An Analysis of Middle Paleolithic Fauna from Hole Fels (Swabian Jura, Germany)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The sites of the Swabian Jura preserve long sequences of hominin occupation that span the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, including the oldest known art and musical instruments, which date to the Aurignacian period. Historically, we have thought of the Middle Paleolithic occupation of the region as being relatively ephemeral and low-density as compared to the Upper Paleolithic. In 2020, excavators uncovered rich Middle Paleolithic horizons at Hohle Fels that underlie layers dated to 62,500 +/- 4,000 BP. The horizons include lithics, faunal remains, bone retouchers, ample burned bone, and most notably, a leaf point, the first such artifact to be found in situ in the Swabian Jura in the modern era.

In this paper, we present the faunal remains from the newly-uncovered Middle Paleolithic layers at Hohle Fels. We do so by integrating zooarchaeology and ZooMS using a novel approach. We analyzed the assemblage from a taphonomic and taxonomic perspective using standard zooarchaeological techniques. We then selected specimens that were identifiable to anatomical element but were taxonomically ambiguous to analyze via ZooMS. The result is a more complete picture of Middle Paleolithic faunal exploitation strategies, including species-specific information on anthropogenic modifications and body part transport strategies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52677