Volume 61, September 01, 2015, Pages 25-35
a
Université de Bordeaux, UMR 5199 PACEA, Allée Geoffroy St-Hilaire B18, Pessac Cedex, France
b CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, UMR 5199 PACEA, Allée Geoffroy St-Hilaire B18, Pessac Cedex, France
b CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, UMR 5199 PACEA, Allée Geoffroy St-Hilaire B18, Pessac Cedex, France
Abstract
Apart from
exceptional cases, such as Laetoli, Koobi Fora or Happisburgh hominin
trackways (Behrensmeyer and Laporte, 1981; Bennett etal., 2009; Raichlen
etal., 2010; Ashton etal., 2014; Bennett and Morse, 2014), tracks are
often underestimated in prehistoric research, particularly in cave
contexts, despite their representing rich sources of behavioural and
taphonomic information. The analysis of human and animal tracks in
archaeological contexts can help to both untangle the chronology of cave
occupations and identify the animal species who frequented different
sites. Here we focus on differentiating large dog and wolf tracks that
are very similar in both appearance and size. We use a large sample of
36 modern prints from two wolf subspecies (Canis lupus lupus and Canis
lupus albus) and 106 dog tracks belonging to seven breeds (Beauceron,
German Shepherd, Bernese Mountain Dog, Czechoslovakian Wolfdog, Great
Dane, Siberian Husky
and Rottweiler). This study uses an approach combining statistical
analyses and geometric morphometrics (. Berge etal., 2006; Bennett
etal., 2009). Our results shed new light on the still unidentified canid
tracks accompanying human footprints documented at Chauvet Cave in the
Ardèche region of southern France (Clottes, 2001) and have important
implications for current debates surrounding the timing of wolf
domestication in Western Europe and prehistoric ichnology in general. ©
2015 Elsevier Ltd.
Author keywords
Chauvet Cave; Early dogs; Footprints; Geometric morphometrics; Palaeoichnology; Wolf domestication
Indexed keywords
GEOBASE Subject Index: archaeological evidence; canid; cave; domestication; footprint; ichnology; morphometry; prehistoric; taphonomy; trackway
Regional Index: Ardeche; Chauvet Cave; France; Rhone-Alpes
Species Index: Animalia; Canidae; Canis familiaris; Canis lupus; Canis lupus lupus
ISSN: 03054403Source Type: Journal
Original language: English
DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2015.04.020Document Type: Article
Publisher: Academic Press
