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. Zooarchaeology and Modern Human Origins, 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.
1. Introduction: Zooarchaeology and Modern Human Origins Jamie L. Clark and John D. Speth
2. Exploring the Relationship Between Climate Change and the Decline of the Howieson's Poort at Sibudu Cave (South Africa) Jamie L. Clark
3. Middle Paleolithic Large-Mammal Hunting in the Southern Levant John D. Speth
4. Middle Paleolithic Prey Choice Inferred from a Natural Pitfall Trap: Rantis Cave, Israel Reuven Yeshurun
5. New Opportunities for Previously Excavated Sites: Paleoeconomy as a Human Evolutionary Indicator at Tabun Cave (Israel) Ana B. Marin-Arroyo
6. New Contributions on Subsistence Practices during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic in Northern Spain Jose Yravedra Sainz de los Terreros
7. Iberian Archaeofaunas and Hominin Subsistence During Marine Isotope Stages 4 and 3 Lawrence Guy Straus
8. Animal Exploitation Strategies During the Uluzzian at Grotta di Fumane (Verona, Italy) Antonio Tagliacozzo, Matteo Romandini, Ivana Fiore, Monica Gala, and Marco Peresani
9. A Diachronic Evaluation of Neanderthal Cervid Exploitation and Site Use at Pech de l'Aze IV, France Laura Niven
10. Neanderthal to Neanderthal Evolution: Preliminary Observations on Faunal Exploitation from Mousterian to Chatelperronian at Arcy-sur-Cure James G. Enloe
11. The Role of Fish, Fowl and Small Mammals in the Fauna of the Paleolithic Caves of the Swabian Jura, Southwestern Germany Nicholas J. Conard, Keiko Kitagawa, Petra Kronneck, Madelaine Bohme and Susanne C. Munzel
12. Neanderthals and Cave Hyenas: Co-existence, Competition or Conflict? Gerrit L. Dusseldorp
13. Bone Grease Rendering in Mousterian Contexts: The Case of Noisetier Cave (Frechet-Aure, Hautes-Pyrenees, France) Sandrine Costamagno
14. Foraging Goals and Transport Decisions in Western Europe During the Paleolithic and Early Holocene Eugene Morin and Elspeth Ready
Jamie L. Clark is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa), and a research fellow at the Institut fur Naturwissenschaftliche Archaologiem, Universitat Tubingen (Germany). She received her BA in African and Middle Eastern History from Northwestern University (2002) and her MA (2004) and PhD (2009) in Anthropology (Archaeology) from the University of Michigan.
John D. Speth is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). He served as Director of the Museum of Anthropology from 1986 to 1989 and as the Museum's Associate Director from 2006 to 2008. Dr. Speth completed his BA in Geology at the University of New Mexico (1965), and his MA (1968) and PhD (1971) in Anthropology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Speth studies hunter-gatherers, past and present, New World and Old World.