Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep Mobility and season of death of the Arctic foxes killed by Gravettian hunters at Kraków Spadzista, Poland Alexander J.E. Pryor a, ⁎ , Sylwia Pospuła b , Tereza Nesnídalová a , Nina Kowalik c , Piotr Wojtal b , Jarosław Wilczyński b a Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building, Exeter EX4 4QE, United Kingdom b Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Slawkowska 17, 31-016 Kraków, Poland c Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Research Centre in Kraków, Senacka 1, 31-002 Kraków, Poland ARTICLEINFO Keywords: Strontium isotopes Mobility Dental cementum Season of death Gravettian Arctic fox Kraków Spadzista ABSTRACT The Late Gravettian site of Kraków Spadzista is important for understanding human behaviour and adaptation in cold, northern and marginal landscapes approaching the coldest part of the last glacial cycle. This paper focuses on the large assemblage of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus L.) remains found at the site, and presents new data on the mobility patterns and season of death of the animals killed by Gravettian hunters. Laser ablation strontium isotope analysis of teeth from fve individuals indicates that each analysed fox was born and grew up in a diferent and isotopically distinct location, and had migrated tens or hundreds of kilometres into the vicinity of Kraków Spadzista before being killed by Gravettian hunters. Season of death data gathered from the dental cementum of at least 10 fox individuals demonstrate that the majority were killed in a window between late winter and late spring. Given the predictable nature of seasonal changes in Arctic fox hide quality and bodily fat reserves, we argue that the foxes were most likely killed at the start of this window, i.e. in late winter. The results are interesting for reconstructing the context to human hunting strategies in the Late Gravettian, revealing the choices made by hunters about where and when to procure these small prey. 1. Introduction Kraków Spadzista is one of the largest Upper Palaeolithic sites in Central Europe. It is located in southern Poland at the edge of the North European Plains, and contains extensive deposits dating to the Late Gravettian between approximately 24,500–23,000 14 C years BP (Wilczyński et al., 2020). The site is important for understanding human behaviour and adaptation in cold, northern and marginal landscapes approaching the coldest part of the last glacial cycle. Kraków Spadzista is best-known for the vast and dense accumula- tions of woolly mammoth bones discovered there (trenches B and B1), together with clear evidence that at least some of these individuals were killed and butchered by humans (Kufel-Diakowska et al., 2016). More than 100 individual mammoths were found, together with lithic scat- ters and other occupation debris (Wojtal et al., 2019). A large campsite area (trenches C and D) and a workshop zone (trenches E, E1 and F) have also been defned at the site (Wilczyński et al., 2012b). This paper focuses on the second-most abundant prey species at Kraków Spadzista, Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus L.), which is represented by > 2400 elements and a minimum number of individuals (MNI) of 29. The majority of Arctic fox remains were found in the workshop zone, located approximately 30 m south of the main accumulation of woolly mammoth, in an area used for the production of lithic tools and the processing of prey animals other than woolly mammoth (Wilczyński et al., 2012b). The Arctic fox assemblage has been widely interpreted as evidence for autumn–winter season hunting to obtain thick furs for use as clothing (e.g. Lipecki and Wojtal, 2015; West, 1996b). However, this interpretation has relied on inconclusive evidence from osteological analyses and tentative results of dental cementum analysis of two fox teeth that were never verifed or confrmed (West, 1996a). Here, we present new data on the season of death of the Arctic foxes killed at Kraków Spadzista by Gravettian hunters and the frst direct evidence describing mobility patterns of Arctic fox in a mammoth steppe ecosystem. Season of death is determined via analysis of dental cementum, a well-established technique for investigating age and season of death in mammals (Lieberman, 1993, 1994; Lieberman and Meadow, 1992; Rendu et al., 2010), which has been widely applied to animal teeth of Palaeolithic age (Burke and Castanet, 1995; Niven et al., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102520 Received 29 April 2020; Received in revised form 4 August 2020; Accepted 5 August 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: Alex.Pryor@exeter.ac.uk (A.J.E. Pryor), Pospula@isez.pan.krakow.pl (S. Pospuła), tn295@exeter.ac.uk (T. Nesnídalová), N.Kowalik@ingpan.krakow.pl (N. Kowalik), Wojtal@isez.pan.krakow.pl (P. Wojtal), Wilczynski@isez.pan.krakow.pl (J. Wilczyński). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 33 (2020) 102520 2352-409X/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T