Hunting preferences reveal a great deal about the life of Paleolithic humans, and may reflect changes in human demography, technology, and adaptations to changing environments. However, the effects of hunting preferences and environmental availability are often conflated, stressing the need for comparisons to other predators that exploited the same environment. Manot Cave (Israel), preserved rich Early Upper Paleolithic (46-33 ka) human occupations, along with repeated spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) occupations, allowing us to compare anthropogenic and biogenic bone assemblages within the same space and time frame. We focused on the faunal remains retrieved in the middle of the cave (Area D), and conducted detailed taphonomic and zooarchaeological analyses. The Area D archaeofauna was dominated by Mesopotamian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) and mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella), which showed high abundance of carnivore damage. This and the carnivore-to-ungulate ratio, the presence of juvenile hyena and numerous coprolites match the criteria of a hyena den, confirming that the bone assemblage was created mainly by hyenas. Manot Area D thus reveals hyena prey choice in the Upper Paleolithic Galilee, which we then compared with human prey choice. Our results showed that hyena prey assemblages in Manot and elsewhere in the Levant were Dama-dominated while human assemblages were dominated by Gazella, demonstrating that hyenas and humans hunted different animal size groups, possibly in different habitats. We interpret this phenomenon as resulting from two possible scenarios: the emergence of projectile technology which may favor hunting in open environments, and niche partitioning derived by human-hyena competition. Hyenas were abundant and hunted unselectively while the anthropogenic record presents population turnovers and some dietary diversification. Whereas both scenarios are difficult to test directly with the available evidence, we argue that either one explains quite well the late Pleistocene archaeofaunal patterns in the Levantine record.

中文翻译：

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猎人还是猎人：晚更新世黎凡特的人类和鬣狗猎物选择分歧。

狩猎偏好揭示了很多旧石器时代人类的生活，可能反映了人类人口结构、技术和对不断变化的环境的适应的变化。然而，狩猎偏好和环境可用性的影响往往被混为一谈，这强调需要与利用相同环境的其他捕食者进行比较。马诺特洞穴（以色列），保留了丰富的旧石器时代早期（46-33 ka）人类活动，以及重复的斑点鬣狗（Crocuta crocuta）活动，使我们能够比较同一空间和时间范围内的人为和生物骨骼组合。我们专注于在洞穴中部（D 区）回收的动物群遗骸，并进行了详细的埋藏学和动物考古分析。D区古动物群以美索不达米亚小鹿（Dama mesopotamica）和山地瞪羚（Gazellagazella）为主，显示出大量的食肉动物损害。这与食肉动物与有蹄类动物的比例、幼年鬣狗和大量粪化石的存在符合鬣狗巢穴的标准，证实骨骼组合主要由鬣狗创造。因此，马诺特区 D 揭示了旧石器时代晚期加利利的鬣狗猎物选择，然后我们将其与人类猎物选择进行了比较。我们的结果表明，马诺特和黎凡特其他地方的鬣狗猎物组合以达马族为主，而人类组合则以瞪羚为主，这表明鬣狗和人类捕杀的动物体型不同，可能在不同的栖息地。我们将这种现象解释为两种可能的情况：可能有利于在开放环境中狩猎的射弹技术的出现，以及人类与鬣狗竞争导致的生态位划分。鬣狗数量众多，被无选择地捕杀，而人为记录显示人口更替和饮食多样化。虽然这两种情况都很难用现有证据直接进行测试，但我们认为，其中任何一种情况都很好地解释了黎凡特记录中更新世晚期的古动物群模式。