Palaeolithic innovations in response to faunal fluctuations

Abstract

Animal acquisition, butchering and processing was a crucial activity continuum in the subsistence of Lower Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers bolstered by a persistent Acheulian stone toolkit. Scrapers, bifaces, flakes and other Acheulian implements were successfully used during carcass manipulation, entailing functional compatibility with the prey taxa to be processed. Major changes to the Acheulian butchery toolkit occurred in the late Lower Palaeolithic Levant, with the introduction of novel lithic trajectories stemming from anchored Acheulian traditions. This paper presents two late Acheulian innovations: Quina-like scrapers and flat bifacial knives. Both tool types emerge at a different pace and are rarely recognised in Acheulian contexts. However, numerous fully-fledged Quina scrapers used for butchery and hide working are characteristic of the proceeding Acheulo-Yabrudian Cultural Complex in the Levant, where they are supplemented by a limited number of flat bifaces. Changes to local faunal communities, marked by a decline in megaherbivore availability, may have accelerated the introduction of a new set of butchery implements oriented towards effective processing of smaller-sized ungulates, a habitual Acheulo-Yabrudian subsistence pattern. Dependency on animal-induced calories and underlaying human–animal relationships may have facilitated the development of new butchery implements acting as ‘mediators’ between humans and their preferred prey. The gradual emergence of new butchery tools may signal the practical and ontological adaptability of late Lower Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers to new ecological conditions and trophic interactions in a time of shifting faunal communities and highlight the paramount role of human–animal relationships in Lower Palaeolithic cultural evolution.