Single carcass of Mammuthus primigenius with lithic artifacts in the Upper Pleistocene of northern Italy

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Abstract

This paper presents the find of a Mammuthus primigenius carcass and associated Mousterian implements from the Last Glacial site of Asolo, in north-eastern Italy. We review the exploitation of proboscidean carcasses at Lower and Middle Paleolithic sites of Africa, Europe and the Levant, including evidence of elephant killing, and summarize recent research on hafting and use of Mousterian points as spearheads already before the end of the Middle Pleistocene. The bones and implements from Asolo are described in detail; we provide information on other Italian sites with mammoth remains and on the Mousterian record of the north-eastern quadrant of the peninsula. A possible impact fracture has been detected on a Levallois point from Asolo; its interpretation is based on comparisons to similar scars found on spear points of verified function from archaeological sites of later age, and on experimental material. We conclude that the evidence of Asolo is consistent with information from a number of Western European sites supporting a picture of Neanderthals as capable hunters of large game, such as woolly mammoth.

Introduction

Remains of elephants and other proboscideans have been discovered at a number of prehistoric sites of Lower, Middle and Upper Pleistocene age. Humans, at different stages of evolution, have variously cohabited with Deinotherium, Elephas recki, Loxodonta atlantica and Loxodonta africana in Africa (Chavaillon et al., 1987, Delagnes et al., 2006, Isaac and Crader, 1981, Klein et al., 2007, Leakey, 1971), with Mammuthus meridionalis, Mammuthus trogontherii and Palaeloxodon antiquus in Western Asia and Europe (Goren-Inbar et al., 1994, Gaudzinski, 2004, Lister, 2004, Mazza et al., 2006, Mussi, 2005, Palombo and Ferretti, 2005, Santonja and Pérez-González, 2005, Scott, 2007, Villa, 1990, Villa et al., 2005), with Mammuthus primigenius in the open grassland biomes of glacial Eurasia (Callow and Cornford, 1986, Hoffecker, 2002, Schreve, 2006, Stuart, 2005, Vasil'ev, 2001), with Stegodon orientalis in China (Schepartz et al., 2005), with Palaeloxodon naumanni in Japan (Kondo et al., 2001), with Mammut americanum and Mammuthus columbi in North America (Grayson and Meltzer, 2002, Haynes, 1991, Surovell et al., 2005, Surovell and Waguespack, in press), with Cuvieronius as well as with Stegomastodon in South America (Bryan et al., 1978, Dillehay, 1997, Prado et al., 2005, Ranere and López, 2007). In sum, proboscideans of different genera and species were encountered in all continents except Australia. They were adapted to markedly different environments and all shared a dominant position as the largest animals in any given faunal assemblage.

Elephants have long been a resource and the exploitation of carcasses has been suggested at a number of occurrences. Hundreds of archaeological sites, both caves and open-air sites in the Old and New World contain remains of proboscideans (e.g. Gamble, 1986, Haynes, 1991, Lister and Bahn, 2007) so we limit our discussion here to cases of kill or scavenging sites with single or multiple elephant carcasses in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, that is sites where elephants are the unique or dominant animal of the faunal assemblage.

Human predation has been hypothesized on the basis of a close association of stone artifacts and proboscidean remains at several early sites. In East Africa these occurrences include Olduvai, FLK North level 6 in Bed 1, with one almost complete E. recki plus several bones from a second individual, and the Deinotherium site in Bed 2 (Bunn, 1982, Leakey, 1971; but see Dominguez-Rodrigo et al., 2007), Barogali (Republic of Djibouti; Berthelet and Chavaillon, 2001), Olorgesailie Site 15 (Kenya; Potts et al., 1999) Nadung'a 4 (Kenya; Delagnes et al., 2006) and Mwanganda's Village (Malawi; Clark and Haynes, 1970). The Barogali, Olorgesailie and Nadung'a 4 occurrences record a single E. recki each; at Mwanganda the remains were not identified at the species level probably because the bones were in a very bad state of preservation. In Eurasia most of the early occurrences are of Palaeoloxodon antiquus. The best known are: Gesher Benot Ya'akov in Israel (Goren-Inbar et al., 1994), Notarchirico in Basilicata, southern Italy (Piperno, 1999, Piperno and Tagliacozzo, 2001), Bucine in Tuscany, central Italy (Mazza et al., 2006), Fontana Ranuccio, Castel di Guido and La Polledrara in Latium, central Italy (Anzidei et al., 1999, Radmilli and Boschian, 1996, Villa, 1991), Ebbsfleet in England (Wenban-Smith et al., 2006), Torralba, Ambrona, Aridos 1, Aridos 2 and Arriaga IIa in Spain (Freeman, 1975, Freeman, 1978, Santonja et al., 1980, Santonja et al., 2001, Santonja and Villa, 1990, Villa, 1990, Villa et al., 2005). Note that Torralba and Ambrona, Fontana Ranuccio, Castel di Guido and La Polledrara, are multiple carcass sites.

Association of elephant bones and artifacts is also documented at a number of early Upper Pleistocene sites. At Gröbern (Germany) the bones of an adult male Palaeoloxodon antiquus, 35–40 years old, were associated with 26 artifacts (mainly unretouched flakes) in a lakeside setting dated to MIS 5e (Gamble, 1999, Weber, 2000). Mammuthus primigenius bones belonging to a minimum number of individuals of 11 and Middle Paleolithic artifacts (including 47 ovate or subtriangular handaxes in fresh condition) dating to the early MIS 3 occur in a paleochannel at Lynford (Norfolk, England). However, taphonomic analysis of the vertebrate assemblage which includes also reindeer (MNI = 8), horse (MNI = 2) rhinoceroses (MNI = 4) and some carnivores shows that the assemblage was a palimpsest. Specimens have different depositional histories with varying degrees of weathering, breakage and abrasion; evidence for direct faunal exploitation by Neanderthals cannot be unequivocally identified (Schreve, 2006). Two important sites, La Cotte (MIS 6) and Lehringen (MIS 5e) are discussed below in the section “Hunting and killing elephants”.

With the exception of two sites (La Cotte and Lehringen) none of these Lower and Middle Paleolithic sites provide good evidence of hunting; in some cases hominids may have butchered remains from natural deaths. Ambrona, La Polledrara, Lynford and other sites with multiple elephant carcasses appear to be a complex mix of natural and human components; some of the faunal remains represent natural occurrences without any clear evidence of hominid intervention. Direct evidence of butchery can be provided by SEM verified cutmarks made by stone tools and anthropic bone fractures, but it is rare at all these early sites.

Cutmarks on some ribs and a distal end of a humerus were reported as “probable” at FLK North level 6 by Bunn (1982). They have now been reinterpreted as abrasion striations (Dominguez-Rodrigo et al., 2007). Cutmarks on one rib have been only briefly reported from Olorgesailie Site 15 (Potts et al., 1999: 768). SEM verified cutmarks on an elephant skull and long bones have been documented at Ambrona but they are very few (Shipman and Rose, 1983, Villa et al., 2005). Cutmarks on three woolly mammoth tusks from layer 3 at La Cotte have been similarly documented; they occur at the proximal base of the tusks, where the tusk leaves the bone sheath of the skull. One tusk at Ambrona had an oblique mark on its midsection and similar striations were observed on other tusk fragments from the site (Villa and d'Errico, 2001, Villa et al., 2005). These marks are likely to be produced by the animals themselves using tusks in a variety of activities. However the La Cotte marks are in areas covered by the animal skin and are best interpreted as having been made in the course of butchery (Jones and Vincent, 1986).

In all, however, very few cutmarks have been reported from a handful of sites; even when present, their frequency is extremely low. The scarcity of cutmarks may be due in large part to the weathering and postdepositional alteration of bones which may have removed the evidence of butchery. Elephant bones are often in bad state of preservation (e.g. the Deinotherium site, Barogali, Olorgesailie, Nadung'a 4, Mwanganda, Notarchirico, Ebbsfleet, Ambrona and La Cotte). Moreover cutmarks on elephant bones appear to be less common than on smaller animals because the periosteum and articular cartilage are very thick; stripping of meat can be accomplished without leaving tool marks because of the thickness of the tissues (Haynes, 1991). Actualistic data on modern elephants butchered with metal knives and axes record a low frequency of butchery marks (15.3% of cutmarks and chopping marks; Crader, 1983). Carcasses were extensively processed and partly destroyed to extract bone grease among the Efe and Lese of the Ituri forest, thus frequency of cutmarks could not be recorded (Fisher, 2001). In general, absence of butchery marks does not necessarily mean that butchery did not take place.

At most Paleolithic sites butchery is generally indicated by breakage of bones for marrow. Yet breakage of elephant long bones for marrow does not appear to have been a common practice at any of these Lower and Middle Paleolithic sites (cf. a detailed discussion in Villa et al., 2005: 246). The explanation may lie in the fact that elephant bones do not contain marrow in the usual form. To release the marrow filling the canals in cancellous bone it is necessary to heat or boil the bones (as the Efe did) or have containers to collect the draining liquid if the long bones are exposed to the sun (Clark, 1977). Exceptions are found at a few sites but there it seems that elephant bones were broken for the purpose of making flaked tools, as at Olduvai Bed II, Castel di Guido and La Polledrara (Backwell and d'Errico, 2004, Villa et al., 2005). Breakage of mammoth skulls in the parietal region presumably to extract the brain is reported from La Cotte (Scott, 1986), and equivalent damage just below the nasal cavity is also reported on the Gesher Benot Ya'akov elephant skull (Goren-Inbar et al., 1994).

There is positive evidence of the use of elephant remains for purposes other than subsistence. In the Lower Paleolithic implements ranging from expedient tools to fine bifaces were produced by direct percussion on elephant limb bones at several sites in the Latium region and Germany, the earliest examples being in Eastern Africa at Olduvai Bed II (Backwell and d'Errico, 2004, Gaudzinski et al., 2005, Tromnau, 1983, Villa, 1991, Villa et al., 1999, Villa and d'Errico, 2001). Intentional modification of several elephant ribs and fibulae through whittling to produce a point is reported from the Middle Paleolithic site of Salzgitter-Lebenstedt (Gaudzinski, 1999, Gaudzinski et al., 2005). In Eastern Europe during the Middle Paleolithic mammoth bones and tusks seem to have been used to build simple structures, such as windbreaks, lacking the complex arrangements of Upper Paleolithic dwellings (Hoffecker, 2002, Iakovleva and Djindjian, 2005).

The evidence for hunting and killing elephants is limited. In one case faunal analysis and contextual evidence strongly suggest that hunting took place. At La Cotte de St. Brelade (Jersey, English Channel Islands) layers 3 and 6, dated to MIS 6 by TL dates and stratigraphic data, contain two separate accumulations of bones of Mammuthus primigenius (total MNI = 18) and Coelodonta antiquitatis (woolly rhinoceros; total MNI = 5). Mammoths and rhinos comprise essentially the entire fauna of these two levels; a few bones of other species occur only at the base of each level. The site is at the bottom of a deep ravine (about 30 m deep at the time of deposition of layers 3 and 6) and there are several indications that these were rapid accumulations: some bones were found to rest vertically against other bones, a few bones were found in articulation, several mammoth scapulas were stacked in direct contact with each other without intervening sediment and there was no evidence of subaerial weathering. The age distribution indicates a predominance of sub-adults and prime-age adults. It would have been impossible to kill a group of such dangerous animals without driving them off the cliff. Rhinos are frequently found on the fringes of herds of elephants so they could have been driven together with the mammoths (Scott, 1986).

At Lehringen, a Last Interglacial (MIS 5e) site in eastern Germany a spear, made of yew wood, was found among the ribs of an adult Palaeoloxodon antiquus, together with 25 stone artifacts. The spear was 2.39 m long, its diameter was 3.1 cm at the base and 2.0 cm near the tip; its weight is concentrated on the proximal end, thus its use as a thrusting spear is a reasonable inference (Thieme and Veil, 1985).

Section snippets

Asolo and the Italian woolly mammoths

Elephant remains are common finds in Italy, both at palaeontological and at archaeological sites. During the Middle and early Upper Pleistocene, most occurrences are of Palaeoloxodon antiquus, often extensively preserved (Palombo and Ferretti, 2005, Palombo and Mussi, 2001). During MIS 4 and 3, the rarer Mammuthus primigenius is part of the record in the northern and central part of the peninsula and even, in one instance, in southern Apulia; 13 localities (some consisting of several sites in a

The Asolo mammoth

The find from Asolo (Fig. 1) was first reported in detail by Dal Piaz (1922), but has not attracted attention in the literature (but see Mussi, 2001, Fiore et al., 2004). (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3)The skeletal remains have been recently re-studied and assigned to an adult female Mammuthus primigenius, c. 32–35 years old (Reggiani, 2005, Reggiani and Sala, 1992).

The mammoth was originally discovered by a local scholar, Pacifico Scomazzetto (1831–1888), a chemist and self-taught historian and

The stone artifacts

All the artifacts are in very fresh condition with sharp edges but were partly damaged when discovered; the recent fractures and edge damage are documented by the detailed pictures of Dal Piaz (1922), (Fig. 4, Fig. 5). Two different kinds of good quality raw material were used: a reddish flint, which was not completely patinated, and an extensively patinated gray flint, with some discontinuously silicified zones (Fig. 4).

  • 1.

    Unretouched Levallois point, with a facetted platform (but without

Age of the site

As mentioned above, the deposit of Asolo is dated to the Last Glacial by geological correlations (Venzo, 1977). New geological studies might provide more precise information; note, however, that the findspot of the Asolo mammoth can no longer be precisely located due to soil disturbances in the area (Reggiani, pers. comm., 2008). No artifacts have ever been reported in the overlying deposits. The feasibility of a direct C14 date of the mammoth remains had been discussed some years ago by

Conclusions

The lack of direct human intervention on the mammoth bones and of more detailed information on the context does not allow us to make a definitive interpretation of the finds at Asolo. However, a number of factors support a hypothesis of mammoth-human interaction: the artifacts are in very fresh condition, the mammoth bones show very limited weathering, there is no evidence to suggest postdepositional disturbance or trickling down of artifacts from overlying deposits, and one of the artifacts

Acknowledgments

Research by M.M. was funded by a grant Ricerca scientifica of Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca through the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Research by P.V. was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation (BCS-0613319) and a grant from the Frison Institute which allowed analysis of Paleoindian points from the Casper, Horner and Hell Gap sites, stored in Laramie, Wyoming.

The staff of the Geology and Paleontology Museum of the University of Padova kindly provided space

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