Fossil hominid morphology, archaeology, and genetics indicate that in Europe 30,000-40,000 years ago, anatomically modern humans and their Upper Paleolithic industries replaces Neandertals and the Middle Paleolithic tools. Neandertals had thrived for hundreds of thousands of years, so why were they replaced? One possibility is that modern humans were able to extract more resources from the environment. This dissertation tests this explanation by assessing variation present in ancient hunting practices and investigating the relationship between Late Pleistocene hominids, tool industries, and hunting. I examined the hunting of one species, red deer (Cervus elaphus), through time and across spaceusing prey age-at-death as an indicator of hunting strategy. In the process, I evaluated the ability of the Quadratic Drown Height Method to accurately assign age-at-death; compared how well histograms, boxplots, and triangular graphs reconstruct mortality proflies from fossil assemblages; and developed a novel method for statistically comparing samples on triangular graphs. My results show that Neandertals and modern humans did not differ significantly in their ability to hunt prime-age red deer. None of the mortality distributions from the archaeological samples resemble the distribution constructed from eld killed by wolves in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Like other carnivores, wolves usually take young, old, and infirm prey. Nevertheless, the samples included in this study show a shift in prey age-at-death durin gthe Middle Paleolithic approximately 5- kya. Young adult prey are more abundant in recent assemblages than in more ancient assemblages. Over 25 archaeological samples from western European contribute to these conclusions, making this dissertation the most comprehensive study of Pleistocene hunting to date. More well-dated samples are needed, however, to confirm these results. Because red deer skeletal and tooth size fluctuated across my samples, I investigated the relationship between clime and C. elaphus size to determine if body size could indicate paleoclimates. In modern North American specimens, distal metatarsal bredth has a good relationship with climate, and tooth breadth has a similar but weaker relationship. The modern European data do not relate clearly to climate. Fossil red deer are larger during glacials than interglacials, but additional data are needed to better define patterns.

Thin on the Ground: Neandertal Biology, Archeology and Ecology synthesizes the current knowledge about our sister species the Neandertals, combining data from a variety of disciplines to reach a cohesive theory behind Neandertal low population densities and relatively low rate of technological innovation. The book highlights and contrasts the differences between Neandertals and early modern humans and explores the morphological, physiological, and behavioral adaptive solutions which led to the extinction of the Neandertals and the population expansion of modern humans. Written by a world recognized expert in physical anthropology, Thin on the Ground: Neandertal Biology, Archaeology and Ecology will be a must have title for anyone interested in the rise and fall of the Neandertals.

This book presents archaeological research conducted within the Highlands of Sicily. Results of an archaeological survey in the Madonie mountain range, in northern Sicily, supported by a chronological and cultural grid, drawn by the excavation of Vallone Inferno, deal with complex and fascinating problems of uplands and mountainous landscape. Settlement patterns, between the Late Pleistocene and the Medieval era, are investigated through the support of spatial analyses. A diversified use of the mountain is currently attested by this research, according to the different prehistoric and historical times. This work is innovative for the Mediterranean area, where there are no similar examples of such extensive territorial research in a mountainous context. The research has been focused on particular aspects of ancient peopling: economic and social issues, human-environment interactions and the long term interest in the mountain range.

This study concerns hunter-gatherer cultural and ecological succession during the Levantine Epipaleolithic. Detailed zooarchaeological and taphonomic studies provide a finer understanding of this cultural succession. Uniform patterns of food procurement and processing show cultural continuity in subsistence strategies within the period.

Recent genetic data showing that Neanderthals interbred with modern humans have made it clear that deeper insight into the behavioral differences between these populations will be critical to understanding the rapid spread of modern humans and the demise of the Neanderthals. This volume, which brings together scholars who have worked with faunal assemblages from Europe, the Near East, and Africa, makes an important contribution to our broader understanding of Neanderthal extinction and modern human origins through its focus on variability in human hunting behavior between 70-25,000 years ago—a critical period in the later evolution of our species.​

This volume in the ICAZ series deals with the technical advances made over the last twenty years in the field of ageing and sexing animal bones. The analysis of ancient DNA holds great possibilities for sexing certain faunal assemblages (though by no means all), which is an urgent issue in the study of hunting and animal husbandry. It can be assumed that our forebears used more subtle taxonomic criteria than we do today, and it is important therefore that we are able to recognise traits that will allow for more accurate classification in terms of calendar age or sex. The eighteen papers in this book examine the state of research for various techniques of age/sex determination and assess potential future development.