Taphonomic Study of the Faunal Remains From Nahal Hadera V.

Introduction

The Epipaleolithic period in the Levant is estimated from 22.500-12,500 calibrated years before the present. It is deliberated as a connection between the hunter-gatherer of the superior Paleolithic three recently agricultural Neolithic. The Epipaleolithic contains three main subdivisions; Geometric Kebaran, Kebaran, and Natufian. Garrod named the Kebaran complex after the excavation of layers by Turville-Petre at Kebara Cave in the early 1930s. The economy of Kebaran Nahal Hadera V has been described as hunters and gatherers as there is evidence of mountain gazelles, deer, and games animals. Additionally, there is the presence of other species in Kebaran faunal collections. Nahal Hadera V is a site that was re-excavated, exposing some 70 square meters. However, the site comprises more plentiful faunal remains than people would expect. Unfortunately, the high humidity and temperatures of the site climate, combined with a porous environment of open-air coastal sediments, leads to high degrees of chemical weathering that bone collagen becomes degraded for C dating (Smith at. El, 2001).

To improve their understanding of the depositional history and economic structure of Nahal Hadera V (NHV), (Bar-Oz & Dayan, 2002) undertook a complete taphonomic of the faunal remains from the site. Understanding the evolution and extension of archaic societies’ cultures requires restructuring their subsistence economies. The lethal Pleistocene cultures of the Levant for a long time have been the center of exhaustive research and results published in several sites. Restructuring the subsistence economy of prehistoric societies is always significant to comprehending the evolution and expansion of their cultures.

The study of animal remnants from this period was done using zooarchaeological methods. According to (Bar-Oz & Daya,) the Nahal Hadera V Kebaran site is vital for getting insight on the economic construction of the coastal plain’s Epipalaeolithic structure. In the heart of the Mediterranean, Kebaran is one of the rare open-air locations. It has thick cultural deposits as well as large amounts of faunal remnants. To better understand the Kebaran economy, (Bar-Oz & Dayan 2002) undertook a comprehensive zooarchaeological and taphonomic investigation. They described the bone assemblage’s depositional history to understand better human subsistence patterns, which include food processing and transportation. As a result, they focused on continuous division (tooth wear) and juvenile adult division in the age structure of the hunted inhabitants.

This paper examines the value of performing comprehensive taphonomic research in understanding the economics of Nahal Hadera V’s Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherers.

Problem of interest: Taphomonic study of the faunal remains from Nahal Hadera V.

The Site

Nahal Hadera V is located on the northern coastal plain of Israel, on the highest of the central sandstone ridge facing the Hadera River one kilometer southeast of its present outlet to the sea. The coastal plain is a horizontal land strip with corresponding granite ridges, resulting from the contours of the seashore, that during the Kebaran was some ten to thirteen kilometers wide that now(Bar-Oz & Dayan, 2002).R.Gophna discovered the site in the 1960s (Bar-Oz,2021). The Nahal Hadera V site was first excavated in a three-meter-squared test-mine (Saxon, Martin, and Bar-Yosef 1978). Still, after some time, the excavation revealed that the site covered about 500 square meters (Barkai & Gopher 2001). A variety of habitation stages were discovered, each distinguished by the presence of bones, ground-stone objects, and flints. Nahal Hadera V site contains rich lithic deposits and large mammalian bone. All excavated remains were sieved dry with a two-millimeter mesh and passed through a wet sieve; they were sorted and then preserved at the Institute of Archeology (Bar-Oz, 2021). A taphonomic re-assessment of faunal remnants found in 1973 (Bar-Oz & Dayana, 2002) brought to light the importance of taphonomic study for rebuilding the depositional past and the economic organization of the region.

Nahal Hadera V comprises an artifact collection recognized to the Kebaran cultural complex (Smith at el., 2003). By Epipalaeolithic criteria, Nahal Hadera V is a big and concentrated occupied site. The approximate area of the site is estimated at five hundred square meters, and the width of its deposits is more than one meter. Early 1970s trial excavations revealed a series of six stratigraphic units, of which only two were considered occupation levels. After the digging, many flint and bone objects were discovered. Activity zones were suggested by the presence of ground stone tools, flints, and bone. All occupational parts and the lowermost and highest layers yielded lithic and bone assemblages (Smith et al., 2003).

Nahal Hadera V lacks the radiometric date, but chronologically the lithic assemblage approximates Nahal Hadera V within the Kebaran complex’s period. The kebaran is the first archaeological unit of the Epipaleolithic period, and it extends over the Mediterranean regions of Israel. Kebaran sites are also visible in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Typically, its site is small in area, though more significant open-air sites were discovered in Jordan. Kebaran has rich assemblages, which comprise ground stone tools, mainly pestles and mortars, and faunal remains (Smith et al., 2003). The faunal remains symbolize 14 animals and reptiles (Buitenhuis et al., 2002). In Nahal Hadera V, the bone assemblage was discovered to be ruled by mountain gazelle at 70%, followed by dear at 20%. While the 10% represent other large mammals from the coastal plain, hartebeest and roe deer have minor proportions. Insignificant games are represented by the tortoise, hare, and the fox.

Saxon’s prehistoric context suggests a primary stream of species related to dry sandy soils and sparse vegetation, primarily grass and brush. The aurochs and cervids show a reliable water source nearby, whereas the gazelles, hartebeest, and equids show that there are few or no marshy places. The Nahal Hadera V Kebaran site is critical for comprehending the economic construction of the coastal plain’s Epipalaeolithic categorization. The site has a lot of cultural relics and a lot of faunal remains. Throughout the Last Glacial Maximum, Epipalaelithic societies progressed from nomadic hunter-gatherers to compound populations with huge permanent settlements (Bar-Oz & Dayan, 2002). Fauna remains in Nahal Hadera V offers a valuable archaeological tool for identifying differences in the way people organized their economic activities (Akazawa at. El, 1998).

The taphonomic procedures analysis

(Bar-Oz & Dayan2002) used the following faunal analysis methods,

The unidentifiable material were separated through two meshes measuring 1cm and 0.5 cm after the identifiable pieces were assembled, even though the whole site was dry sieved with 0.2 mesh. The remnants of every group size were weighed and remains bigger than 1cm counted. The technique allowed the comparison of each ratio of the bone size groups in the assemblage to those of different sites. Consequently, skeletal features were recognized to the next possible taxonomic unit, together with parts such as head fragments, shaft, ribs, and vertebrae shaft. The latter were grouped to only size. The hartebeest remains are uncommon; hence it was assumed their part in the medium-large magnitude class is insignificant. The same applies to gazelles and roe deer with extremely rare bones in the small-medium size class.

All recognizable fragments were submerged in acetic acid for 24 hours, then dipped on sodium bicarbonate to shield the acid, and later washed away and dried gently. The technique helped to observe various surface modifications. The method identified improvement signifying bone weathering, root marks, signs of animal activity, and percussion marks. Type of bone destruction was examined for all epiphyses and near-epiphysis shaft remains. Breakage angle and sketch were evaluated to define the phase of bone breakage and the circumference preservation index to distinguish carnivore activity. Furthermore, the age structure of the most hunted species, fallow deer and gazelles, was investigated on basis of epiphyseal closure, and gazelle age structure was evaluated on the grounds of tooth wear.

The Faunal Assemblage

According to (Bar-Oz & Daya, 2002), the site produced 5444 whole and fragmentary bones bigger than 1cm in extreme dimensions, with a weight of 20 403g. The remaining bone assemblage consisted of 0.5 to 1.0 cm, is 7483g, and 0.2cm to 0.5 cm, which 4198 g unrecognized bone fragments. The accumulation of bones recognized to size class is responsible for the significant difference in sample size results. Meanwhile, bone fragments comprise the irresistible collective of known elements (Bar-Oz & Dayan, 2002) acknowledged the bone remains as a bone fraction by its side and parts. In the analysis, the Kebaran assemblage is referred to as one unit (Bar-Oz & Dayan, 2002). However, their recognized element count appears to be double that previously identified, although their result did not vary suggestively in the relative abundance of every taxon from those of Saxon (Sokal & Rohlf, 1995). The findings show that the time-consuming identification method, which included size classifications for shaft and bone fragments, did not affect species abundance circulation

Gazelles account for 72.3 percent of the prey at Nahal Hadera V, while fallow deer account for 23.4 percent. The exact number of species was seen in other Epipalaeolithic sites (Bar-Oz et al., 1999). NHV’s small-game guidance is 0•08, which, as previously said, is an approximation (Munro & Surovell, 2000). (Stiner et al. 2000) propose a large ratio to divert food stress and increase human population concentrations throughout the Late Palaeolithic. The proportion at Nahal Hadera V is minor than that found in the Kebaran assemblages by Stiner et al. (2000) specific attritional mechanisms.

The amount of tooth wear of current gazelle skulls in the Tel-Aviv Zoological Museum, whose age at death was reported as compared to the dental wear of gazelles centered on dental age groups (Bar-Oz & Dayana, 2002). According to the dental wear phase, the proportion of young characters below one year and six months is 38 percent. For purposes of evaluation, a current group’s share of young people (below the age of one year and six months) is estimated to be around 35%. (Baharav, 1983). These findings reveal a hunting form that is not linked to age

Taphonomic Analysis

The relationship between bone conservation and bone mass (Lyman, 1994) allows (Bar-Oz & Dayan, 2002) to assess the comparative power of taphonomic perturbations produced by pre and post-depositional methods. Reducing their capacity to comprehend human subsistence forms and Palaeoecological environments (Bar-Oz & Dayan, 2002). The likelihood that skeletal fragments will be subjected to many taphonomic techniques is, at least in part, determined by their structural thickness (Smith at el., 2003). (Lyman, 1994) discovered a positive and significant link with gazelle bone survivorship (centered on the relative frequency of characteristics shown in Nahal Hadera V) and bone mass (centered on domestic sheep bone masses), accounting for 45 percent of the variance found.

Furthermore, a positive relationship was discovered between fallow deer bone survival (focused on the relative frequency of features identified in Nahal Hadera V and bone mass, which accounts for 57 percent of the detected modification) and bone mass (Bar-Oz & Dayan, 2002). The degradation line for gazelles (MN=0.927*(Bulk mass)-0.12) is not statistically different from that of fallow deer (MNI=0.927*(bone mass)-0.125). Due to taphonomic disturbances, these findings propose a similar degree of distinction degradation of gazelle and fallow deer bone characteristics related to their mass.

The relationship between bone conservation and food utility index shows an opposite pattern than bone mass (Metcalfe & Jones 1988). The economic usefulness of animal body parts established in the area (focused on the minimal sum of animal units MAU seen in Nahal Hadera V) and the food utility index are explained in this approach (centered on the weight of operational tissue linked with caribou body parts). The connection between variables aids in determining the comparative power of selective transport. The presence of a significant positive association between plenty and food utility and the lack of a link between abundance and bone mass suggests selective transport (Klein, 1989).

Entire epiphyses and near-epiphysis shaft fragments have surface modifications, indicating that considerable decay loss is unlikely. The bone collection includes fewer symptoms associated with diagnostic procedures (which are likely to impact bones’ density, volume, size, and exterior elements such as sediment composition, pH, and a variety of others) (Lyman 1994). Bones and teeth can be damaged by biological, burying, chemical, and physical processes in the soil. However, the ratio of cranial bones to teeth in fallow deer and gazelle show that indefinable bones are lost insignificantly due to fragmentation or decomposition processes (Stiner, 1994)

All recognized components, such as the presence of animal movement, gnawing, grinding, and scratch marks of predators and rodents, are entirely absent (Fisher, 1995). As a result, there were no carnivore tooth marks or digestive signals in the non-recognizable elements (tested on entire fragments more significant than 4 cm) that predominantly contained mid-shaft remains (Bar-Oz & Dayana, 2002). (Villa & Mahieu, 1991) looked at the Nahal Hadera V bone assemblage’s fracture contour, angle, and shaft circumference to see if there was evidence of fresh or dry bone rupture. After examining the bones and comparing them to those found in Neolithic sites in southern France, the results show that Nahal Hadera V has a restricted number of dry bone fractures caused by bone trampling (Villa & Mahieu, 1991). As a result, bone fractures discovered at Nahal Hadera V reveal human actions during the occupation, resulting in a considerable quantity of remains with fresh bone fractures.

Skeletal Part Representation

Bar-Oz & Dayan (2002) analyzed the distribution of different skeleton pieces to determine the presence of portions of gazelle and fallow deer at the location. Gazelles were put together (small-medium), and fallow deer were grouped (big medium) bones of equal masses into five portions of the remains to analyze the representation of skeletal parts. The skull represents the head; the lumbar vertebrae and thoracic vertebrae represent the trunk; long bones represent the hind limbs and forelimbs, and phalanx I and II represent the toes. (Lyman, 1994) employed only post-cranial bones with the same mass values in this study to account for conservation bias associated with bone mass. The circulation of skeletal parts in gazelle and fallow deer suggest a strikingly diverse representation

Skeletal parts of a gazelle and a fallow deer were sampled for remnants (Bar-Oz and Dayana, 2002)

For both gazelle and fallow deer, the proportion of observed to predicted value indicates the presence of low representation vertebrae, with vast and similar sums of heads, limbs, and toes. However, due to issues with the study of vertebrae from archaeological sites, the results of skeletal part representation should be regarded with caution, according to (Stiner, 1994). As a result, a high percentage of scapulae and pelves for gazelle and fallow deer were discovered, showing that these axial parts have existed at the location.

The distribution of skeletal sections with the missing axial parts suggests a uniform depiction of head parts, upper and lower limbs, and phalanges for both gazelle and fallow deer. These kinds of outcomes are shared by Kua hunter-gatherers, according to Karr and Outram (Karr & Outram, 2012). Furthermore, despite their significant size differences, skeletal part comparisons between gazelle and fallow deer reveal no significant differences in body part distribution (Mendelssohn & Yom-Tov, 1999). The results of this evaluation demonstrate that both species were treated equally.

The Kebaran occupants of Nahal Hadera V mainly consisted of mountain gazelle seventy percent and fallow deer twenty percent. Other animals such as hartebeest, roe deer, equids, and aurochs from the coastal plain were not disturbed to the equal unit. Small game such as tortoise, hare, and fox were present in a small percentage. A hunting culture centered on gazelle and fallow deer is similar to that seen in neighboring Geometric-Kebaran sites and Hefziah and represents the Epipalaeolithic period (Bar-OZ et al., 1999). As a result, the age arrangement of the hunted inhabitants proposes that gazelles are pursued at random. The Nahal Hadera V with juvenile gazelles at 38% follows the global Epipalaeolithic sequence (Bar-Oz et al., 1999). These findings need to be backed up with a larger trial size, which will allow for more consistency in the aging of the fallow deer population and sexing of the hunted inhabitant.

Discussion

The Nahal Hadera V bone assemblage’s taphonomic re-evaluation provides more understanding into the Kebaran culture of the economy in regards to body part portrayal and the site’s depositional history. The examination reveals insignificant damage of bones because of several diagenetic processes and shows a large number of bone destruction happened at the time of occupation. Possibly due to the exploitation of bones for marrow ingestion, there was massive production of fragments, mostly which showed fresh fractures. The lack of selective transit and the rarity of axial units indicate that gazelle and fallow deer needed broad field butchery before being brought into the site (Bar-Oz &Dayana, 2002). The absence of carnivore activity shows that bones were unavailable during the occupation (Bunn, 1993). Therefore, the lack of carnivore activity suggests that Nahal HaderaV was inhabited for a lengthy time of the year.

Contrasting to (Marean & Kim’s, 1998) findings from Kobeh cave and (Bertram & Marean, 1999) findings for size four bovids from Die Kleders cave. (Bar-Oz & Dayana, 2002) results, which comprised vigilant recognition of shaft fragments and size class bones, and various other taphonomic procedures, do not vary from earlier study findings. Association with (Saxon et al., 1978), classical analysis proposes insignificant dissimilarities in taxonomic composition. Consequently, a comparison with Saxon’s results demonstrates the exact percentages for most body parts, apart from the body and head parts that Saxon did not study.

Taphonomic investigation (Bar-Oz & Dayana, 2002) refines their insights into the Nahal Hadera V site’s depositional history, and aids elucidate the region’s economic construction. However, these findings do not defeat previous classical investigations. According to (Bar-Oz & Dayana, 2002), their results are from only one location, but they believe they are relevant to other open-air sites. Therefore, all scholars should understand that the tremendous global changeability in the kind of site, ecological backgrounds, depositional histories, and prehistoric human actions may limit their capability to simplify. Thus more investigation is necessary to illuminate the issue.

Blumenschine (1998) proposes that open-air sites should be subjected to rigorous taphonomic investigation. For NHV, Bar-Oz & Dayana (2002) established no significant post-depositional changes. Nevertheless, each area has its detailed taphonomic history; it is essential to document possible attrition preconceptions before illustrating inter-site assessments. Noticeable dissimilarities in conservation between the upper strata of Hefzibah and around the site of Nahal Hadera V is an excellent example of the potential taphonomic biases (Humphrey, 2012).

In Hefzibah, higher strata have a high degree of weathering, and the assemblage is ruled by high-thickness bone (Lyman, 1994). The collection contains mainly teeth, diaphysis shaft remains phalanges, and is ruled by aurochs and, to a slighter degree, fallow deer and gazelle with nearly no small game. The absence of taphonomic analysis and evaluation amid the two strata would reveal diverse economic organizations for the neighboring sites. (Behrensmeyer at el., 1991) recommend that upcoming faunal analysis should comprise multivariate taphonomic analyses. The inclusion will help produce a more liable judgment between sites and assemblage, and eventually, more relevant findings of human existence patterns will emerge. In conclusion, taphonomy is an essential input to a zooarchaeological study. In this paper, I used pathognomic methodologies to reexamine the faunal assemblage of Nahal Hadera V.

Results

In summary, taphonomy is an essential contribution to the zooarchaeological study, although investigations conducted without employing taphonomic methods are as relevant.

While some experts believe that taphonomy is a good thing, others believe it is bad. We consider data usage as a revolutionary step in data reading of taphonomic tools as a data-gathering improvement and understanding prehistoric subsistence patterns. The results show that time and effort must be invested when performing shaft fragments assemblage. In this analysis, these methods were used to reexamine the faunal assemblage of Nahal Hadera V. For bigger assemblages typical of later sites; a similar analysis would need time investment. In conclusion, unlike the characters in (Andreas et al.,2012), who met after 20 years and learned that their life had taken completely contrasting paths, taphonomic analysis and the ones applying time-honored classical techniques have the same scientific trajectories, leading to the same ends but at diverse levels of detail. I will use (Bar-OZ & Dayana, 2002), faunal analysis methods to execute my study. As a result, a taphonomic investigation of NHV serves to elucidate the economy of NHV residents while also fine-tuning our understanding of the site’s depositional history. The taphonomic investigation of NHV serves to elucidate the economy of NHV residents while also fine-tuning our understanding of the site’s depositional history.

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