- From Earlier to Later Hominins: Dental Microwear Approaches and Perspectives
- Tooth Enamel Biogeochemistry and Early Hominin Diets
- The Implications of Morphology, Mechanics, and Microstructure of Teeth for Understanding Dietary Drivers in Human Evolution
- Influences of the Control of Fire on the Energy Value and Composition of the Human Diet
- How Meat Made us Human: Archaeological Evidence of the Diet and Foraging Capabilities of Early Pleistocene Homo in East Africa
- Middle Palaeolithic Diets: A Critical Examination of the Evidence
- Shell Middens and Seashores: Marine Molluscs in the Diets of Emerging Modern Humans in Southern Africa
- ‘Discourse on Rivers, and Fish and Fishing’: Freshwater Aquatic Resources and Hunter-gatherers in Southern African Prehistory
- Intensification, Diet, and Group Boundaries among Later Stone Age Coastal Hunter-gatherers along the Western and Southern Coasts of South Africa
- Bananas: The Spread of a Tropical Forest Fruit as an Agricultural Staple
- Plants, People and Diet in the Neolithic of Western Eurasia
- Middle Holocene Fishing and Hunting in the Baikal Region of Siberia
- Dietary Shifts at the Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition in Europe: An Overview of the Stable Isotope Data
- Diversification and Cultural Construction of a Crop: The Case of Glutinous Rice and Waxy Cereals in the Food Cultures of Eastern Asia
- New Trends in Prehistoric North-eastern North American Agriculture Evidence: A View from Central New York
- Dietary Transition in Late Holocene Eastern North America: The Orofacial Record of Masticatory Function, Nutritional Quality, and Health in Maize Farmers
- A Stepwise Transition to Agriculture in the American Midcontinent
- An Isotopic Anthropology of Ancient Maya Diets
- Evolution of Diet and the Food Economy in Peru and Ecuador: 10,000 to 500 BP
- Dietary Opportunities and Constraints on Islands: A Multi-proxy Approach to Diet in the Southern Cook Islands
- Identifying Dietary Variability in Southern Australia from Scarce Remains
- Diet, Nutrition, and Disease across the Lifespan
- Nutrition and Bone Loss in Antiquity
- The Evolution of Lactose Tolerance in Dairying Populations
- How ‘Best’ to Determine Trophic Levels in Archaeological Agricultural Communities
- Effects of Heavy Exercise and Restricted Diet Regimes on Nitrogen Balance and Body Composition
- Pre-contact Diets of Indigenous Subarctic Peoples of North America
- Diets of Hunter-gatherers in the Arctic and Subarctic
- Reliance Upon a Toxic Staple Crop: An Anthropological Consideration of the Tukanoan Amerindian Cultivation of Manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz) in North-western Amazonia
- Dietary Change in Populations of the North American Subarctic
- Evolutionary Implications of Non-human Primate Diets
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter examines the evidence for diet amongst Middle Palaeolithic foragers in Europe and south-west Asia from c. 300,000 to 40,000 years ago, concentrating on faunal and isotopic approaches. Published faunal evidence shows that Middle Palaeolithic hominins in both regions hunted a relatively narrow range of medium- to large-sized ungulates, with occasional exploitation of megaherbivores more evident in open sites than in caves and rockshelters. Broader diets have been documented in southern Europe, although regular consumption of fast, small-sized taxa emerged only later during the Upper Palaeolithic. Stable light isotope data, often interpreted as indicating that European Neanderthals were top-level predators preferring either megaherbivores, or bovids and horses, only partly accords with the faunal evidence. Taphonomic considerations suggest that energy procurement, especially as fat, and the effects of transport constraints have so far not been sufficiently considered when assessing the dietary composition of Middle Palaeolithic hominins.
Keywords: Middle Palaeolithic, Neanderthals, modern humans, faunal analysis, trophic level
Eugène Morin, Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Université de Bordeaux
John D. Speth is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor (Emeritus) of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). He studies hunter-gatherers, past and present, New World and Old World. He is interested in the evolution of forager diet and subsistence strategies, and the ways that hunter-gatherers cope with seasonal and inter-annual resource unpredictability. His most recent books include The Paleoanthropology and Archaeology of Big-Game Hunting: Protein, Fat, or Politics? (2010, Springer); and J. L. Clark and J. D. Speth (eds) Zooarchaeology and Modern Human Origins: Human Hunting Behavior During the Later Pleistocene (2013, Springer).
Julia Lee-Thorp, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford
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- From Earlier to Later Hominins: Dental Microwear Approaches and Perspectives
- Tooth Enamel Biogeochemistry and Early Hominin Diets
- The Implications of Morphology, Mechanics, and Microstructure of Teeth for Understanding Dietary Drivers in Human Evolution
- Influences of the Control of Fire on the Energy Value and Composition of the Human Diet
- How Meat Made us Human: Archaeological Evidence of the Diet and Foraging Capabilities of Early Pleistocene Homo in East Africa
- Middle Palaeolithic Diets: A Critical Examination of the Evidence
- Shell Middens and Seashores: Marine Molluscs in the Diets of Emerging Modern Humans in Southern Africa
- ‘Discourse on Rivers, and Fish and Fishing’: Freshwater Aquatic Resources and Hunter-gatherers in Southern African Prehistory
- Intensification, Diet, and Group Boundaries among Later Stone Age Coastal Hunter-gatherers along the Western and Southern Coasts of South Africa
- Bananas: The Spread of a Tropical Forest Fruit as an Agricultural Staple
- Plants, People and Diet in the Neolithic of Western Eurasia
- Middle Holocene Fishing and Hunting in the Baikal Region of Siberia
- Dietary Shifts at the Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition in Europe: An Overview of the Stable Isotope Data
- Diversification and Cultural Construction of a Crop: The Case of Glutinous Rice and Waxy Cereals in the Food Cultures of Eastern Asia
- New Trends in Prehistoric North-eastern North American Agriculture Evidence: A View from Central New York
- Dietary Transition in Late Holocene Eastern North America: The Orofacial Record of Masticatory Function, Nutritional Quality, and Health in Maize Farmers
- A Stepwise Transition to Agriculture in the American Midcontinent
- An Isotopic Anthropology of Ancient Maya Diets
- Evolution of Diet and the Food Economy in Peru and Ecuador: 10,000 to 500 BP
- Dietary Opportunities and Constraints on Islands: A Multi-proxy Approach to Diet in the Southern Cook Islands
- Identifying Dietary Variability in Southern Australia from Scarce Remains
- Diet, Nutrition, and Disease across the Lifespan
- Nutrition and Bone Loss in Antiquity
- The Evolution of Lactose Tolerance in Dairying Populations
- How ‘Best’ to Determine Trophic Levels in Archaeological Agricultural Communities
- Effects of Heavy Exercise and Restricted Diet Regimes on Nitrogen Balance and Body Composition
- Pre-contact Diets of Indigenous Subarctic Peoples of North America
- Diets of Hunter-gatherers in the Arctic and Subarctic
- Reliance Upon a Toxic Staple Crop: An Anthropological Consideration of the Tukanoan Amerindian Cultivation of Manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz) in North-western Amazonia
- Dietary Change in Populations of the North American Subarctic
- Evolutionary Implications of Non-human Primate Diets
