Complementary analyses of the faunal remains of the lower level of Climӑuți II (Republic of Moldova)
Abstract
The paleolithic site of Climӑuți II, discovered in 1989, yielded two archaeological layers, the upper one, the most famous, and the lower one, on which we are focusing on. This layer is relied to the beginning ou the Upper Pleniglacial, before the Last Glacial Maximum. Our aim is to bring more data on this assemblage basing on the faunal remains, applying zooarchaeological methods to better understand the assemblage itself but also to better determine the anthropogenic activities. The main exploited taxa are horse, reindeer and bison, then wolf and mammoth. These remains are associated with a lithic industry linked to butchering activities. For the first three species, it could correspond to a secondary butchering treatment of carcasses. For mammoths we did not obtained clear data. They could have been hunted or mammoth dried bones could have been used by humans as material support, particularly ribs, to process to furskin activities of herbivorous but also wolves. The presence of burned bones, as fuel but also cooked, shows that at least a hearth was present in the camp. This layer corresponds to a temporary camp in the warm season in a strategic place.
Keywords
Zooarchaeology; Taphonomy; Dniester valley; Upper Palaeolithic; Epiaurignacian; Upper Pleniglacial.