Proximity to Game Paths
Sites at the base of cliff faces sometimes turn out to be places where animals were driven over a cliff, to be butchered where they fell. In France, Upper Paleolithic sites often occur at shallows or fords in major rivers that were probably crossings for migratory animals such as reindeer. At one such site, the huge rock shelter of Laugerie-Haute on the Vézère River, nearly complete reindeer skeletons were found between the rock shelter and the ford in the river. On a small rise nearby were found 21 pits dug into the ground, about a yard deep and same across. Stone tools in the bottom of these pits date them to the Solutrean. Several hypotheses await testing: animals may have been driven toward the pits, dug to serve as traps, into which they fell; the pits may have been foxholes, used by hunters to hide from approaching animals; or the pits may have been used for storing meat and other foodstuffs.
