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. 2018 Jun 18;13(6):e0198747.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198747. eCollection 2018.

Opportunism or aquatic specialization? Evidence of freshwater fish exploitation at Ohalo II- A waterlogged Upper Paleolithic site

Irit Zohar  1   2 , Tamar Dayan  3   4 , Menachem Goren  3   4 , Dani Nadel  2 , Israel Hershkovitz  4   5   6   7
Affiliations

Opportunism or aquatic specialization? Evidence of freshwater fish exploitation at Ohalo II- A waterlogged Upper Paleolithic site

Irit Zohar et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Analysis of ca. 17,000 fish remains recovered from the late Upper Paleolithic/early Epi-Paleolithic (LGM; 23,000 BP) waterlogged site of Ohalo II (Rift Valley, Israel) provides new insights into the role of wetland habitats and the fish inhabiting them during the evolution of economic strategies prior to the agricultural evolution. Of the current 19 native fish species in Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), eight species were identified at Ohalo II, belonging to two freshwater families: Cyprinidae (carps) and Cichlidae (St. Peter fish). Employing a large set of quantitative and qualitative criteria (NISP, species richness, diversity, skeletal element representation, fragmentation, color, spatial distribution, etc.), we demonstrate that the inhabitants of Ohalo II used their knowledge of the breeding behavior of different species of fish, for year-round intensive exploitation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Map of Israel, location of the Ohalo II site, and the excavated loci from which fish remains were examined for this study.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Rarefaction curves for species richness, as a function of NISP, according to the studied loci.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Cranial vs. postcranial fish remains from Ohalo II, according to taxonomic group and studied loci (fish skeleton modified from [107]).
Fig 4
Fig 4. State of bone preservation at Ohalo II, according to studied loci (chi squared test = 944.133; p = 0.0001; df = 6).
Fig 5
Fig 5
A. Fish remains spatial distribution pattern in Loci 1 (floors I and II combined) and 7 (in Locus 1 areas with a large concentration of edible grains from floor II are marked, after [40]; B. In-situ fish skeletons recovered at Locus 7.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Correspondence analysis of taxonomic groups’ relative abundance (%) in the natural accumulation and at Loci 1, 3, 7, and 8.
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Grants and funding

IZ research was supported by: Irene Levi Sala CARE Archeological Foundation The Morris M. Polver and the Jacob Recanati fellowship from Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa, The National Center of Collaboration between Natural Sciences and Archaeology, and the Aharon Katzir Center of the Weizmann Institute of Science. DN field work was supported by: Israel Science Foundation (No. 831/00 and No. 711/08), the Jerusalem Center for Anthropological Studies, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the Stekelis Museum of Prehistory in Haifa, the MAFCAF Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Stekelis Museum of Prehistory in Haifa, and the Israel Antiquities Authority. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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