New Insights on Neanderthal Subsistence Strategies in Central Europe Using Faunal and ZooMS Analyses at Crvena Stijena

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

While considerable research on Middle and Late Pleistocene subsistence has been conducted in Western Europe, little is known about variation in the hunting abilities and dietary behavior of Neanderthal populations in Central Europe. Here, we present new faunal results from Crvena Stijena that draw on standard archaeozoological methods as well as more recent approaches—including zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS)—that cast additional light on Neanderthal diet and food procurement methods in the Balkans. In addition to showing relatively good agreement between the two sets of approaches, our results convey new insights on the range of animals that were exploited, their use as food, and how some of them were manipulated in contexts likely associated with symbolic signaling.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36319.0