[Bonetools] Paleolithic whales – article Nat. Commun.

[Jean-Marc Petillon]

Dear all,

All the co-authors and myself are pleased to announce the publication of 
this article a few minutes ago in open access in Nature Communications:

K. McGrath, L. Van der Sluis et al. Late Paleolithic whale bone tools 
reveal human and whale ecology in the Bay of Biscay.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59486-8

This publication is the result of several years of collective work 
within the ANR project PaleoCet, with complements from the European 
projects Whalebone and Humantler. We combined several methods 
(paleoproteomics, isotopic geochemistry, radiocarbon dating) to directly 
analyze 70 whale bone tools from sites in southwest France and northern 
Spain, and 60 small fragments of whale ribs and vertebrae from the site 
of Santa Catalina. At least five species of large cetaceans were 
identified: fin whale, blue whale, gray whale, sperm whale, right whale 
and/or bowhead whale. According to isotopic data, these species had 
feeding practices quite similar to those of today. They offer a unique 
insight into the diversity of whales in the Bay of Biscay at this time, 
and present analogies with current Arctic communities. The individuals 
exploited were from natural strandings, and this practice lasted between 
at least 20000 and 14000 before present, with a peak between 17500 and 
16000. The use of the cetaceans included the recovery of bones, but also 
of other resources such as fat and baleen.

All the best,

Jean-Marc


-- 
Jean-Marc Petillon
CNRS, Laboratoire TRACES
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4123-2361

Universite Toulouse Jean Jaures, Maison de la recherche
5 allees A. Machado, F-31058 Toulouse

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