Sample name: Schöningen 13 II-4

Sample aka: Horse Butchery site; Spear Horizon site

Reference: T. Van Kolfschoten, E. Buhrs, and I. Verheijen. 2015. The larger mammal fauna from the Lower Paleolithic Schöningen Spear site and its contribution to hominin subsistence. Journal of Human Evolution 89:138-153 [ER 3972]

Lithology: marl

Taphonomic context: human accumulation,lake deposit

Archaeology: stone tools,other artifacts

Habitat comments: this part of the section includes "organic mud and peat deposits", but "Most finds were located within layers 4b/c and 4b", which includes a transition between "calcareous marl" and "organic mud"
the environment was "at the edge of a former lake"
"famous wooden spears have been discovered among a large amount of skeletal remains of butchered horses" and specifically there are "ca. 1500 stone artifacts (including 20–30 stone tools), a wooden throwing stick, and at least 10 wooden spears"
there are also "numerous gnawing marks encountered on a number of bones, as well as notches that, given their shape and size, were caused by the canines of a medium-sized to large-sized carnivore" but these are relatively rare and the site is clearly of anthropogenic origin

Life forms: carnivores,ungulates

Sampling methods: quarry

Sample size: 4162 specimens

Years: 1994 - 2008

Sampling comments: the site "has an excavated surface of about 4000 m2"
material was "excavated... in the period 1994–2008"
there are "fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and a number of both small and large mammal species" but only the large mammals are inventoried
excluded taxa are not recorded because these categories are so large

Sample number: 4383

Contributor: John Alroy

Enterer: John Alroy

Created: 2023-12-02 12:55:43

Modified: 2023-12-02 10:14:34