Hunting Iberian ibex 15,000 years ago was already adapted to the seasons and the animals’ behaviour

The study, based on remains recovered from Chaves Cave in Huesca, points to a hunting strategy shaped by the animals’ natural cycles, seasonal patterns and the terrain.

Published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, the research analyses Magdalenian level 2b at the cave, dated to approximately 15,700–15,000 years before present. The authors combined an analysis of the ages of the ibex killed with stable-isotope analysis of their teeth and information about the landscape to reconstruct how hunting was organised.

The team includes researchers from the University of Zaragoza, the University of Pisa and the French National Museum of Natural History, among them Alejandro Sierra, Marie Balasse, Luis Jiménez, Rafael Domingo, Lourdes Montes, Denis Fiorillo and Pilar Utrilla.

Iberian ibex, an especially important prey species

One of the findings of greatest interest from a hunting perspective is the clear concentration of Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica) remains in the Magdalenian levels studied.

Other species, such as Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica) and red deer (Cervus elaphus), are present in much smaller proportions, while the remaining species appear only marginally, with the exception of rabbit. For the researchers, this pattern does not seem to result simply from chance encounters with animals; rather, it is consistent with repeated exploitation of Iberian ibex.

Chaves Cave’s location helps explain this specialisation. It lies in the foothills of the Sierra de Guara, a mountainous, rocky area particularly favourable to Iberian ibex.

The relationship between the settlement’s location and the species’ habitat would have given those human groups an advantage in locating herds and making use of their movements.

Ibex were not hunted at random: the age of the prey offers a clue

One of the most revealing findings comes from the analysis of the ages of the ibex killed.

The mortality profiles show a high proportion of older juveniles and young adults, while no neonates are present. This pattern points to a seasonal bias in the accumulation of hunted animals.

The absence of newborns makes it possible to rule out, at least, the period immediately after births as the main time when prey remains accumulated. The researchers caution, however, that the data do not make it possible to determine precisely when during the year all the hunts took place.

This distinction matters: the study provides evidence of seasonality, but it cannot reconstruct an exact hunting calendar.

The ibex’s teeth act as a record of the seasons

To refine the analysis, the scientists turned to a tool one might hardly expect to find at an archaeological site: stable isotopes preserved in tooth enamel.

Teeth grow by incorporating chemical signals related to environmental conditions and diet. In this case, the researchers analysed oxygen (δ¹⁸O) and carbon (δ¹³C) sequences in the third molars of Iberian ibex.

The δ¹⁸O patterns show fluctuations associated with seasonal changes, while the δ¹³C values are consistent with a diet based mainly on C3 plants. These data make it possible to reconstruct some of the environmental conditions the animals experienced during their lives.

This information is what makes it possible to link the prey remains to the annual cycles of Iberian ibex populations.

A species that moved through the mountains as resources changed

The study also sheds light on the mobility of Iberian ibex.

Together, the isotope evidence and analysis of the terrain point to regular movements between different areas of the Sierra de Guara, probably linked to seasonal changes in resource availability.

Knowing about those movements would have been a major advantage for the hunters.

Chaves Cave occupied a favourable position in the landscape, connecting different parts of the mountain range and providing access to an area from which the animals’ movements could be observed and exploited.

The study thus paints a picture in which knowledge of the terrain, natural passes and seasonal wildlife movements played a key role in obtaining food.

Specialised hunting, but not necessarily a rigid system

One of the study’s most interesting scientific nuances lies here.

Although the large proportion of Iberian ibex remains points to specialisation in the prey species, the researchers do not interpret the results as evidence of an extremely rigid hunting organisation.

Instead, their conclusions point to flexible use of resources, organised around the seasonal behaviour of animal populations and the characteristics of the landscape.

In other words, those hunters seem to have known which animals were available, where to find them and how their behaviour changed throughout the year. However, the data do not support describing this as a wildlife-management system comparable to modern hunting management.

A glimpse into the origins of mountain hunting strategies

The hunting significance of the study lies precisely in the relationship between wildlife, landscape and human behaviour.

Around 15,000 years ago, the Sierra de Guara was not simply a setting where human groups came across animals by chance. The findings indicate repeated use of the area and exploitation of Iberian ibex linked to the species’ ecological characteristics and annual cycles.

The research is part of the MagdaBucar project, which studies the hunting strategies of Magdalenian hunter-gatherers in the central Pre-Pyrenees. The project is funded by the Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses and supported by the Museum of Huesca.

The study also shows how archaeological collections excavated decades ago can yield new information when examined with modern techniques. Faunal remains recovered at Chaves during excavations in the 1980s and 1990s now make it possible to reconstruct aspects of seasonality, mobility and hunting organisation that were much harder to determine with the techniques available at the time.

The research behind the discovery

The study is titled “Hunting Strategies and Game Exploitation Organization in the Magdalenian: An Integrated Approach Based on Mortality Profiles and Stable Isotopes at Chaves Cave (Huesca, Spain)” and is by Alejandro Sierra, Marie Balasse, Luis Jiménez, Rafael Domingo, Lourdes Montes, Denis Fiorillo and Pilar Utrilla.

It was published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology under DOI 10.1002/oa.70154.

The study’s main contribution is its integration of several lines of research—prey ages, stable isotopes, animal behaviour and landscape features—to reconstruct the hunting strategies of the last hunter-gatherers of the Upper Palaeolithic in the Aragonese Pre-Pyrenees.

Note from the University of Zaragoza.