The Earliest Taphonomic Evidence of Rabbit Exploitation by Humans in the Northwestern Mediterranean at Terra Amata (Nice, France)

Abstract

Recent taphonomic research has sparked new debates about the breadth and scale of early hominin exploitation of small game animals, including rabbits and other small-bodied, fast taxa. In this article, we present a detailed assessment of the earliest evidence of the hunting and use of leporids by an early human community in the northwestern Mediterranean region, at the site of Terra Amata (Nice, France). Taphonomic reanalysis sheds new light on the potential agent(s) responsible for the accumulation of many remains of rabbits in five stratigraphic units that contain evidence of human occupation. Our results show that hominins exploited rabbits throughout the Terra Amata occupational sequence, which indicates that this prey was a regular component of their diet. The collected taphonomic evidence indicates that Terra Amata constitutes one of the earliest sites in Europe documenting the recurrent use of small, fast prey.