The Middle Palaeolithic and late Pleistocene Tasmania hunting behaviour
A Reconsideration of the Attributes of Modern Human Behaviour
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4680321 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard Cosgrove (0000-0002-9625-3576, La Trobe University, corresponding author), Anne Pike‐tay (Vassar College) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 3-4 |
| Pages | 321-332 |
| Publication date | 2004-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Osteoarchaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1047-482X • E-ISSN: 1099-1212 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/oa.764 |
| OpenAlex | W2003556576 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 28 |
The murky biological status of Neanderthals has inspired many behavioural paradigms. We ask if it is possible to differentiate behavioural changes in an evolutionary sense (archaic to modern) from innovative/evolutionary changes in behaviour due to localised adaptations to changing environments. Our approach to Neanderthal ecology here is comparative. Both lithic and faunal analyses of Pleistocene Tasmanian sites dating back to 35,000 BP show patterns similar to Middle Palaeolithic Eurasia. Yet the anatomically modern humans who first populated Australia exhibited modern cultural behaviour by crossing from Southeast Asia to Greater Australia by boat and colonising every environmental zone on the continent by at least 35,000 BP. If the Tasmanian archaeological sequence parallels that of the Mousterian, then the earliest Aboriginal colonisers of Greater Australia were either archaic in a behavioural sense (a notion that does not fit with the available evidence), or the interpretation of what indicates archaic behaviour must be reassessed.Results from dental growth-increment analyses of large game from Franco-Cantabrian Palaeolithic sites show shifts in human mobility and subsistence strategies. Compilation of control samples of teeth of recent animals (e.g. Cervus, Rangifer, Equus, Capreolus, Bos) of known age and date-of-death has been requisite to these growth-increment studies. Here we apply skeletochronological analysis to Bennett's wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) from Tasmania's earliest sites, presenting results of aging techniques of molar eruption and seasonal annuli growth. These suggest that hunting pressure was relatively low on wallaby populations and that hunters occupied these upland valleys principally between autumn and early spring. We expect these data to support more robust hypotheses of both mortality and seasonal hunting patterns of this principal macropod prey species, as well as consideration of the question of 'archaic' versus 'modern' ecological adaptations. Copyright (c) 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Ancient DNA · Archaeology · Biology · Cave · Equus · Geography · Human evolution · Mousterian · Neanderthal · Pleistocene · Population · Prehistory · Subsistence agriculture · Zooarchaeology · Demography · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation · Ecology
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A Review of Ethnographic Use of Wooden Spears and Implications for Pleistocene Hominin Hunting
Using a 3-stage burning categorization to assess post-depositional degradation of archaeofaunal assemblages
The Emergence of Ornaments and Art
Systematic seasonal land use by late Pleistocene Tasmanian Aborigines
The revolution that didn't arrive
Bennett’s wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) marrow quality vs quantity
Modern Human Behaviour and Pleistocene Sahul in Review
Australian prehistoric archaeology
Reconciling 22,000 years of landscape openness in a renowned wilderness
A Pilot Study in Odontochronology for the Pig Domestication Question in North-Central China
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New evidence from Fraser Cave for glacial age man in south-west Tasmania
Molecular analysis of Neanderthal DNA from the northern Caucasus
Red Deer Hunting in the Upper Paleolithic of South-West France
Prey Movements and Settlement Patterns During the Upper Palaeolithic in Southwestern France
The Illusion of Riches
New perspectives on the Neanderthals
When did Neanderthals and modern humans diverge
Maxwell River Archaeological Survey 1986
Reconstructing Middle Palaeolithic subsistence strategies in the South of France
From Reindeer to Wallaby
The archaeological attributes of behaviour
Late Pleistocene Megafauna and Archaeology from Cuddie Springs, South-eastern Australia
Hunting in the Middle Palaeolithic
On Bovid Assemblages and their Consequences for the Knowledge of Subsistence Patterns in the Middle Palaeolithic
Neanderthals and modern humans in western Asia
Middle palaeolithic hunting economies in the Rhineland
Seasonal variations of the Middle–Upper Paleolithic transition at El Castillo, Cueva Morı́n and El Pendo (Cantabria, Spain)
Forty-Two Degrees South
A functional analysis of Pleistocene bone tools from two sites in Southwest Tasmania
Gibraltar Neanderthals and results of recent excavations in Gorham's, Vanguard and Ibex Caves
A Levallois point embedded in the vertebra of a wild ass (Equus africanus)
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,59 |
| Citation span | 2004 - 2024 (21) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |