Aetokremnos

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Aetokremnos (Greek: eagle cliff) is an abri near Limassol on the south coast of Cyprus , which is 40 m above sea level. Numerous bones of Hippopotamus minor ( pygmy hippopotamus ) and about a thousand flint artifacts from the Mesolithic were found in four layers (the third is sterile) on an area of ​​approx. 40 m² . This makes Aetokremnos the only site on the island so far (as of 2016) that belongs to a pre-lithic and therefore pre-peasant culture. In addition to the hippopotamus bones, there were bones of about three individuals of the species Elephas cypriotes , a dwarf form of the elephant, as well as remains of fish and birds, four bones of fallow deer and 13 of pigs. The camp was established around 9825 BC. Dated.

At first it was assumed that they had found proof that the hunters had exterminated the hippos like the other representatives of the megafauna . However, it turned out that the bones showed no traces of cuts, whereas 30% of them had burn marks. It was also found that 74% of the bones came from pygmy hippos and 25% from fish and birds, but only the remains of three elephants were found. The hippos, on the other hand, represented around 500 individuals. Since the number of hippos decreased from bottom to top, i.e. from the oldest to the youngest strata, while the proportion of other animals increased, Simmons concluded that the overly successful hunters were now forced to chase other species.

The presence of pigs came as a surprise insofar as it was believed until then that they came to the island with the first settlers of the pre-ceramic Neolithic , a rural culture. They were now the only larger mammals on the island.

In addition to said bone to bone found at least three snake species, namely the Levante Otter , the arrow snake and Natrix natrix cypriaca , a subspecies of the grass snake , as well as remains of the toad . Of the bones, 98.3% come from the Levant otter.

In the meantime, a skull find near Xylophágou in southeastern Cyprus has proven that there was a second elephant species on Cyprus ( Palaeoloxodon xylophagou n. Sp.).

literature

  • Kayla P. Wopschall: Akrotiri Aetokremnos and the Cypriot Pygmy Hippopotamus. An Interdisciplinary Look at a Late Pleistocene Large Mammal Extinction , Diss., University of Washington 2014. ( online , PDF)
  • Albert J. Ammerman, Jay Stratton Noller: New Light on Aetokremnos , in: World Archeology 37.4 (2005) 533-543.
  • Alan H. Simmons, Swiny Stuart (eds.): The earliest prehistory of Cyprus. From colonization to exploitation , American Schools of Oriental Research, Boston 2001, pp. 1-18.
  • Alan H. Simmons: Faunal extinction in an island society. Pygmy hippopotamus hunters of Cyprus , Springer, 1999.

Remarks

  1. ^ Alan H. Simmons: Faunal Extinction in an Island Society. Pygmy Hippopotamus Hunters of Cyprus , Springer, 2006, p. 1.
  2. ^ Animals in the Anthropocene. Critical perspectives on non-human futures , Sydney University Press, 2015, p. 37.
  3. ^ Alan H. Simmons: Faunal Extinction in an Island Society. Pygmy Hippopotamus Hunters of Cyprus , Springer, 2006, p. 182.
  4. ↑ Athanassios Athanassiou, Victoria Herridge, David S. Reese, George Iliopoulos, Socrates Roussiakis, Vassiliki Mitsopoulou, Efthymios Tsiolakis, George Theodoroue: Cranial evidence for the presence of a second endemic elephant species on Cyprus , in: Quaternary International 379 (2015) 47 -57.

Coordinates: 34 ° 34 ′ 13.8 ″  N , 32 ° 59 ′ 26.5 ″  E