Mammoth hunting strategies during the Late Gravettian in Central Europe as determined from case studies of Milovice I (Czech Republic) and Kraków Spadzista (Poland) (original) (raw)
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Quaternary Science Reviews, 2019
The oldest unequivocal evidence of mammoth hunting in prehistoric Central Europe has been found in the Gravettian archaeological site Krak ow Spadzista (Poland). The site contains thousands of lithic artifacts and the remains of >100 woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), with radiocarbon dates clustering~25e24 ka uncal BP. A fragment of a flint shouldered point is embedded in a mammoth rib, and more than 50% of the site's flint shouldered points and backed blades bear diagnostic traces of hafting and impact damage from use as spear tips. Additional support for mammoth killing is the mortality profile of 112 mammoths from the site: some age groups may have been depleted due to recurring heavy hunting by humans during periods of environmental stress. The evidence for intensive human hunting could portend a development thousands of years later, at the end of the Pleistocene, when climate-caused habitat changes were more extreme, and, in combination with opportunistic human hunting, may have led to woolly mammoth extinction.
Quaternary International, 2005
The lowlands of Lower Austria–Moravia–South Poland form an important natural corridor in Central Europe, allowing migrations of both animals and humans between the Danube valley and the North European Plain. The paper examines the relationship between mammoth bone deposits and Gravettian settlements along this corridor, basing on contextual archaeological evidence in general, and on zooarchaeological analyses of the individual sites: Dolnı́ Věstonice I–II, Milovice G, and Kraków Spadzista Street (B).Mammoth bone accumulations from these areas can be interpreted as butchery places on the death locations (as in Milovice G) and as butchery places on death/hunting site (as in Kraków Spadzista Street (B)). At these sites, Gravettian people may have seasonally gathered, taking advantage of landscape geomorphology and marshy conditions to organize collective mammoth hunts. The long-term occupations, as recorded at the Moravian sites with their exceptional archaeological evidence, support this idea. The mammoth-dominated sites probably result from specialized mammoth hunts as well as from other means of exploitation of these animals during peculiar environmental stresses, both seasonal (e.g., the palaeoecological changes during the end spring thawing period), and long-term in nature (the declining features of the mammoth population, as shown in Kraków Spadzista Street (B)).
Spatial organization of the Gravettian mammoth hunters site at Krakow Spadzista (southern Poland)
One of the largest and best known sites of the Central European Gravettian is the Kraków Spadzista site. This article summarizes archaeological, palaeontological, and zooarchaeological data from the site, obtained in the course of more than 40 years of excavations and studies. The site is known mainly from the discovery of the large mammoth bone accumulation in trench B. During field work conducted in a few trenches located close to this assemblage, numerous human artifacts and faunal remains were found. On the basis of analyses of lithic materials, faunal remains, and radiometric data it is concluded that the Krakow Spadzista site was frequently re-occupied during a few weeks or months, by groups of Gravettian hunters in the period 24e22,000 rcyBP This short-term camp site was related to mammoth hunting. The analysis allowed identification of three possible activity zones, characterized by the presence of different groups of flint tools, fireplaces, and different faunal assemblages: a camp area, a lithic workshop, and an animal-processing area, besides the well known accumulation of mammoth bones.
This article presents the results of use-wear analysis of the backed implements (shouldered points and backed blades) discovered at Krak ow Spadzista, trench B þ B1. Of the 197 examined tools, 113 specimens (55%) bear traces of use. In this group, 55 artefacts show a complete set of clear, characteristic impact traces and could be interpreted as the flint parts of thrown weapons. They were used in mammoth hunting at the Krak ow Spadzista site 24 thousand years ago. The hafting method can be identified on the basis of the direction of linear traces and impact negatives. Most of these artefacts were placed at the top of wooden or bone shaft. Only single specimens were attached laterally.
Possible evidence of mammoth hunting during the Epigravettian at Yudinovo
2008
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a b s t r a c t Preliminary results are presented from the studies of a newly found Paleolithic site e Valea Morilor (Chiş in au, Republic of Moldova). The excavations produced unquestionable evidence of mammoth hunting (Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach, 1799). Excavations of 2009e2010 opened an area of 1264 m 2 . Three radiocarbon datings ( 14 C) of the fragments of fossil bones of mammots performed in the Gröningen University gave very similar results: in the excavation sector Nr.1 -20770 AE 90 BP (GrA-46004;Obad a and van der Plicht, 2010); the sector Nr.2 -20570 AE 80 BP (GrA-52424); and the sector Nr.3 -20560 AE 80 BP (GrA-52425). Faunal remains are represented by more than 550 mammoth bones (belonging to at least 6 animals), as well as bones of bison (Bison priscus Bojanus, 1827), small mammals [Ochotona pusilla?; Spalax zemni Erxleben, 1777; Lagurus lagurus (Pallas, 1773)] and terrestrial molluscs Helicopsis striata (Mull.), Pupilla muscorum (L.), Vallonia pulchella (Mull.), and Succinea oblonga (Drap.).