Personal ornaments play an important role in our understanding of human cultural and behavioral change during the Upper Paleolithic, providing insights into intangible aspects of human cultural behavior. Some ornament forms are better studied than others, and fox tooth ornaments, despite their frequent occurrence and broad spatiotemporal span, are relatively under-addressed. Here we present the first comprehensive study of 40 perforated fox teeth recovered from four cave sites in southwestern Germany. This region’s rich record of symbolic representations, as well as evidence of long-standing human–fox relationships, make the Swabian Jura an ideal case study for investigations of fox tooth ornaments. By applying a holistic approach, including geometric morphometrics and traceology coupled with experimental archaeology, we show that fox teeth were mostly perforated by bifacial scraping and grooving and were worn as ornaments. We discuss the role of foxes within human socio-symbolic and paleoenvironmental systems during the Upper Paleolithic of the Swabian Jura, and we contextualize our results within the broader context of sites across Europe during the Upper Paleolithic. The data we provide are in line with general trends observed across the continent and offer insight into the role of foxes during the Upper Paleolithic, especially regarding human subsistence, cultural expression, and ornament production.

The open-air site of Tolbor-17 (T17), located in northern Mongolia, contains one of few faunal assemblages in the region from early Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3, ~57-29 ka cal BP). During this period, humans migrated into northern Asia as part of the Initial and Early Upper Paleolithic (IUP and EUP). Much is still unknown about these populations, including the adaptive strategies that facilitated their success at the geographic margins of hominin dispersal. This paper presents the preliminary analysis of the T17 faunal assemblage, a valuable source of data on early human subsistence and paleoecology. Although small (n = 836) and fragmentary, the assemblage illuminates several aspects of early human behavior, namely the butchery of large and extra-large ungulates as well as the use of osseous tools and personal ornaments. In addition to ungulates, humans also exploited marmot, ostrich (eggshell) and at least one large carnivore, attesting to the wide range of human-animal interactions at the site. In addition to humans, carnivores also modified the assemblage, likely as scavengers of human butchery waste. These results provide a basis for future analyses at the site, focusing on the agents of accumulation, taphonomic processes, and implications for early human adaptations in Central Asia.

After the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM: ~ 26.5–19.0 ka cal BP), large-scale warming resulted in glacial retreat and climatic amelioration, prompting changes to local and regional ecosystems across Eurasia during the Late Glacial. Consequently, Magdalenian hunter-gatherers reoccupied parts of Central Europe that were mostly devoid of humans during the LGM. Petersfels and Gnirshöhle (~ 17.0–13.0 ka cal BP), two Magdalenian cave sites in the Hegau Jura of southwestern Germany, preserve the later stages of this recolonization and serve as archives of paleoenvironmental data. In this study, we examine carbon (δ ¹³C) and oxygen (δ ¹⁸O) stable isotopes in horse (Equus ferus) and bovine (Bos/Bison sp.) tooth enamel carbonate from both sites to investigate the microenvironment of the northern Alpine foreland. We contextualize our results within a broader geographical framework by comparing the Hegau Jura to Verberie (Le Buisson Campin), a contemporaneous Magdalenian site in northern France (~ 16.0–14.0 ka cal BP). The apparent difference in δ ¹⁸O suggests that northern France was warmer with weaker seasonal climatic fluctuations than southwestern Germany. This difference likely affected cold-adapted fauna, such as reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), resulting in diverse animal ecologies that influenced hunter-gatherer subsistence behaviors across western and central Europe. Our exploration of Magdalenian landscapes reveals a mosaic of ecological variability, which likely influenced daily activities such as movement and food procurement, highlighting the interconnected relationship between environment and hunter-gatherer behavior during this period.