The prelude to industrial whaling: identifying the targets of ancient European whaling using zooarchaeology and collagen mass-peptide fingerprinting

Late Paleolithic whale bone tools reveal human and whale ecology in the Bay of Biscay

Reconstructing how prehistoric humans used the products obtained from large cetaceans is challenging, but key to understand the history of early human coastal adaptations. Here we report the multiproxy analysis (ZooMS, radiocarbon, stable isotopes) of worked objects made of whale bone, and unworked whale bone fragments, found at Upper Paleolithic sites (Magdalenian) around the Bay of Biscay. Taxonomic identification using ZooMS reveals at least five species of large whales, expanding the range of known taxa whose products were utilized by humans in this period. Radiocarbon places the use of whale products ca. 20-14 ka cal BP, with a maximum diffusion and diversity at 17.5-16 ka cal BP, making it the oldest evidence of whale-bone working to our knowledge. δ13C and δ15N stable isotope values reflect taxon-specific differences in foraging behavior. The diversity and chronology of these cetacean populations attest to the richness of the marine ecosystem of the Bay of Biscay in the late Paleolithic, broadening our understanding of coastal adaptations at that time.

From the jaws of the "Leviathan": A sperm whale tooth from the Valencina Copper Age Megasite

During the excavations undertaken in 2018 at the Nueva Biblioteca sector of the Valencina Copper Age mega-site, in south-west Spain, an exceptional sperm-whale tooth was found inside a non-burial pit. This remarkable object is the first of its kind ever found for Late Prehistoric Iberia. Due to its rarity and importance, a multidisciplinary study was carried out, including photogrammetric 3D modelling, as well as taphonomic, paleontological, technological and contextual analysis. This led to a full characterisation of the artefact through the analysis of its bioerosion traces, anthropogenic marks, depositional context and socio-cultural background. The ensuing discussion covers the history and processes the tooth went through from the death of the animal and disposal on the seabed, through the disarticulation of the tooth to its collection in a coastal environment and its subsequent use and deposition in the pit.

The Zooarchaeology of ancient whaling practices in Portugal: A review and a new Roman Republican contribution at Castelo Velho de Safara

The identification of archaeological cetacean specimens to the species level often presents challenges, primarily due to the frequent fragmentation of their remains. This limitation hampers our ability to comprehensively understand the spatiotemporal distributions of cetaceans in the past and constrains our knowledge of early whaling activities. To address this issue, a systematic zooarchaeological review was conducted, encompassing published literature and reports that compile available data related to cetaceans retrieved from archaeological contexts in Portugal, spanning from the Middle Palaeolithic to the 18th century. Furthermore, this study introduces a new discovery of a cetacean specimen from the Roman Republican levels at Castelo Velho de Safara, which has been incorporated into the aforementioned dataset. The taxonomic identification of this specimen was accomplished using Zooarchaeology by Mass-Spectrometry (ZooMS). The study confirms that cetacean remains have been present in Portuguese waters since the Middle Palaeolithic, with higher concentrations in the southern and central regions of the country. ZooMS analysis confirmed the presence of the North Atlantic right whale at the inland site of Castelo Velho de Safara, which supports whale product trading during the Roman Republican period in Portugal. Evidence of cetacean exploitation continues to the Medieval and Modern periods, reflecting a strong cultural link between Portuguese ancient culture and whaling practices.

Archaeological evidence of resource utilisation of the great whales over the past two millennia: A systematic review protocol

Archaeological faunal remains provide key insights into human societies in the past, alongside information on previous resource utilisation and exploitation of wildlife populations. The great whales (Mysticete and sperm whales) were hunted unsustainably throughout the 16th - 20th centuries (herein defined as the modern period) leading to large population declines and variable recovery patterns among species. Humans have utilised whales as a resource through carcass scavenging for millennia; however, increasing local and regional ethnographic and archaeological evidence suggests that, prior to the modern period, hunting of the great whales was more common than previously thought; impacts of earlier hunting pressures on the population ecology of many whale species remains relatively unknown. Hunting guided by traditional ecological knowledge may have been sustainable and likely originated in societies that also incorporated opportunistic use of stranded individuals. The collation of georeferenced zooarchaeological data of the great whales between the 1st - 20th centuries CE worldwide will provide insight into the timescale and distribution of resource utilisation of the great whales and how this varied within and between societies, and may have changed over time. By comparing regions of known resource utilisation and breeding and feeding grounds of current-day whale populations, this information will subsequently be used to infer regions where whale populations were possibly lost or extirpated prior to detailed historical records. This systematic review protocol also provides a template for archaeologists, ecologists, and historians interested in using faunal remains to infer historical ecology and resource use of wild animal populations. The transparency of our data collection approach provides opportunities for reproducibility and comparability with future datasets.