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]

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".

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).

Sample number: 3939

Contributor: Benjamin Carter

Enterer: Benjamin Carter

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

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