TY - JOUR

T1 - Neanderthal subsistence, taphonomy and chronology at Salzgitter-Lebenstedt (Germany)

T2 - a multifaceted analysis of morphologically unidentifiable bone

AU - Ruebens, Karen

AU - Smith, Geoff M.

AU - Fewlass, Helen

AU - Sinet-Mathiot, Virginie

AU - Hublin, Jean-Jacques

AU - Welker, Frido

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank Babette Ludowici and Michaela Scheffler for facilitating access to the Salzgitter‐Lebenstedt fauna stored at the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum in Wolfenbüttel (Lower Saxony, Germany). We thank Huan Xia and Dorothea Mylopotamitaki for assistance in the palaeoproteomics lab in Leipzig. This project was funded through the Max Planck society. Karen Ruebens (grant agreement No. 745662) and Geoff M. Smith (grant agreement No. 101027850) received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska‐Curie scheme. F. Welker has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 948365). We thank the IZI Fraunhofer, Stefan Kalkhof, and Johannes Schmidt for access to the MALDI‐TOF MS instrument and also thank Kevin Howland at the University of Kent for assistance with the use of their MALDI‐TOF MS instrument. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors Journal of Quaternary Science Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Pleistocene faunal assemblages are often highly fragmented, hindering taxonomic identifications and interpretive potentials. In this paper, we apply four different methodologies to morphologically unidentifiable bone fragments from the Neanderthal open-air site of Salzgitter-Lebenstedt (Germany). First, we recorded zooarchaeological attributes for all 1362 unidentifiable bones recovered in 1977. Second, we applied zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) to 761 fragments, and calculated glutamine deamidation values. Third, we assessed the collagen preservation of 30 fragments by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and, finally, we pretreated 10 bones with high predicted collagen values for radiocarbon dating. All returned dates at, or beyond, the limit of radiocarbon dating, indicating an age of older than 51 000 years ago. The ZooMS faunal spectrum confirms a cold environment, dominated by reindeer, alongside mammoth, horse and bison. The low occurrence of carnivore modifications (1%) contrasts with an abundance of human modifications (23%). Cut marks and marrow fractures were observed across reindeer, horse and bison. The mammoth remains are less well preserved and show a lower degree of human modifications, indicating, perhaps, a different taphonomic history. Overall, this study illustrates the importance of retaining, studying and incorporating the unidentifiable bone fraction to optimize interpretations of site formation and subsistence behaviour at Palaeolithic sites.

AB - Pleistocene faunal assemblages are often highly fragmented, hindering taxonomic identifications and interpretive potentials. In this paper, we apply four different methodologies to morphologically unidentifiable bone fragments from the Neanderthal open-air site of Salzgitter-Lebenstedt (Germany). First, we recorded zooarchaeological attributes for all 1362 unidentifiable bones recovered in 1977. Second, we applied zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) to 761 fragments, and calculated glutamine deamidation values. Third, we assessed the collagen preservation of 30 fragments by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and, finally, we pretreated 10 bones with high predicted collagen values for radiocarbon dating. All returned dates at, or beyond, the limit of radiocarbon dating, indicating an age of older than 51 000 years ago. The ZooMS faunal spectrum confirms a cold environment, dominated by reindeer, alongside mammoth, horse and bison. The low occurrence of carnivore modifications (1%) contrasts with an abundance of human modifications (23%). Cut marks and marrow fractures were observed across reindeer, horse and bison. The mammoth remains are less well preserved and show a lower degree of human modifications, indicating, perhaps, a different taphonomic history. Overall, this study illustrates the importance of retaining, studying and incorporating the unidentifiable bone fraction to optimize interpretations of site formation and subsistence behaviour at Palaeolithic sites.

KW - Middle Palaeolithic

KW - Neanderthal subsistence

KW - near-infrared spectroscopy

KW - radiocarbon dating

KW - zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry

U2 - 10.1002/jqs.3499

DO - 10.1002/jqs.3499

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85147286309

VL - 38

SP - 471

EP - 487

JO - Journal of Quaternary Science

JF - Journal of Quaternary Science

SN - 0267-8179

IS - 4

ER -