Changing Diet Breadth in the Early Upper Palaeolithic of Southwestern France

Archaeological applications of foraging theory models require that variables derived from ecological considerations be translated into archaeological terms. Here, we explore some of the potential difficulties that may exist in the archaeological measurement of diet breadth, a key variable in many foraging theory approaches. We then examine seven ungulate assemblages from the early Upper Palaeolithic site of Le Flageolet I (Dordogne, France) in this light, and show that these assemblages incorporate distinctly different relationships between numbers of specimens and numbers of taxa. While some of the differences involved may be caused by differential specimen fragmentation, the entire pattern of similarities and differences in richness appears to reflect changing maximum diet breadths through time.