A GIS‐Based Approach to Modeling Carnivore Activity in the Pleistocene Site of Cova del Rinoceront (Iberian Peninsula)

ABSTRACT

A significant methodological difficulty in the interpretation of Pleistocene zooarchaeological assemblages is the identification of taphonomic agents that modify and break bones. Carnivores, in particular, have been a main focus, as competition with carnivores may have affected carcass acquisition opportunities for humans in the past. In recent years, new techniques and methodologies have been developed for taphonomic analysis, and experimental taphonomic datasets modeling carnivore damage to bones have grown. Over the past two decades, geographic information systems (GIS) software has been increasingly used to model and interpret zooarchaeological assemblages. Using GIS to create visual maps of the distribution of bone damage and bone surface modifications allows for visual comparisons of archaeological and experimental data, and the use of spatial statistical tools in GIS software allows for quantitative comparisons. In this study, we expand on previous methods, which utilized ArcGIS in the analysis of bone surface modifications, and we adapt these methods to the open‐source Q‐GIS software. We apply this method to examine Layer I at the Late Pleistocene Cova del Rinoceront site (Castelldefels, Iberian Peninsula), which has more than 2000 well‐preserved vertebrate remains associated with the use of the cave as a carnivore den. Previous taphonomic work proposed two carnivore taxa (canids or large felids) as potential modifiers. In order to further examine this hypothesis, this study uses an updated GIS image analysis method to compare a subset of the Cova del Rinoceront ungulate assemblage with carnivore‐modified experimental assemblages created by wolves and large felids. Our results suggest that wolves were the main carnivore agent that contributed to the site. Our results also highlight the potential of GIS image analysis methods for the interpretation of zooarchaeological assemblages.