Implications of age structures for Epipaleolithic hunting strategies in the western Taurus Mountains, Southwest Turkey

This paper investigates hunter-gatherer behavioral strategies during the Epipaleolithic period in the western Taurus Mountains of Mediterranean Turkey. Seven archaeofaunal assemblages excavated from Karain B and Öküzini caves were analyzed and interpreted with a special emphasis on age structures and their implications for general hunting strategies, site function and use, and seasonality. A detailed analysis of age structures based on dental wear and epiphyseal fusion data combined with other zooarchaeological evidence has revealed that hunter-gatherers in the Western Taurus Mountains intensively hunted wild sheep and goat, mostly targeted prime-age animals, shifted from seasonally restricted site use and hunting to unrestricted multiseasonal site use and hunting pattern, and progressively hunted larger number of juvenile caprines throughout the Epipaleolithic.