numerous agentscould be responsible for their accumulation (i.e., natural mortality, acquisition by humans and/or other terrestrialcarnivores, or even nocturnal or diurnal raptors). In this contribution, we put forth a new taphonomic and paleontologicalstudy of the leporids of Regourdou, a Mousterian site that has yielded a Neandertal skeleton. This study suggests thatno predators were involved in the accumulation of the hare or rabbit remains, but rather that they are due to natural (accidental) mortality for the former, and natural (attritional) mortality for the latter. Specifically, the evidence suggests thatat one point in its history (for the hares), the cavity functioned as a natural pitfall trap, while for the rabbits it appears toshow the existence of a warren, which we interpret as having existed during the last occupation of the site during MIS 4or 3, before the end of the accumulation of sediments in the site. Morphological variation and body size of individuals alsoallows us to specify the order of paleoenvironmental changes since the site’s functional beginning, confirming theattribution of the inferior levels to the MIS 5 temperate period, and the upper levels to a more recent phase in MIS 4 or 3. 23 pages Depuis la fin du XIXe siècle, l’Europe occidentale a fait l’objet de très nombreux travaux pour étudier les modesde subsistance des sociétés préhistoriques. À partir du Paléolithique moyen, les Hommes vont alors s’intéresser au petitgibier, tels que les léporidés, taxons relativement abondants sur ce territoire. Or, distinguer l’origine de leur accumulationdans un site archéologique ne constitue ...