Subsistence continuity, change, and environmental adaptation at the site of Nugljanska, Istria, Croatia

Abstract

This paper investigates changes in subsistence strategies at the upland cave site of Nugljanska (Croatia) at the end of the last ice age, during a time of rapid sea level rise and changing environment. We analysed the faunal assemblage from archaeological levels spanning the Pleistocene–Holocene transition (15,000–8000 years BP) and evaluated changes in relative abundance of species, measured species diversity, and compared the representation of terrestrial mammal and marine resources. We found a significant shift in the most abundant prey species exploited (from red deer, Cervus, to wild boar, Sus). There was some correlation between dietary diversification and periods of increased moisture availability and the spread of deciduous forest in the area. Our results suggest that there was a continuing reliance on terrestrial resources throughout time and that changes in dietary patterns were likely due to local environmental change and potentially, changing seasonal mobility strategies, at the Pleistocene–Holocene transition.

Keywords:

• Zooarchaeology
• Climate change
• Sea level
• Adriatic
• Pleistocene–Holocene transition
• Subsistence

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Darko Komšo and the Arheološki Muzej Istre for providing access to excavated material. We also thank the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit and the Natural Environment Research Council UK (NERC) for providing radiocarbon dates. S.E.P.B. would also like to thank the Gates Cambridge Trust and the Division of Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, for providing additional research funding during her PhD, from which these data are derived.