Hunting strategies in Late Pleistocene landscapes. Case of the Middle Danube Basin (original) (raw)

Landscape geomorphology, occurence of animal herds, and optimal hunting strategies are causaly related. This presentation combines patterns of the Late Pleistocene landscape in the Middle Danube basin (central Europe) with records of settlement archaeology and archaeozoology. Spatial distribution of various types of hunter´s sites (including the large mega-sites) and extensive mammoth bone deposits within the Dolní Věstonice-Pavlov area is correlated with the river valley geomorphology and used to address the hotly debated questions of Gravettian mammoth hunting and its efficiency. Location of a later site under the rock cliff at Stránská skála IV is presented as an example of Epigravettian horse hunting site. Finally, the paper examines some complex patterns engraved on mammoth tusks (Pavlov, Předmostí) as possible " field maps " , also related to optimal hunting strategies and planning. Correlating settlement and hunting strategies During the Würmian Interpleniglacial (MIS3), the " mammoth steppe " of North Eurasia with large game herds offered abundant meat, fat, bone and skin resources to the early modern hunters, given that they were skilled, armed and organised enough to reach them. Specifically, the Gravettian sites of central Europe follow larger rivers and concentrate at narrow passages or bottlenecks (" gates "), and at other places of strategic significance. Due to ongoing archaeological research, such strategy is documented at large sites within the Lower Austrian-Moravian geographic corridor (Willendorf, Krems, Dolní Věstonice-Pavlov, Předmostí, Petřkovice). Later during the LGM, the central parts of Europe changed to a narrow belt between the Fennoscandinavian and Alpine glaciers. We generally observe a retreat of the arboreal and shrubb cover, related to a retreat of the large glacial megafauna and the hunting population density. The small Epigravettian hunting site Stránská skála IV is presented here as an example of the changed adaptive patterns. The Gravettian/Pavlovian case Within the Gravettian " mosaic " of various hunting orientations and strategies in the individual parts of Europe, the central parts of the continent represent a special case – the Pavlovian (30-25 ky uncal BP). The intensity of occupation layers and richess of artifacts, large hearths and related dwelling structures, variability in seasonal occupation over the year, and time-consuming and delicate technologies (microliths, fine ivory carvings, textiles...) suggest a relative sedentism, or, at least, tethered nomadism at these sites. As a paradox, the strong cultural relationship among the sites along the Austrian-Moravian-Polish geomorphological corridor, long-distance lithic material importations and following animals herds along the rivers, suggest a mobility of this population at the same time. All in all, we reconstruct a flexible resource exploitation system over a larger territory providing material and nuriture supplies all through the year.