Carnivores and their prey in the Wezmeh Cave (Kermanshah, Iran): a Late Pleistocene refuge in the Zagros
Résumé
WezmehCaveislocatedonthenortheasternedgeoftheIslamabadplain,ahighintermontanevalley in the western-central Zagros. In 1999 a disturbed but large faunal assemblage wasrecovered from this site. The abundant and extremely diverse faunal spectra present atWezmeh Cave has highlighted the importance of this assemblage. Carnivore remainsconstitute the bulk of the assemblage; red fox (Vulpes vulpes) has the highest number ofidentifiedspecimensfollowedbyspottedhyena(Crocutacrocuta ),brownbear(Ursusarctos ),wolf(Canislupus) ,felids (lion,leopard,lynx/caracal andwildcat), mustelids(badger,polecat,marten) and viverrids (mongoose). Artiodactyls (bovid, cervid, suid), equids, rhinoceros(Dicerorhinus sp.) and small animals (Cape hare, porcupine, tortoise, snake, birds) are alsopresent.AccordingtoU-seriesdating,thesitewasoccupiedfromaround70kaBPthroughtosub-recent periods by carnivores. Amongst this rich assemblage, a human fossil tooth wasalso found and dated by non-invasive spectrometry gamma dating to 20–25 ka BP. Apreliminary zooarchaeological and taphonomic study shows that Wezmeh Cave was usedby multiple carnivore species, a unique phenomenon in the Zagros Mountains in particularand southwest Asia in general. Copyright ß 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd