A critical reappraisal of Middle Paleolithic diets

Summary

This paper examines dietary patterns amongst Middle Palaeolithic foragers in Europe and southwest Asia from ca 300 to 40 thousand years ago. In both regions, faunal studies show that a relatively narrow range of presumably high-ranked animal species—mostly medium- to large-sized ungulates—was hunted. The present review stresses the importance of considering fat procurement and the effects of transport constraints on faunal assemblages while assessing the diet composition of Middle Palaeolithic hominins. Overall, the published evidence hints at significant regional and temporal variation in dietary patterns during this time period.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage