Evidence for hunter-gatherer impacts on raven diet and ecology in the Gravettian of Southern Moravia

The authors report isotopic data from ravens from Pavlovian (29,000-25,000 yr bp) archaeological sites that indicate ravens were consuming the same range of foods as commensal humans at the sites, which the authors refer to as 'incipient synanthropism'. The earlier Gravettian of Southern Moravia-the Pavlovian-is notable for the many raven bones (Corvus corax) documented in its faunal assemblages. On the basis of the rich zooarchaeological and settlement data from the Pavlovian, previous work suggested that common ravens were attracted by human domestic activities and subsequently captured by Pavlovian people, presumably for feathers and perhaps food. Here, we report independent & delta;N-15, & delta;C-13 and & delta;S-34 stable isotope data obtained from 12 adult ravens from the Pavlovian key sites of Predmosti I, Pavlov I and Dolni Vestonice I to test this idea. We show that Pavlovian ravens regularly fed on larger herbivores and especially mammoths, aligning in feeding preferences with contemporaneous Gravettian foragers. We argue that opportunistic-generalist ravens were encouraged by human settlement and carcass provisioning. Our data may thus provide surprisingly early evidence for incipient synanthropism among Palaeolithic ravens. We suggest that anthropogenic manipulation of carrion supply dynamics furnished unique contexts for the emergence of human-oriented animal behaviours, in turn promoting novel human foraging opportunities-dynamics which are therefore important for understanding early hunter-gatherer ecosystem impacts.

Automated summary

The authors report isotopic data from ravens from Pavlovian archaeological sites, suggesting that ravens had a similar diet to humans at these sites, indicating an early form of synanthropism. The researchers argue that ravens were attracted to human settlements and were potentially captured for feathers and food. The stable isotope analysis also shows that ravens primarily fed on larger herbivores, aligning with the diet of contemporaneous Gravettian foragers.