The Mousterian Levels of Riparo Tagliente (MIS3-4, Italy): Monospecific hunting strategy of roe deer by Neandertal

Monospecific hunting strategies is a behavior highlighted in some of Middle Palaeolithic sites for medium and large-sized ungulate. However, the specific prey selection of small sized ungulates is a comportment less common, which were observed within the Mousterian levels of Riparo Tagliente (MIS 3-4, Italy). Riparo Tagliente is a rock shelter discover in 1958 and excavated from the sixties. A first study of the faunal remains show that the roe deer dominated (80% of the remains taxonomically identified) the Mousterian assemblage in particular the upper level (level 35). The revision of the faunal assemblage of this level according to a classical zooarchaeological and taphonomic method allows us to identify which innovative methodologies can be tested on this material (such as zooms, isotopic analysis or dental calculus). This first review of the faunal assemblage provides the opportunity to select the appropriate remains for such analyses to cross-reference the results related to the subsistence strategies of the Neanderthals who occupied the site with environmental data. Included in a regional and chronological perspective within the SUBSILIENCE project, these results will allow a better understanding of the resilience of these populations to the different climatic changes that may have occurred during the transition between the last two homo species.