Mathew Stewart
Taphonomy of an excavated striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) den in Arabia: implications for paleoecology and prehistory
Stewart, Mathew; Andrieux, Eric; Clark-Wilson, Richard; Vanwezer, Nils; Blinkhorn, James; Armitage, Simon J.; al Omari, Abdulaziz; Zahrani, Badr; Alqahtani, Mesfer; Al-Shanti, Mahmoud; Zalmout, Iyad; Al-Mufarreh, Yahya S.A.; Alsharekh, Abdullah M.; Boivin, Nicole; Petraglia, Michael D.; Groucutt, Huw S.
Authors
Dr Eric Andrieux eric.j.andrieux@durham.ac.uk
Post Doctoral Research Associate
Richard Clark-Wilson
Nils Vanwezer
James Blinkhorn
Simon J. Armitage
Abdulaziz al Omari
Badr Zahrani
Mesfer Alqahtani
Mahmoud Al-Shanti
Iyad Zalmout
Yahya S.A. Al-Mufarreh
Abdullah M. Alsharekh
Nicole Boivin
Michael D. Petraglia
Huw S. Groucutt
Abstract
Studies of modern carnivore accumulations of bone (i.e., neo-taphonomy) are crucial for interpreting fossil accumulations in the archaeological and paleontological records. Yet, studies in arid regions have been limited in both number and detailed taphonomic data, prohibiting our understanding of carnivore bone-accumulating and -modifying behavior in dry regions. Here, we present a taphonomic analysis of an impressive carnivore-accumulated bone assemblage from the Umm Jirsan lava tube in the Harrat Khaybar region, Saudi Arabia. The size and composition of the bone accumulation, as well as the presence of hyena skeletal remains and coprolites, suggest that the assemblage was primarily accumulated by striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena). Our findings (1) identify potentially useful criteria for distinguishing between accumulations generated by different species of hyenas; (2) emphasize the need for neo-taphonomic studies for capturing the full variation in carnivore bone-accumulating and modifying behavior; (3) suggest that under the right settings, striped hyena accumulations can serve as good proxies for (paleo)ecology and livestock practices; and (4) highlight the potential for future research at Umm Jirsan, as well as at the numerous nearby lava tube systems. We encourage continued neo-taphonomic efforts in regions important in human prehistory, particularly in arid zones, which have received little research attention.
Citation
Stewart, M., Andrieux, E., Clark-Wilson, R., Vanwezer, N., Blinkhorn, J., Armitage, S. J., al Omari, A., Zahrani, B., Alqahtani, M., Al-Shanti, M., Zalmout, I., Al-Mufarreh, Y. S., Alsharekh, A. M., Boivin, N., Petraglia, M. D., & Groucutt, H. S. (2021). Taphonomy of an excavated striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) den in Arabia: implications for paleoecology and prehistory. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 13(8), Article 139. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01365-6
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | May 20, 2021 |
Online Publication Date | Jul 20, 2021 |
Publication Date | 2021-08 |
Deposit Date | Nov 10, 2021 |
Publicly Available Date | Nov 11, 2021 |
Journal | Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences |
Print ISSN | 1866-9557 |
Electronic ISSN | 1866-9565 |
Publisher | Springer |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 13 |
Issue | 8 |
Article Number | 139 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01365-6 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1225291 |
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Advance online version This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
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