An updated spatial taphonomic study of the Middle Pleistocene open-air site of Marathousa 1 (Megalopolis basin, Greece): Preliminary results

Abstract

In recent years, a growing number of Middle Pleistocene sites in Europe yielding evidence of elephant exploitation has further fed the long-lasting debate over past human-elephant interactions (Konidaris et al., 2021). Viewed in the broader context of past human-carnivore-megafauna interactions, evidence of elephant exploitation provides further insights into past human behaviors, diet and subsistence strategies. However, modeling past human behaviors is not straightforward: direct types of evidence for repetitive elephant exploitation (i.e., cut-marks, bone tools or breakages for brain/marrow extraction, embedded lithic tools) are rather rare, whereas indirect types of evidence—such as spatial association, or tool use-wear and residues patterns—are significantly more common, although often questionable (Giusti, 2021; Konidaris and Tourloukis, 2021). Spatial association, for instance, does not necessarily imply causation: spatial associations of lithics and modified fauna are not direct evidence of a cultural accumulation, because syn- and post-depositional processes may equally produce spatial associations. Therefore, in spite of the growing archaeological record, the mode of acquisition and processing of the elephant carcass, the degree of exploitation of the carcass, its timing relative to, eventually, carnivore scavenging and to the carcass decomposition are, more often than not, inadequately understood.