Palaeolithic Foragers at Saint-cesaire, France: A Faunal Perspective on the Origins of Modern Humans

In the anthropology of human origins, few subjects have stimulated as much research and generated as much controversy as the transition between Neandertals and early modern humans. However, little is known about how these populations exploited faunal resources and responded to fluctuations in animal abundance. New studies investigating changes in foraging strategies during the transition are critical for improving our understanding of the transition process. This book takes a step in this direction by testing the subsistence implications of a modern human expansion into Western Europe. Key implications of the hypothesis of a modern human incursion are declines in foraging efficiency and an expansion of diet breadth. The faunas from the exceptionally detailed sequence of Saint-Cesaire, a famous site in central western France, are used to test these propositions. The results obtained suggest a novel interpretation of bio-cultural changes during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition.