Ancient horse hunts challenge ideas of ‘modern’ human behavior

More confirmation that water sources
are great places to hunt...
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-horse-hunters-behavior-modern
On a bright, late-summer day in north-central
Europe around 300,000 years ago, a team of
perhaps a couple dozen hunters got into their
assigned positions for a big kill.
...
As the animals neared the lakeshore, hunters
armed with wooden spears leaped out from
hiding places in clumps of tall reeds and
sedges. Uneven, sloshy lakeshore soil slowed
the four-legged targets and kept them
off-balance. Other hunters blocked escape
routes. A frenzy of wooden­-spear throwing and
thrusting dispatched the entire horse family.
This unusually detailed reconstruction of an
ancient communal hunt and its aftermath comes
from a new analysis of an archaeological site
in Germany called Schöningen. The latest
findings at the site, which has been excavated
over the last 30 years, fuel a growing
conviction that a flair for planning and
collaboration comparable to that of people
today arose far earlier in our evolution than
traditionally thought.
...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248424000988
Persistent predators: Zooarchaeological
evidence for specialized horse hunting at
Schöningen 13II-4
Abstract
The Schöningen 13II-4 site is a marvel of
Paleolithic archaeology. With the
extraordinary preservation of complete
wooden spears and butchered large mammal
bones dating from the Middle Pleistocene,
Schöningen maintains a prominent position
in the halls of human origins worldwide.
Here, we present the first analysis of the
complete large mammal faunal assemblage
from Schöningen 13II-4, drawing on
multiple lines of zooarchaeological and
taphonomic evidence to expose the full
spectrum of hominin activities at the
site—before, during, and after the hunt.
Horse (Equus mosbachensis) remains dominate
the assemblage and suggest a recurrent
ambush hunting strategy along the margins
of the Schöningen paleo-lake. In this
regard, Schöningen 13II-4 provides the first
undisputed evidence for hunting of a single
prey species that can be studied from an
in situ, open-air context. The Schöningen
hominins likely relied on cooperative hunting
strategy to target horse family groups, to
the near exclusion of bachelor herds. Horse
kills occurred during all seasons, implying a
year-round presence of hominins on the
Schöningen landscape. All portions of prey
skeletons are represented in the assemblage,
many complete and in semiarticulation, with
little transport of skeletal parts away from
the site. Butchery marks are abundant, and
adult carcasses were processed more thoroughly
than were juveniles. Numerous complete,
unmodified bones indicated that lean meat and
marrow were not always so highly prized,
especially in events involving multiple kills
when fat and animal hides may have received
greater attention. The behaviors displayed at
Schöningen continue to challenge our
perceptions and models of past hominin
lifeways, further cementing Schöningen's
standing as the archetype for understanding
hunting adaptations during the European Middle
Pleistocene.