San Teodoro Cave (Unit B-I)
Basic information
Sample name: San Teodoro Cave (Unit B-I)

Reference: G. Mangano. 2011. An exclusively hyena-collected bone assemblage in the Late Pleistocene of Sicily: taphonomy and stratigraphic context of the large mammal remains from San Teodoro Cave (North-Eastern Sicily, Italy). Journal of Archaeological Science 38(12):3584-3595 [ER 3716]
Geography
Country: Italy


Coordinate: 38° 3' N, 14° 35' E
Coordinate basis: based on nearby landmark

Time interval: Late Pleistocene

Section: 3716

Unit number: 1

Unit order: above to below

Ma: 0.032

Age basis: U/Th

Geography comments: "The San Teodoro Cave is a large cavity located at Acquedolci (basis of coordinate), a small town on the north-eastern coast of Sicily in the province of Messina".
"U/Th dating on a concretionary level intercalated with two clayey levels within the β trench yielded a date of 32,000 ± 4000 years".

Environment
Lithology: sandstone

Taphonomic context: bird accumulation,carnivore accumulation,cave

Habitat comments: "The cave opens in the northern cliffs of a Jurassic carbonatic massif (San Fratello Massif) at a height of 145 m asl. It is composed of a single large chamber, about 60 m long, 20 m wide, and up to 20 m high".
"The fossiliferous Unit B deposit is composed of grey-green clayey sand including 1–10 cm sized blocks of limestone together with large carbonate boulders. Level B-I is mainly composed of clayey sand containing very few large carbonate boulders".
"The level is characterized by evidence of hyena occupation, represented by their skeletal remains, coprolites, and distinctive damages on the bones, attesting to the use of the cave as a communal den". Hyenas were thus likely the primary accumulators of the majority of the large mammal remains, while "etching on vole teeth and shrew mandibles indicates that the accumulation of small mammal remains is derived from the hunting activity of owls".

Methods
Life forms: bats,carnivores,rodents,ungulates,other small mammals

Sampling methods: quarry,screenwash

Sample size: 1774 specimens

Years: 1998 - 2006

Sampling comments: "Modern excavations investigating the older deposit of the cave (Unit B) started in 1998 and went on till 2006 for a total of eight months and six excavation seasons. Two trenches were excavated, the 'α' trench, located on the eastern side of the cave near the entrance over an area of 25 m2, and the 'β' trench, located on the inner eastern side of the cave at a distance of 28 m from the entrance over an area of 28 m2".
"All sediments were wet-sieved with superimposed screens of 5 and 2 mm mesh, with total recovery of bone and teeth fragments, small vertebrates, molluscs, vegetable remains, and coprolite fragments. Large sized faunal remains were collected in situ and plotted in three Cartesian coordinates".
"Unit B-I occupies the whole of the investigated α trench and the eastern sector of the β trench (squares A–C)". The register below consists of the total mammal assemblage from this unit uncovered from both trenches, with the small mammal counts obtained from Bonfiglio et al. (2008).

Metadata
Sample number: 3939

Contributor: Benjamin Carter

Enterer: Benjamin Carter

Created: 2022-03-31 12:23:03

Modified: 2023-05-30 00:49:11

Abundance distribution
13 species
0 singletons
total count 1774
geometric series index: 13.7
Fisher's α: 1.901
geometric series k: 0.6564
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.7630
Shannon's H: 1.8102
Good's u: 1.0000
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts.
Register
Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis68
Bovina indet.50
"Bos primigenius siciliae/Bison priscus siciliae"
Equus hemionus hydruntinus62 grazer
"Equus hydruntinus"
Sus scrofa8754 kg herbivore
Cervus elaphus siciliae625104 kg
Crocuta spelaea79
"Crocuta crocuta spelaea"
Vulpes vulpes85.3 kg carnivore-insectivore
Canis lupus443 kg carnivore
Microtus savii555
Apodemus sylvaticus36
Crocidura sicula128
Erinaceus europaeus7
Chiroptera indet.65