Revising the microvertebrates from the Palaeolithic site of Kalamakia (Mani Peninsula), Greece / Kolendrianou Maria

Revising the microvertebrates from the Palaeolithic site of Kalamakia (Mani Peninsula), Greece / Kolendrianou Maria, in colloque "1st Virtual Conference for Women Archaeologists and Paleontologists. Nouveaux apports à l’étude des populations et environnements passés" organisé par le laboratoire Travaux et Recherches Archéologiques sur les Cultures, les Espaces et les Sociétés (TRACES) de l’Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès et le laboratoire Paléontologie Évolution Paléoécosystèmes (PALEVOPRIM) de l'Université de Poitiers, sous la responsabilité scientifique de Julie Bachellerie, Ana Belén Galán López (Traces), Émilie Berlioz et Margot Louail (Palevoprim). Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, 8-9 mars 2021. [Conférence enregistrée à distance].
Session 4 : Paleoclimates andenvironmental changes.

Mani peninsula has a significant number of Palaeolithic sites, highlighting its importance as a paleoanthropological related locus. Kalamakia cave is such a site, bearing thousands of small and larger animal fossils, some Neanderthal remains, as well as numerous lithic artifacts.The present study, however, focuses on the microfaunal assemblage retrieved from the three fossiliferous units of the cave dating from ca. 90-25 kya BP, in order to re-examine and evaluate past identifications of the microvertebrate material under a palaeoenvironmental, palaeoecological and taphonomical perspective.A total of 32,319 microvertebrate specimens were examined and 38 taxa were identified, from which Reptilia were found to be the most diverse and Rodentia (specifically, Microtus sp.) the most abundant. No species considered typical of colder climates were identified,with the most common habitat types surrounding the cave throughout all three units being shrubland, forest and rocky. Concerning the taphonomy, no major events have been detected from the microvertebrate fossils’ condition, other than the occasionally naturally occurring high humidity within a cave and a mild amount of post- depositional breakage that possibly resulted from trampling (by the larger animals’ or human occupants’ activity in the interior of the cave). The main accumulators of the microvertebrate assemblage seem to have been owl predators (category 1 and/ or 2, depending on the unit). Finally, Microtus lower first molars- randomly but equally selected from each unit- were examined using geometric morphometrics and the results indicated that the local population consisted of rather robust individuals of a species within the Terricola subgenus (the dominant morphotype being M. subterraneus). A correlation trend between centroid size and molar morphology with climate seems to be plausible, since a slight divergence between the clusters of the fossilised molars corresponding to warmer and colder climate conditions was detected, something that cannot be stated definitively and needs further investigation.