Pages: 75-86

The paper deals with the sex and age composition of the population of primitive bison from the Upper Palaeolithic site of Anetovka II. This evidence is used to shed light on the hunting strategy of the site inhabitants The studied M3 sample consists of specimens. The minimum number of individuals is of which are identified as semi adult as adult as mature and as old. The studied sample looks homogeneous in every respect. The most variable characteristics of М3 are tooth crown width and talonid length while tooth crown length seems the least variable. The length to width ratio of teeth crowns suggests that many females were removed from the population. Hunting was focused on semi adult and young adult animals. This hunting strategy had an impact on the population size of the primitive bison. Animals that did not reach the desired body weight young were obtained less often which is indicative of selectivity of hunting.

Keywords: North Pontic region, Late Pleistocene, Anetovka II, steppe bison, third lower molar (M3), sex and age structure, hunting

Information about author:

Elena Sekerskaya (Odessa, Ukraine). Candidate of Historical Sciences. South Ukraine Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushinsky. Staroportofrankovskaya St., 26, Odessa, 65020, Ukraine
E-mail: [email protected]