A noble diet at the Hof van Leugenhaeghe (Steendorp, Belgium) : pig skulls as a fourteenth-fifteenth century delicacy?

The animal remains found at the fourteenth-fifteenth century Hof van Leugenhaeghe are crucial to reconstruct the life of the noble inhabitants, as all buildings were destroyed with the construction of a later estate on the property called the Blauwhof. The diet confirms the high social status of this nobility with the suspected consumption of pig skulls, a possible sign of wealth in late-medieval Flanders. Other signs of a noble diet are found as well: juvenile cattle, a diverse spectrum of game, partridge and grey heron. The observed pattern of a wealthy diet is consistent with the zooarchaeological assemblages found at other noble sites in late-medieval Flanders

First direct evidence of lion hunting and the early use of a lion pelt by Neanderthals

During the Upper Paleolithic, lions become an important theme in Paleolithic art and are more frequent in anthropogenic faunal assemblages. However, the relationship between hominins and lions in earlier periods is poorly known and primarily interpreted as interspecies competition. Here we present new evidence for Neanderthal-cave lion interactions during the Middle Paleolithic. We report new evidence of hunting lesions on the 48,000 old cave lion skeleton found at Siegsdorf (Germany) that attest to the earliest direct instance of a large predator kill in human history. A comparative analysis of a partial puncture to a rib suggests that the fatal stab was delivered with a wooden thrusting spear. We also present the discovery of distal lion phalanges at least 190,000 old from Einhornhöhle (Germany), representing the earliest example of the use of cave lion skin by Neanderthals in Central Europe. Our study provides novel evidence on a new dimension of Neanderthal behavioral complexity

Trends in Subsistence from the Middle Paleolithic through Mesolithic at Klissoura Cave 1 (Peloponnese, Greece)

This study presents an analysis of the zooarchaeological remains from Klissoura Cave 1, a Middle Paleolithic through Mesolithic site in Peloponnese, Greece. Changes in subsistence patterns are evaluated across a long sequence (ca. 80,000-10,000 BP) against a backdrop of environmental change. Results are interpreted using models from evolutionary ecology, specifically prey choice, central place foraging, and patch choice models. Two major trends are apparent in the series. One is a decline in the exploitation of high-ranked ungulate species with an overall increase in lower-ranked small game animals. The second is an increase in low-ranked small, fast-fast moving animals (e.g., hares and partridges) at the expense of higher-ranked small, slow-moving animals (e.g., tortoises). These changes cannot be accounted for by environmental shifts alone, though shifts in ungulate diversity likely track the expansion and contraction of plant communities. The increase in use of low-ranked prey indicates human population growth and demographic pressure in southern Greece during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. In addition to these overarching trends, there are changes in site use during the sequence. In the Middle Paleolithic, foragers used Klissoura Cave 1 more during the winter and overwhelmingly hunted prime-aged adult animals, maternal herds of fallow deer in particular. In the Upper Paleolithic and later periods, the site continued to be used during the winter, in addition to other times of year, but the mortality profiles reflect a natural fallow deer herd structure. There was an intense period of occupation during the Aurignacian period. This is evidenced by numerous clay-lined hearth features, a possible rock-lined structure, and increases in ornaments, as well as abundant lithic and faunal materials. The ungulate faunas are particularly rich during this period, but there is evidence of resource intensification based on increased bone marrow processing and the transport of marrow-rich elements to the site. After this period there was a gradual decline in site use through the end of the Upper Paleolithic and into the Mesolithic, though the exploitation of low-ranked resources (e.g., small, fast-moving game) indicates that populations were on the rise in there region as a whole

Intensification of small game resources at Klissoura Cave 1 (Peloponnese, Greece) from the Middle Paleolithic to Mesolithic

In many parts of the Mediterranean Basin, resource intensification occurred across the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, and again before the beginning of the Mesolithic. Central to understanding resource intensification is distinguishing human demographic pressures from environmental factors. This paper examines the intensification of vertebrate resources at Klissoura Cave 1 in the Peloponnese, Greece, from marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 5a until the early Holocene (from about 80,000 to 10,000 years ago) against the backdrop of changing environments. Occasional fluctuations in large game resources, as well as changing proportions of certain small game (e.g. great bustard) correlate to environmental shifts in the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Pleistocene. Prey choice models are used to understand human demographic pressures and resource intensification. Small game animals are ranked according to these models, with slow-moving species (e.g. tortoises) classified as higher-ranking and fast-moving species (e.g. hares and birds) categorized as low-ranking. Two major shifts are apparent in the sequence. The first is an overall increase in the use of small game animals in the Upper Paleolithic and later diets as compared to ungulate prey. The second is a decrease in higher-ranked small game and a corresponding increase in low-ranked small game animals. These trends are evident using either number of identified specimen (NISP) counts or proxy measures of prey biomass. An application of diversity indices indicates that there is no temporal trend in prey evenness, though fluctuations in evenness values have different meanings for ungulate and small-bodied prey. An increase in evenness of ungulate species typically correlates with climatic amelioration. Increasing evenness values for small game animals, however, are related to environmental factors in some instances, and changes in human exploitation patterns in other cases