Neanderthal subsistence at Chez-Pinaud Jonzac (Charente-Maritime, France): A kill site dominated by reindeer remains, but with a horse-laden diet?

William Rendu (1, 2) , Sylvain Renou (3) , Anastasiia Koliasnikova (1) , Malvina Baumann (4, 3) , Hugues Plisson (4) , Emmanuel Discamps (5) , Marie-Cécile Soulier (5) , Arthur Gicqueau (5, 1) , Mathilde Augoyard (4) , Manon Bocquel (4) , Guillaume Guerin (6) , Svetlana Shnaider (1) , Kseniya Kolobova (7)

1 ZooSCAn - Archaeozoology in Siberia and Central Asia
2 IFEAC - Institut français d'études sur l'Asie centrale
3 University of Liege, Liege, Belgium
4 PACEA - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie
5 TRACES - Travaux et recherches archéologiques sur les cultures, les espaces et les sociétés
6 GR - Géosciences Rennes
7 Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography NAS RA

During the MIS 4 in Southwestern France, Quina Neanderthal from the north of the Aquitaine was characterized by a hunting specialization on the reindeer and the lack of diversity in their diet. They developed task-specific locations dedicated to the capture, the butchery, and the consumption of reindeer, and the whole society seems, in this region, to be dependent on this food resource. In this context, the site of Chez-Pinaud at Jonzac (France) occupies a specific place. First, interpreted as a reindeer kill and butchery site, the recent recovery of the site underlines the importance of the large ungulate (horse and bison) to the faunal spectrum (30% of the NISP). Considering the quantity of meat and grease that these species can provide to hunters, the new zooarchaeological analyses suggest that at least the horse may have played a major role in the diet of the Neanderthal population. Since Jonzac is one of the largest sites for this period, these results relativize the importance of reindeer specialization of the Quina population and the lack of diversityl in their diet.

Keywords: Neanderthal hunting strategy zooarchaeology Middle Paleolithic site function; Neanderthal; hunting strategy; zooarchaeology; Middle Paleolithic; site function

Domains: Archaeology and Prehistory

William Rendu, Sylvain Renou, Anastasiia Koliasnikova, Malvina Baumann, Hugues Plisson, et al.. Neanderthal subsistence at Chez-Pinaud Jonzac (Charente-Maritime, France): A kill site dominated by reindeer remains, but with a horse-laden diet?. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2023, 10, pp.1085699. ⟨10.3389/fevo.2022.1085699⟩. ⟨insu-04018912⟩