Evidence of diverse animal exploitation during the Middle Paleolithic at Ghar-e Boof (southern Zagros).

ABSTRACT: Although Middle Paleolithic (MP) hominin diets consisted mainly of ungulates, increasing evidence demonstrates that hominins at least occasionally consumed tortoises, birds, leporids, fish, and carnivores. Until now, the MP zooarchaeological record in the Zagros Mountains has been almost exclusively restricted to ungulates. The narrow range of hominin prey may reflect socioeconomic decisions and/or environmental constraints, but could also result from a research bias favoring the study of large prey, since archaeologists have undertaken no systematic taphonomic analyses of small game or carnivores in the region. Here, we report on the first comprehensive taphonomic analysis of an MP faunal assemblage from Ghar-e Boof (∼ 81-45 kyr), a Late Pleistocene site in the southern Zagros of Iran. An

SUBMITTER: Mata-Gonzalez M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10624823 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature