Foreword

This book is focusing on a Late Pleistocene Weichselian Glacial cave bear den in north-central Europe. Such cave bear dens are larger cave systems, mostly filled up with ten thousands up to a half Million of cave bear bones. However, this book does not survey only the bones of the Hermann’s Cave in the Harz Mountains, Saxony-Anhalt (northern Germany), but also highlights the paleoecological change of the den during 113.000 years located in the Bode River valley close to former valley glaciers present in the Last Ice Age. Interdisciplinary geological, paleontological and archaeological studies make the cave important for our knowledge on the local geomorphological development of the Harz Mountains during the last three Ice Ages (Elsterian, Saalian and Weichselian) reflecting the impact of the most northern mountain valley glaciers in Germany. Recent research during the past 10 years has changed dramatically our view on “the cave bear”. New molecular data and osteometric evidence from skulls and teeth (= “cave bear clock”) suggest that speciation processes resulted into the separation of several species and subspecies within the Late Pleistocene – the past 113.000 years. The behavior and ecological role of European cave bear taxa was consequently misunderstood for a long time and the antagonistic interactions with the other extinct top predators - steppe lions, Ice Age leopards, Ice Age spotted hyenas, and Ice Age wolves – have not been fully considered. The predation and scavenging of carcasses representing a smaller and a larger cave bear species/subspecies are explained in this book as spectacular examples of the interaction with steppe lion whose skeletons (at least three) were discovered deeper in the Hermann’s Cave. This extraordinary book on Hermann’s Cave provides clear evidence for its international paleoecological importance. It deepens our knowledge and understanding of life and extinction of cave bear taxa which appears as a series of events beginning with changing climate leading to the expansion of boreal forests and the reduction of food resources during in the Last Glacial Maximum, and followed by the predatory impact of large carnivores and Cromagnon humans. In the deeper part of the cave Aurignacien hunters left with their tools the oldest cave bear hunt proves most probably with propulsion weapon technique during the bears´ winterly inactivity period.