Straight from the horse's mouth: High-resolution proxies for the study of horse diet and its relation to the seasonal occupation patterns at Divnogor'ye 9 (Middle Don, Central Russia)

摘要

In this study, we present the results of tooth mesowear and microwear analyses on fossil horses recovered in two Late Pleistocene archaeological layers at Divnogor'ye 9 (Middle Don, Central Russia). Tooth wear refers to two high-resolution proxies for reconstructing dietary habits in ungulates which give access to different periods in life history of the animals sampled. Mesowear is a proxy averaging diet over months, while microwear reflects the diet of the last days before death. The first objective of this study is to integrate and compare the results from mesowear and microwear to investigate the dietary habits of the studied fossil horses (Equus ferus), to reconstruct their habitat(s), and compare with stable isotope and indirect proxies. The second objective is to participate to disentangle the various hypotheses of site formation and the nature of accumulation of the horse remains.