A STUDY ON THE MORTALITY OF WOOLLY RHINOCEROS EXCAVATED IN 2012 AT THE LOUFANGZI SITE,HUAN COUNTY,GANSU PROVINCE
Located in the hinterland of the Chinese Loess Plateau,the site of Loufangzi(36°20′47″N,107°20′54″E;altitude:1290 m)is one of the few scientifically excavated Late Pleistocene sites in east Gansu.Two meticulous archaeological excavations conducted in 2012 and 2018 yielded a stratigraphic sequence consisting of three cultural layers.These cultural assemblages contain numerous animal remains such as Coelodonta antiquitatis,Equus sp.,Cervus elaphus and Bos primigenius,all associated with stone artifacts.According to the tooth sample,the woolly rhinoceros accounts for 67.45％of total NISP(MNI=41).The relative abundance of the woolly rhinoceros decreases from the lower cultural layer to the upper cultural layer.The mortality profile for this taxon is dominated in all three layers by prime adults followed by senile and juvenile individuals.In contrast to most Pleistocene archaeological sites comprising rhinoceros remains,the Loufangzi sample shows a relatively low proportion of juveniles.Moreover,the sample shows a higher proportion of prime than young adults and has a relatively low proportion of old individuals.This contrasts with the catastrophic mortality pattern typically observed in natural sites where old individuals tend to be poorly represented(often less than 10％).In combination with the presence of cutmarks on several mandible specimens and the relative absence of carnivore marks on the remains,the mortality pattern suggests that the rhinoceros carcasses were accumulated by humans.This animal would have offered a significant source of meat and fat.The occupants of the Loufangzi site appear to have maintained an efficient strategy of animal exploitation as the practice of hunting adult woolly rhinoceros seems to have persisted until the site was abandoned.Overall,the humans that occupied the Chinese Loess Plateau during the Late Pleistocene show a distinctive adaptive pattern that included the woolly rhinoceros as an essential food source.
万方数据
维普
