Late Pleistocene Crocuta crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss, 1823) clans as prezewalski horse hunters and woolly rhinoceros scavengers at the open air commuting den and contemporary Neanderthal camp site Westeregeln (central Germany)

• Published in: Journal of archaeological science 2012-06, Vol.39 (6), p.1749-1767
• Main Author: Diedrich, C.G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bone accumulation; Central Germany (Europe); Crocuta crocuta spelaea; Early/middle late Pleistocene; Environmental studies; Europe; Fauna; Hyena palaeoecology; Methodology and general studies; North West Europe; Open air gypsum karst commuting den; Overlapping Neanderthal camp site; Palaeolithic and mesolithic; Prehistory and protohistory
• ISSN: 0305-4403; 1095-9238
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2012.01.013

Late Pleistocene Ice Age Crocuta crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss, 1823) hyenas from the open-air gypsum karst site Westeregeln (Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany) is dated into the early to middle Late Pleistocene. Hyena clans apparently used the karst for food storage and as “commuting den”, where typical high amounts (15% of the NISP) of hyena remains appear, also faecal pellets in concentrations for den marking purposes. Additionally small carnivores Meles, Vulpes and Mustela appear to have used some cavities as dens. Several hundreds of lowland “mammoth steppe fauna” bones (NISP = 572) must have been accumulated primarily by hyenas, and not by Neanderthals at the contemporary hyena/human camp site. Abundant caballoid horse remains of “E. germanicusNehring, (1884)” are revised by the holotype and original material to the small E. c. przewalskii horse. Woolly rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis remains are also abundant, and were left in several cases with typical hyena scavenging damages. Rangifer tarandus (11%) is mainly represented by numerous fragments of shed female antlers that were apparently gathered by humans, and antler bases from male animals that were collected and chewed in few cases (only large male antlers) by hyenas. The large quantities of small reindeer antlers must have been the result of collection by humans; their stratigraphic context is unclear but such large quantities most probably resulted from schamanic activities. The hyena site overlaps with a Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthal camp, as well as possibly with a later human Magdalénian site. ► An open air site hyena clan at Westeregeln gypsum karst in Germany. ► Doline fills with artefacts and bones within mammoth steppe lowland. ► Hyena prey bone assemblage with horse and rhinoceros dominance. ► Den marking by faecal pellets on different places at the commuting den. ► Contemporary Neanderthal camp site and bone assemblage distinguishing.