Fallow deer bone beds in Tabun Cave Layer B: Insights from renewed fieldwork

Tabun Cave Layer B in Mount Carmel, Israel, at the base of a deep vertical shaft, has been recognized since the 1930s for its abundance of fallow deer remains. Three explanations have been proposed for their origin: human habitation refuse, the use of the cave as a hunting trap, and the cave acting as a natural pitfall trap. Results of our zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses of the faunal materials from the renewed excavations in the inner chamber of Tabun Cave Layer B indicate a fallow-deer-dominated assemblage with low pre-burial breakage and significant mechanical post depositional breakage. The assemblage reflects the characteristics of a natural fallow deer herd structure. However, Layer B is not homogeneous and it is subdivided into distinct units with varying characteristics. Compared with sub-Layers B1 and B2, sub-Layer B3 contains fewer fallow deer and limb bones, with greater bone breakage, and exhibits higher levels of weathering and carnivore modifications and slightly more anthropogenic modifications. Approximately one-third of the individuals in this sub-layer exhibit unfused bones, consistent with the dental age data, while the others exhibit an equal representation of juveniles and adults. However, even in this case, we lack clear evidence that its agents of accumulation changed. The fauna underwent some carnivore ravaging and displays minimal human processing. While the research of Tabun Layer B is ongoing, current analysis of the faunal remains within the inner chamber of the cave suggests that the bones primarily accumulated through natural animal falls into the cave, followed by scavenging by carnivores, and only rarely by humans.