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Assessing evidence for human megafaunal hunting at Lynford (UK).

Assessing evidence for human megafaunal hunting at Lynford (UK). Geoff M Smith Institute of Archaeology, UCL. The World of Mammoths: Vth International Conference on Mammoths and their Relatives. Lynford- Site Location. Stratigraphy and Dating. Chalk overlain by series of palaeochannels

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Assessing evidence for human megafaunal hunting at Lynford (UK).

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  1. Assessing evidence for human megafaunal hunting at Lynford (UK). Geoff M Smith Institute of Archaeology, UCL The World of Mammoths: Vth International Conference on Mammoths and their Relatives

  2. Lynford- Site Location

  3. Stratigraphy and Dating • Chalk overlain by series of palaeochannels • Lynford palaeochannel- Oxbow lake • Occasional inputs of higher energy flow • Areas of bank collapse and sediment gravity flows • MIS 3- Devensian Cold Stage

  4. Palaeochannel: Bank collapse

  5. Stratigraphy and Dating • Chalk overlain by series of palaeochannels • Lynford palaeochannel- Oxbow lake • Occasional inputs of higher energy flow • Areas of bank collapse and sediment gravity flows • MIS 4/3- Devensian Cold Stage

  6. Palaeoenvironmental evidence • Plant macrofossils and pollen • Fish • Frogs • Beetles • Temperature estimates • Summer= 13°C • Winter= -10°C

  7. Vertebrate Assemblage %NISP = 0.1% (4) %NISP = 2.9% (101) %NISP = 66.9% (2341) %NISP = 1.3% (46) %NISP = 0.2% (7) %NISP = 0

  8. Faunal Long Axis Orientation

  9. Bank Collapse

  10. Bone weathering

  11. Mammoth: Skeletal Rep.

  12. Carnivore Modifications 1

  13. Carnivore Modifications 2

  14. Carnivore Modification 3

  15. Human Modifications • No evidence for direct exploitation of mammoth remains.

  16. Mammoth hunters? • Schreve (2006) • Absence of long bones • No cut marks- not necessarily evidence of absence • High incidence of healed lesions and truama • BUT Smith (2008): • Long bones not absent- highly fragmented • carnivore and hominin modifications • Pathologies could be have natural cause

  17. Lynford- A ‘Natural Freezer?’ • Focal point • Accumulation of material • Mammoth not single homogenous assemblage • Mammoth age structure • Predator Scavengers • Scavenging though some evidence for primary access • Antler- summer? • Hominins • Migration? • Natural freezer

  18. Human-Proboscidian Intearactions • Such interactions still the source of fascination and interest. • No definitive evidence from Middle Pal • Lynford- seasonal-scavenging? • La Cotte de St Brelade • evidence for social structured subsistence behaviour? • It is possible that Neanderthals hunted such megafauna- no evidence at Lynford.

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