The Paleolithic finds from Bollschweil and the question of ......the Ritz collection is not yet available for study. The combined Blattmann and Tübingen collec-tions include 423 specimens

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1. INTRODUCTION

After the site’s discovery in 1995, amateurpaleontologists E. Blattmann and R. Ritz beganexcavating the rich Pleistocene faunal remainsexposed in a small, steep valley on the edge of the limestone quarry operated by the Kochcompany in Bollschweil, 10 km SE of Freiburgin the Black Forest of southwestern Germany.In 1997 the site, which had already producedscores of faunal remains and a small number oflithic artifacts, was called to the attention of theState Agency for Archaeological Heritage(Landesamt für Denkmalpflege) and theDepartment of Early Prehistory and QuaternaryEcology of the University of Tübingen. In thefall of 1997 a team of archaeologists fromTübingen conducted a salvage excavationfocusing on clarifying the geological setting ofthe finds and augmenting the existing collec-tions of faunal remains and lithic artifacts. Thisexcavation (Figs. 1-3) ran for 10 weeks andyielded a wealth of new information about thesite (Conard & Kandel 1999). Subsequentresearch has addressed the lithic assemblagefrom the site (Conard & Blattmann 2000) and

the chronostratigraphic assessment of the site(Rink et al. n.d.).

2. GEOLOGICAL SETTING

The Paleolithic site of Bollschweil is locatednear the northwestern edge of the Koch lime-stone quarry at an elevation of 370 m above sealevel. The finds lay near the base of a smallnorth-south oriented valley formed on its east-ern border by Jurassic limestone bedrock and tothe west by limestone blocks and sediments.While this small gully-like valley probably wasfed occasionally by runoff, there is no indica-tion that it was ever a perennial water course.The sediments filling the valley preserve acomplex system of interbedding silts and clayscontaining abundant fragments of limestoneand faunal material. Although a small numberof bones were found in articulated position, thematerial appears to be in a jumbled context,perhaps as a result of slumping or solifluctionfrom above. Even during the early phases offieldwork, the great abundance of mammothremains was readily visible. The presence of acold period fauna including mammoth and

The Paleolithic finds from Bollschweil and the questionof Neanderthal mammoth hunting in the Black Forest

N.J. Conard, L. Niven

Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters, UniversitätTübingen, Tübingen, Germany - [email protected] - [email protected]

SUMMARY: From 1996 to 1998 excavations in Bollschweil, near Freiburg in Breisgau, yielded several hun-dred faunal remains and a small lithic assemblage. The finds were preserved in a small loess and rubble-filledvalley on the edge of a limestone quarry. Biostratigraphic and cultural stratigraphic arguments, as well as ESRdates suggest that the accumulation dates to the penultimate glaciation, but the reworked nature of the sedi-ments in the gully complicate the archaeological and chronological interpretation of the site. The lithic assem-blage includes an amphibolite handaxe and a chert side scraper. The fauna is dominated by mammoth withfewer remains of horse, large bovid, woolly rhinoceros, red deer and bear. At least six mammoths are includ-ed in this assemblage, which is characterized by a wide range of body parts. The finds lack clear anthro-pogenic modifications. As is often the case at proboscidean sites, a definitive causal association between thefaunal remains and hominid economic behavior is difficult to establish.

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woolly rhinoceros along with the predomi-nance of loessic sediments points strongly to anaccumulation during a cool phase of thePleistocene. The lack of a clear geostratigraph-ic markers forces the use of biostratigraphy,

cultural stratigraphy and radiometric dating forassessing the age of the deposits. Several linesof evidence including a series of ESR datessuggest a probable age within the penultimateglaciation (Rink et al. n. d.).

Fig.1 - Bollschweil. Topographic map of the excavation showing the location of faunal and lithic finds.

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Fig.2 - Bollschweil. Overview of the excavation looking toward the northwest, October 1997.

Fig.3 - Bollschweil. 24E Profile showing coarse limestone debris and faunal remains, October 1997.

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3. LITHIC ARTIFACTS

The finds from Bollschweil include a dozenlithic artifacts of the following raw materials:chert, quartz, quartzite, amphibolite andsiliceous slate (Fig. 4). The poor excavationconditions in the jumble of sediment, bone andlimestone rubble, and the lack of a large sampleof waterscreened sediment hindered the recov-ery of lithic artifacts.

Two finds are of typological importance. Onepiece is a ventrally retouched side scraper ofJurassic chert; the other is a large handaxe ofamphibolite (Conard & Kandel 1999; Conard &Blattmann 2000). Typologically, the sidescraper, though well documented in earlier andlater periods, would most likely belong to theMiddle Paleolithic. The cultural assessment ofhandaxe-bearing assemblages touches on sever-al complex issues. While handaxes are the mostimportant form of the Acheulean, in Germanyhandaxes are fairly common in the MiddlePaleolithic as defined by Bosinski (1967). Insouthern Germany in particular, bifaciallyworked artifacts including diverse handaxeforms persist throughout much of the Würmianglaciation. Thus there is no sound basis for dis-tinguishing Lower and Middle Paleolithicassemblages based solely on the presence orabsence of handaxes (Conard & Fischer 2000).

4. FAUNAL REMAINS

At present the faunal remains from the exca-vations of the University of Tübingen and fromE. Blattmann’s collection are available forstudy. An unknown amount of material fromthe Ritz collection is not yet available for study.The combined Blattmann and Tübingen collec-tions include 423 specimens of macro-mam-malian fauna, of which 299 pieces could beidentified to the level of genus or species (Tab.1, Fig. 5). These include the remains of mam-moth, horse, large bovid, woolly rhinoceros,red deer and bear in descending order of abun-dance. Many other remains could be placed ingeneral size classes.

While mammoth is by far the best representedspecies, horse, large bovid, woolly rhinocerosand red deer are represented by 28, 22, 14 andfive specimens respectively. The remains ofhorse represent at least three individuals and arecharacterized mainly by dentition and distal hindlimb elements. Axial skeletal remains are lack-ing in the sample. Based on the teeth, most of theanimals in the death assemblage were youngadults. The large bovid assemblage includesremains from at least two animals and shows avery different representation.

With the exception of two distal limb bonesand a rib fragment, all the specimens are either

Fig.4 - Bollschweil. Amphibolite handaxe.

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Tab.1 - Bollschweil. Summary of the faunal remains from E. Blattmann’s and the University of Tübingen’s

Fig.5 - Bollschweil. Relative abundance of macro-mammalian taxa based on NISP.

cervical vertebrae, pieces of horn core or othercranial fragments, including dentition. Woollyrhinoceros is represented by at least one indi-vidual. Other than a metatarsus and two longbone fragments, only teeth and tooth fragmentshave been documented. The five specimensfrom red deer include only antler, dental andcranial material. Bear is represented by a com-plete radius.

The assemblage of mammoth remainsincludes 229 specimens and forms 77% of theidentified specimens and a still higher portionof the assemblage on the basis of weight. There

is little doubt, that the majority of the unidenti-fied very large (mammoth or rhino) size classremains are also from mammoth. With thiscomparatively large assemblage more can besaid about the body part representation and ageprofile of this species. The assemblage includesthe remains of at least 6 individuals based onmaxillary molars. Tusks, mandible andhumerus are also well-represented with MNEsof 3 (Fig. 6). Axial skeletal remains and limbbones are fairly well-represented.

Although foot bones and non-cervical verte-brae are underrepresented, the assemblage

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appears to reflect the remains of complete ani-mals that either died in the gully or slid into thegully from the higher-lying surroundings.Among the teeth and dental fragments, 16 teethcould be aged using Haynes’ (1991) criteria.The age classes 0-12 (n = 3), 13-24 (n = 9) and37-60 (n = 4) African Elephant Years (AEY)are present, with the young adults in the rangefrom 13-24 AEY best represented among boththe maxillary and mandibular teeth. The mam-moth finds preserve no clear signs of modifica-tion by humans or carnivores, but the relativelypoor preservation hinders the identification ofsuch features.

5. CONCLUSIONS

Bollschweil is the only open-air archaeologi-cal site in southwestern Germany characterizedby an abundance of mammoth remains. Thesite probably formed during one or more cul-tural and sedimentary events during the penul-timate glaciation. The occurrence of lithic arti-facts with a rich faunal assemblage in a rela-tively small area of excavation suggests thathominids contributed to the faunal accumula-tion. However, in the absence of conclusive

arguments for predation or butchery byhominids, Bollschweil provides tantalizingindications, but certainly no proof, ofNeanderthals hunting mammoths on the edgeof the Black Forest. While ever more evidencefor successful hunting by archaic Europeanhominids accumulates (Conard & Prindiville2000; Gaudzinski & Roebroeks 2000), the roleof elephants in Paleolithic economies remainselusive (Haynes 1991). Only in remarkable set-tings such as Lehringen (Thieme & Veil 1985)and Gröbern (Mania et al. 1990) has it beenpossible to establish a causal link between theartifacts and the proboscidean skeletal remains.Finally in the southern German context,Bollschweil serves to remind researchers thatmany new discoveries are still to be made out-side the region’s many caves, if the necessaryresources can be made available to pursue thisline of research.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The work at Bollschweil has been supportedby the Sonderforschungsbereich 275 of theDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and by theLandesdenkmalamt of Baden-Württemberg.

Fig.6 - Bollschweil. Body part representation of Mammuthus primigenius. Note that MNI of 6 refers tomolars.

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Emil Blattmann, Ryan Byerly, Andrew Kandel,Maria Malina, Erin Piechowiak, David Punoc ha⊆, Jack Rink and Hans-Peter Uerpmann havemade important contributions to the research atBollschweil.

7. REFERENCES

Bosinski, G. 1967. Die mittelpaläolithischeFunde im westlichen Mitteleuropa. Fun-damenta 4: Cologne: Böhlau Verlag.

Conard, N.J. & Kandel, A. 1999. Die neuenAusgrabungen in Bollschweil, KreisBreisgau-Hochschwarzwald – ein mittel-paläolithscher Fundplatz mit Mammutresten.Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg 1998: 35-40.

Conard, N.J. & Blattmann, E. 2000. EinFaustkeil aus Bollschweil, Lkr. Breisgau-Hochscharzwald. Archäologische Nachri-chten aus Baden 63: 3-7.

Conard, N.J. & Fischer, B. 2000. Are there rec-ognizable cultural entities in the Germanmiddle paleolithic? In A. Ronen & M.Weinstein-Evron (eds.), Yabrudian andMicoquian: towards modern humans 400-50 kya: 7-24. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Conard, N.J. & Prindiville, T.J. 2000. Middlepalaeolithic hunting economies in theRhineland. International J. Osteoarchaeology10: 286-309.

Gaudzinski, S. & Roebroeks, W. 2000. Adultsonly. Reindeer hunting at the middle palae-olithic site Salzgitter Lebenstedt, northernGermany. Journal of Human Evolution 38:497-521.

Haynes, G. 1991. Mammoths, mastodonts &elephants: biology, behavior, and the fossilrecord. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Mania, D., Thomae, M., Litt, T. & Weber, T.1990. Neumark-Gröbern. Beiträge zur Jagddes mittelpaläolithischen Menschen.Publication of the Landesmuseum fürVorgeschichte Halle 42. Berlin: DeutscherVerlag der Wissenschaft.

Rink, J, Kandel, A.W. & Conard, N.J. n.d. ESRgeochronology & geology of the open-airdeposits in Bollschweil, Germany. Ma-nuscript available from senior author.

Thieme, H. & Veil, S. 1985. NeueUntersuchungen zum eemzeitlichen Ele-fanten-Jagdplatz Lehringen, Lkr. Verden.Die Kunde 36: 11-58.