Paleolithic occupations in the Lahn Valley of Central Germany: New dating and ZooMS results from Wildscheuer, Wildweiberlei, and Wildhaus

Abstract

There is limited evidence of repeated occupations by Neanderthals or modern humans in the part of Central Germany that roughly corresponds to the present-day Federal State of Hesse. The Lahn Valley located in the southwestern sector of this region is an exception. Based on early excavations of a series of now destroyed sites, the Lahn Valley has yielded sparse evidence of Neanderthal occupation from the Middle Paleolithic and has produced a more substantive Upper Paleolithic sequence including the Aurignacian, Gravettian, and Magdalenian, as reflected in the lithic and organic material culture. The present study attempted (i) to gain greater understanding of the chronology and use of animals by humans in the Wildscheuer cave, and (ii) to contextualize the Lahn Valley in the broader Paleolithic landscape of Central Europe. We targeted over a dozen samples consisting of faunal remains with fresh fractures, osseous artifacts, and human remains that derive from the cave site. The results confirm previous findings with the dates concentrated around the middle-to-late Aurignacian. These data suggest that, unlike cave-rich areas to the south (i.e. the Swabian Jura), the Wildscheuer was occupied neither immediately nor consistently when modern humans arrived in the region but also that multiple occupational events took place during the remainder of the Upper Paleolithic. This aligns with the ursid remains from the nearby Wildweiberlei, which predate the human occupation. Conversely, our dating efforts did not find evidence of substantial Gravettian or Magdalenian occupation in Wildscheuer, although this may also be a result of our modest sample size. In addition, ZooMS analysis revealed one of the first evidence of the use of wooly rhinoceros in the production of osseous artifacts such as smoothers. This study calls for renewed attention to the Lahn Valley as archaeometric methods that may be applied to legacy materials improve, and in tandem with our greater understanding of the early to late Upper Paleolithic in Central Europe on a regional to sub-regional scale.