The Kůlna Cave (Czech Republic) - on the importance of caves for Neanderthal landscape use

Research into behavioural strategies of hominins in warm climatic phases is a current core project at the Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre. Analyses of temporally high-resolution sites seek to define how and to what extent these strategies depended on specific climatic conditions. The fauna from the Middle Palaeolithic Level 11 in Kůlna Cave in the Czech Republic plays a pivotal role in this research, revealing Neanderthal subsistence strategies during the Last Interglacial at a key cave locality. In a co-operative project with the Moravian Museum, some 30,000 faunal remains from Level 11 at Kůlna, attributed to the Last or Eemian Interglacial and/or to two oscillations at the beginning of the last glaciation, were incorporated into a detailed zooarchaeological analysis.

The picture beginning to emerge is of a Neanderthal procurement strategy focussing primarily on large herbivores (horse, large bovid, red deer and giant deer). Similar procurement strategies have been recorded at many Neanderthal cold stage sites. Unusual is, however, the intensity of processing dietary resources at Kůlna. Whether this equates to a generally intensive exploitation of faunal resources during this particular climatic phase or specifically at this site - i.e. Kůlna being an economically important focal point in the Neanderthal mobility cycle –will be addressed during this research.