Exploitation of Rabbits at the Dawn of the Holocene: Evidence From the Font Voltada Site (Northeastern Iberia) Using Comparative Neotaphonomic Models

During the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, hunter‐gatherer societies in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula increased the number of settlements and broadened their subsistence strategies. This period is marked by the appearance of terrestrial snail accumulations attributable to human harvesting, the expansion of specialized Spanish ibex hunting in mountainous areas and a notable intensification in the exploitation of small prey. Among the most characteristic faunal records of this time are large assemblages dominated by rabbit remains, whose predominantly anthropogenic origin has been demonstrated through taphonomic analyses. This study presents the archaeozoological and taphonomic results from the Epipaleolithic level (10,920 ± 240 BP ) of Font Voltada (Sarral, Tarragona, northeastern Iberia). Although the assemblage includes a diverse faunal spectrum, more than 97% of the remains belong to rabbits. Comparative analysis with neotaphonomic models indicates that the accumulation is primarily anthropogenic. The assemblage is characterized by a high degree of fragmentation, frequent fresh‐bone breakage, and extensive thermal alteration, pointing to systematic on‐site processing and intensive consumption of rabbit carcasses. The Font Voltada evidence reinforces the interpretation of mass rabbit procurement as a widespread and highly specialized subsistence strategy during the Epipaleolithic in Mediterranean Iberia, reflecting broader economic transformations associated with the Pleistocene–Holocene transition.