The Mousterian fauna from Grotte XVI, Dordogne, France

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The Grotte XVI archaeological site, located in the Dordogne region of southwestern France, contains a sequence of human occupations that began prior to 70,000 years ago and that continued until the end of the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. The cave was first occupied by Neandertals, but the later occupants were modern in all ways, with the transition between the two presumed to have occurred around 30,000 years ago. Not only does the archaeological sequence at Grotte XVI span at least 60,000 years, but the preservation of the bones and teeth of large mammals is excellent, and the archaeological assemblages assumed to represent the latest Neandertals-the "Chatelperronian"-and the earliest modern peoples-the "Aurignacian"-are well-represented. The site is rich in the remains of such large ungulates as reindeer, red deer, ibex, and horse, all of which provide information on the diets of the residents of the site, and on the mammal history of this part of southwestern France. Previous work on these faunal assemblages, supported by the National Science Foundation, has shown that the diet of the Chtelperronian residents of the site (presumably Neandertals) did not differ in significant ways from that of the people (presumably modern in biology and behavior) who used the site immediately after them. This demonstration joins work from other parts of Europe in suggesting that if modern peoples truly replaced Neandertals, the differential use of animal resources may not have played a major role in allowing this to occur. In fact, the only important difference between the ChAtelperronian and Aurignacian large mammal assemblages involves cave bears. These huge carnivores were common in the ChAtelperronian level (as well as in earlier ones), but disappear soon thereafter, and it appears that increasingly intense use of caves in post-Neandertal times may have hastened the extinction of these remarkable animals. In addition, analysis of the history of the large mammals that occur at Grotte XVI between about 36,000 and 12,000 years ago has shown that the abundances of reindeer (known in North America as caribou) rose and fell in concert with summer temperatures: reindeer were far less abundant when summers were warmer. Ultimately, at the end of the Ice Age, summer temperatures became so warm that reindeer became extinct here. This long-term view of reindeer history suggests that current caribou populations in northern North America may be particularly vulnerable to global climate warming. Although the detailed picture that we have of human diet and large mammal history currently goes back to about 36,000 years ago, the Grotte XVI sequence includes a rich Mousterian assemblage, clearly reflecting Neandertal use of the site, that dates to about 65,000 years ago (less detailed records from the site are older yet). Support from the National Science Foundation will allow this earlier material to be studied as well. This analysis will let us know whether earlier Neandertal diets differed from those represented in later deposits, and will also tell us whether the relationship between summer temperatures and reindeer abundances existed this deeply into the Ice Age.