Butchered and consumed: Small carnivores from the Holocene levels of El Mirador Cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain)

摘要

Carnivore consumption has been identified in the Holocene levels of El Mirador Cave (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). Remains of domestic dogs, wild cats, badgers, and foxes, recovered from Neolithic to Bronze Age levels (sixth millennium to second millennium cal BC), present evidence of human consumption. This evidence includes cut marks, bone breakage, signs of culinary processing and human tooth marks. This is some of the oldest evidence documented either in the Iberian Peninsula or in Europe as a whole, and it is the first time that human tooth marks are used to confirm the human consumption of these carnivores.