Assessment of subsistence behavior in a coastal landscape: New data from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Sidi Saïd (second Pleniglacial, northern Algeria)
Razika Chelli-Cheheb  1, 2, *@  , Mourad Betrouni  3@  
1 : Centre National de Recherches Préhistoriques, Anthropologiques et Historiques  (CNRPAH)  -  Website
03, rue Franklin D. Roosevelt - 16000 Alger (Algérie) -  Algérie
2 : Institut d'Archéologie, Université d'Alger 2, Algeria
3 : Centre national de recherches préhistoriques anthropologiques et historiques
* : Corresponding author

Previous excavations at the Late Upper Pleistocene site of Sidi Saïd (Mediterranean shore, Algeria) had yielded a Levalloiso-Mousterian industry associated with rich macro and micro mammals, where the radiocarbon dating gave a chronology between 38 and 20 ka BP. However, several questions on human behavior remained unresolved in this occupation. Here, we present the first data on zooarchaeological analyses of the faunal remains from this site, focussing on the subsistence patterns in this context, and examining the hypothesis linking the arid environment to behavior and adaptation patterns of Homo sapiens. In this ecological context, human groups and carnivores conducted their activities associated with animal consumption. A significant anthropic bone breakage patterns and cut marked bones indicate that these human groups exploit meat and marrow from animal carcasses with early access.This site has the great potential for providing archaeological evidence to shed light on the Mousterian of North Africa, chiefly, techno economic patterns allied to subsistence behavior in this environment of the second pleniglacial cold/dry environment.



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