Taphonomy and Site Formation of Azokh 1

Abstract This chapter aims to describe the complete scenario that existed during the Middle Pleistocene in Azokh Caves and the Lesser Caucasus area from the evidence provided by the fossil assemblages recovered from excavations between 2002 and 2009. In the case of Azokh 1, taphonomic studies are particularly relevant since there is no such information from the early phase of excavations (1960–1980), during which much of the sediment was removed. This study, based on the taphonomy of large mammals, has allowed us to distinguish two sources of the large mammal fauna. Cave bear remains accumulated as a result of hibernation, and some of the carcasses were butchered by hominins in situ. The other faunal remains, mainly herbivores, were brought by hominins, but butchering took place somewhere else, not at the rear of the cave where they have been found. There is no evidence for simultaneous occupation of the cave by bears and hominins. There is also no evidence of human occupation at the rear of

M.D. Marin-Monfort Y. Fernández-Jalvo (&)

Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain

e-mail: yfj@mncn.csic.es

M.D. Marin-Monfort e-mail: dores@mncn.csic.es

I. Cáceres

Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira I Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain

e-mail: icaceres@iphes.cat

and

IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana I Evolució Social, Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain

P. Andrews

Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK

e-mail: pjandrews@uwclub.net

A.C. Pinto-Llona

Instituto de Historia (CCHS-CSIC), Albasanz 26-28, 28037 Madrid, Spain

e-mail: acpinto@ih.csic.es

the cave, and they may have occupied the mouth of the cave during summer time. Cave bears could enter in winter-spring and occupied the rear of the cave. When the cave sediments reached close to the cave roof, bats occupied areas previously inhabited by bears and visited by hominins. Minerals neo-formed in fossils and sediments indicate seasonal changes in humidity and temperature inside the cave during the Pleistocene. Bat guano and corrosive fluid percolation caused strong corrosion on fossils after burial, damaging bones to such an extent that some of them could not be recovered. Bat guano was especially harmful to collagen, which is not preserved in most bones. Finally, during the Holocene, the top of the sequence was eroded by high energy water that removed the upper part of the sediments and opened the cave again to humans and animals.

Резюме Тафономия представляет собой исследование процессов фоссилизации и “истории жизни” окаменелостей. Она изучает, вчастности, причины смерти житвотных, каким образом их останки сохранились до наших дней и как расшифровать информацию, находящуюся на поверхности костей, в тканях, гео- и биохимическом составе. Расшифрованная информация рассказывает нам об экологических условиях прошлого, о вымерших животных и растениях и, в целом, о природе и изменениях в древних экосистемах и климате. Таким образом, тафономия является наукой, которая использует закодированную информацию и сохранившиеся следы деятельности человека для описания естественной “жизни” окаменелостей и восстановления объективной палеобиолого-палеоэкологической и другой палеонтологической информации с целью детальной реконструкции прошлого.

Целью данной главы является, в частности, описание максимально полного сценария событий, имевших место в течение среднего плейстоцена в Азохской пещере. Тафономические исследования на данной стоянке направлены на восстановление исходной информации с ранних фаз раскопок (1960–1980 гг.), в течение которых бóльшая часть седиментов была перемещена из пещеры.