Exploring hominins and animals in the Swabian Jura: Study of the Paleolithic fauna from Hohlenstein-Stadel Dissertation der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) vorgelegt von Keiko Kitagawa aus Tokio/Japan Tübingen 2014 Tag der mündlichen Qualifikation: 27.02. 2014 Dekan: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Rosenstiel 1. Berichterstatter: Prof. Dr. Nicholas J. Conard 2. Berichterstatter: Prof. Dr. Mary C. Stiner Acknowledgements This dissertation has not been possible without the help of many, many people. My dissertation advisor, Dr. Nicholas J. Conard has been supportive from the beginning of my dissertation and provided opportunities to broaden my perspective and to delve into my research. I owe many thanks to Dr. Mary C. Stiner, who has been provided inspiration through her work as well as thoughtful comments and advices. Despite the fact that she is far from Tübingen, she has helped me tremendously. I would also like to give my thanks to Dr. Michael Bolus and Dr. Chris Miller. Their expertise on the Swabian Jura as well as their comments to my work has been insightful and helpful. I am very grateful for Kurt Wehrberger from Ulmer Museum, who has been supportive from the beginning of the dissertation and allowed me to have access to the material from the previous excavation as well as numerous references and resources. The analysis of the material from the excavation 2009-2011 has been not possible without the generous help and support from Dr. Joachim-Claus Kind and Thomas Beutelspacher from Denkmalpflege Baden-Württemberg as well as the crew at the excavation in Hohlenstein-Stadel. I would also like to thank Dr. Gamble, who kindly gave me information on his previous work. Also, I am truly grateful for Diane Kerns for her quick and efficient editing. I would like to thank many people at the Institute. First and foremost, Susanne Münzel who has been very generous in sharing her time and teaching me a lot in this field (as well as German) and for her collaboration – thank you very much. Petra Krönneck has helped me identifying the bird remains and I would like to thank her for being a great officemate. Can Gündem has been given me thoughtful insights and advises. He was also very generous in taking his time to read and comment on my work. Thank you so much. I also owe many thanks to Marie-Anne Julien, Farnaz Boroushaki, Britt Starkovich, Maria Malina, Ximena Villagran, Hugo Reyes-Centeno and Miguel Prieto-Valle. Also, I have not listed out all the people in the Department of Archaeological Sciences and Prehistory who have been great companions and coworkers. I am truly grateful. I would also like to thank many from my previous university. Dr. Lawrence G. Straus inspired me to work in the field of Paleolithic archaeology and zooarchaeology class taught by Dr. Donald Grayson has formed a fundamental basis of my work. Thank you. Also, I truly appreciate the kind help and inspiration I received from Dr. Ann Ramenofsky and Dr. Frances Hayashida. My dissertation was supported partially by funding from DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) as well as generous help from the UNESCO group and Denkmalpflege Baden-Württemberg. Lastly, I would like to dedicate this work to my family- my mother, my sister and especially my father, who made everything in my life possible and are always by my side. Thank you. i Table of Contents Summary xiii Zusammenfassung xv Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Neanderthals and modern humans 1 Interaction of animals and humans in the Paleolithic 6 The aim of the present study 9 Summary 10 Chapter 2: The Swabian Jura: Background 12 Geography and Geology 12 The Ach and Lone Valleys 14 Past environment: trends in Central Europe during MIS 5-3 15 Past environments in the Swabian Jura 22 Prehistory in the Swabian Jura: The Chronostratigraphy 25 Summary 37 Chapter 3: Hohlenstein-Stadel and other Sites in the Swabia Jura 39 Hohlenstein and the history of research 39 Robert Wetzel’s Excavation 44 Recent Excavations by the University of Tübingen 48 Recent Excavations by the Denkmalpflege of Baden-Württemberg 49 Dating and Stratigraphy 52 Artifacts from the Middle Paleolithic 61 Artifacts from the Aurignacian 61 The Löwenmensch (Lionman) 63 Hominin remains 66 Other Sites in the Swabian Jura 68 ii Summary 74 Chapter 4: Methods and Fauna 76 Fauna at Hohlenstein-Stadel 76 Method 95 Identification 96 Cave Bears 97 Carnivores and ungulates 99 Quantification 99 Ageing / Sexing 107 Seasonality 112 Taphonomy 112 Density mediated attrition 114 Anthropogenic modifications 114 Trampling 117 Carnivore modifications 118 Other modifications 120 Summary 121 Chapter 5 Results from Hohlenstein-Stadel 122 Previous work on the fauna 122 Sampling 126 Species abundance 128 Results from the excavation of 1939 128 Excavations 2009-2011 136 Comparison of the excavations of 1939 and 2009-2011 146 Combined assemblage 152 Cave bears, herbivores and carnivores 161 Diversity 162 iii Taphonomy 163 Preservation of faunal remains 163 Anthropogenic modification 165 Carnivore modification 170 Other modifications 175 Skeletal representation and Ageing 176 Cave Bears 176 Prey Animals 185 Ivory and antler 191 Small animals 196 Seasonality 198 Carnivores 198 Coprolite 202 Summary 204 Chapter 6: Regional Perspectives in the Swabian Jura 205 The Lone Valley: Bockstein and Vogelherd 205 The Ach Valley: Hohle Fels, Geißenklösterle and Kogelstein 206 Comparison: stratigraphy and sampling 208 Species abundance 209 Individual species 213 Diversity 224 Prey Animals 225 Cave bear 235 Carnivores 239 Taphonomy 241 Lithic 248 Exploitation of cave bears 248 iv Hohlenstein-Stadel in a regional context 251 Subsistence practice of Neanderthals and modern humans 252 Settlement pattern and interaction between hominins and animals 255 Chapter 7: Summary and Conclusions 257 References 261 v List of Figures 2.1 Topographical map of the Ach and Lone valleys with the names of the major Paleolithic sites 12 3.1 Map of Hohlenstein complex. From the West: Bärenhöhle, Kleine Scheuer, Stadel and Ostloch (Schmid et al., 1989) 40 3.2 Entrance of Hohlenstein-Stadel on the left and Kleine Scheuer on the right (Photo courtesy of Kurt Wehrberger, Ulmer Museum) 41 3.3 map of Hohlenstein-Stadel and the excavated area. Yellow areas indicate recent excavations. The Blue lines indicate areas excavated by R. Wetzel. Image from Kind and Beutelspacher (2010) 44 3.4 Original profile created by Völzing and Wetzel between Abbaumeter 10/11 (Wetzel 1961) 54 3.5 Stratigraphic profile of Hohlenstein-Stadel running N/S Quadrants 192/193-172 to 192/193-174 from modern excavations are represented (Beutelspacher et al, 2011) 56 3.6 Lithic artifacts from Beck’s analysis: 1 Doppelspitze, (Double point) 2-3 Spitzen (Point) (Beck, 1999). 61 3.7 Personal ornaments from the Aurignacian at Hohlenstein-Stadel (Photo courtesy of Kurt Wehrberger, Ulmer Museum) 63 3.8 Ivory sculpture of the Löwenmensch (Lion man), a therianthropic creature with human and lion traits from the Aurignacian of Hohlenstein-Stadel, 31.1 (Photo courtesy of Kurt Wehrberger, Ulmer Museum). 64 3.9 Femur shaft from a Neanderthal excavated by Wetzel and Völzing (© Flora Gröning / Neanderthal Museum / Ulmer Museum from NESPOS) 67 3.10 Juvenile human teeth. Canine and lower 3 rd premolar. 67 4.1 Triangular plot for age groups (Stiner, 1990, 2009) 108 4.2 Specimen with heavy weathering and flaking 113 vi 4.3 Specimens with digestive corrosion 120 5.1 Frequency distribution of speciments in weight from the excavation in 1939. 131 5.2 Correlation of NISP taxa from Gamble and the current analysis of material from 1939. The correlation is high and significant (p-value=.001). 136 5.3 Number of specimens with for each body size class 1-5 from the excavation 2009-2011 144 5.4 Frequency of specimens per weight from the excavation of 1939 and 2009-2011 148 5.5 Number of specimens identified to body size class from the excavation of 1939 and 2009- 2011 148 5.6 Correlation of logNISP taxa of old and new excavations. All the correlation are also significant (p-value = <0.01). Values with high residuals were labeled. 148 5.7 %NISP of mammalian taxa for combined assemblage. 154 5.8 %WISP of mammalian taxa for combined assemblage. 155 5.9 %MNI and MNI of mammalian taxa for combined assemblage. 156 5.10 Correlation of NISP taxa from Gamble and the combined assemblage. The correlation is high and significant (p-value=.001). 158 5.11 % NISP of carnivores, bears and herbivores per cultural layer 161 5.12 Weathering stages for each horizon 164 5.13 Cut marks on a bear rib with a close-up 168 5.14 Number of specimens with different types of carnivore modification per horizon 171 5.15 NISP abundance of skeletal elements for cave bear 176 5.16 % Weight of skeletal element for cave bear from combined assemblage. 178 5.17 Scatterplot of measurement of cave bear canine 184 5.18 %NISP of body part for horse 186 vii 5.19 %NISP of body part for reindeer 187 5.20 Age groups of horse from the MP 189 5.21 Age groups of rhinoceros from the MP 190 5.22 Frequency and weight of ivory fragments (excluding the tusks from the MP R which is described below and modified fragments) 192 5.23 Two tusk fragments from the MP, both ~17cm (Photo courtesy of Kurt Wehrberger, Ulmer Museum) 193 5.24 shed reindeer antler with carnivore modification from the MP 194 5.25 Frequency of antlers 194 5.26 Measurement of the pedicle of reindeer antler 195 5.27 pharyngeal of Cyprinid from