Taphonomy and the micromammals from Elands Bay Cave

The micromammal assemblages excavated from archaeological sites in South Af rica have traditionally been used to trace palaeoenvironmental and palaeocl imatic change over time. These studies have been based upon the assumption that the predator responsible for the accumulation of these assemblages was invariably the barn owl. an analysis of the micromammal bones from Elands Bay Cave was carried out to examine this assumption and to ascertain, throu gh taphonomic analysis, which predator/s had been responsible for the accum ulation of the micromammal assemblages. The results of this study have indi cated that a variety of predator species have contributed to the micromamma l accumulations at Elands Bay Cave.