Middle Paleolithic tortoise use at Kebara Cave (Israel)

Kebara's Neanderthal inhabitants used spur-thighed tortoises (Testudo graeca) for food and perhaps also for containers. Tortoise mean body size appears to track major paleoclimatic fluctuations documented in the oxygen-isotope record of Soreq Cave (Israel), with larger means during warmer-moister periods and smaller means during colder-drier periods. Body size also tracks site function, with larger means during periods of ephemeral site use. And body size tracks site seasonality, with larger means during warm-season occupations, when tortoises would have been least active. Body size declined sharply toward the end of the Middle Paleolithic, perhaps reflecting a pulse in human population growth that increased the level of predation pressure on these creatures. This conclusion must be regarded with caution, however, because Kebara's early Upper Paleolithic (Ahmarian) occupations were very ephemeral, and therefore would not have impacted local tortoise populations as heavily as the body-size reduction would imply.