In this study, we examine the role of foxes in Palaeolithic economies, focusing on sites of the Middle Palaeolithic, Aurignacian, Gravettian and Magdalenian of the Swabian Jura. For this purpose, we used published faunal data from 26 assemblages from the region, including new information from the Magdalenian layers of Langmahdhalde. We explore how the abundance of foxes changes over time, how they were used by humans, and how they were deposited at the sites, with a special focus on fox hunting methods. To evaluate these hunting methods, we use the prey choice model of optimal foraging theory (OFT) and simulate possible hunting scenarios, which we test based on the published faunal assemblages. Our research indicates that foxes were hunted since the early Upper Palaeolithic for their meat, fur and teeth, possibly with traps. We find that the abundance of fox remains in the archaeological record of the region increased continuously starting in the Aurignacian, which cannot be explained by taphonomic factors. The trend of foxes to adapt to human-influenced environments with commensal behavior may also have contributed to them being hunted more often.

中文翻译：

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狐狸在斯瓦比亚汝拉州的旧石器时代的经济中的作用（德国）

在这项研究中，我们研究了狐狸在旧石器时代的经济中所扮演的角色，重点研究了施瓦本汝拉州的中古石器时代，奥里尼亚克时代，格拉维提时代和玛格达琳时代的遗址。为此，我们使用了来自该地区26个组合的已出版动物区系数据，包括来自Langmahdhalde的Magdalenian层的新信息。我们探讨了狐狸的数量如何随时间变化，人类如何使用狐狸以及如何将其存放在这些地点，特别关注狐狸的狩猎方法。要评估这些狩猎方法，我们使用最佳觅食理论（OFT）的猎物选择模型并模拟可能的狩猎场景，并根据已发布的动物组合对其进行测试。我们的研究表明，自上古旧石器时代以来，人们一直在猎捕狐狸，因为它们的肉，毛和牙齿，可能还有陷阱。我们发现，从奥里尼亚克开始，该地区的考古记录中仍存在大量的狐狸，并且该狐狸的数量不断增加，而这不能由声态因素来解释。狐狸倾向于以人类行为来适应人类影响的环境，这也可能导致它们被猎杀的频率更高。