Hunted Deer and Buried Foxes: Fauna from the Middle Epipaleolithic Site of ‘Uyun al-Hammam

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Levantine Epipaleolithic (ca. 23,000—11,500 cal BP) saw an explosion of behavioral innovation and diversification in hunter-gatherer groups. One of these new behaviors was the development and spread of repetitively used and reused burial grounds or cemeteries. The Middle Epipaleolithic site of ‘Uyun al-Hammam in the Wadi Ziqlab area of Northern Jordan preserves the earliest known evidence for the construction and use of cemeteries. Human mortuary behaviors develop within the broader contexts of subsistence strategies, social networks, and the economy. Here, I focus on the development of cemeteries in the Late Pleistocene Levant in the context of Epipaleolithic subsistence economies as well as hunting modalities. We uncovered an unexpected hunting pattern at the side dominated by local cervid taxa. Interestingly, the faunal remains from mortuary contexts closely mirror those found within habitation areas. Yet, an interred fox alongside humans suggests that Middle Epipaleolithic ritual activities involved modifications as well as echoes of familiar behaviors.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25726