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M. Masseti: Homogenisation and the loss of biodiversity of mammals of the Mediterranean islands 179
evidenced by the radiocarbon dating of its bone remains to late Holocene chronologies (Figure 14). For instance,
from the site of Monte Leone, Corsica, which indicated the extinction of Myotragus balearicus is well document-
8225"80 BP (Vigne and Desse-Berset 1995, Vigne et al. ed on the Balearics, where it persisted up to the 3rd mil-
1998). On Cyprus, excavations of the site of Akrotiri- lennium BC (Burleigh and Clutton-Brock 1980, Lax and
Aetokremnos have brought to light the possible conjunc- Strasser 1992, Alcover et al. 1999, Ramis and Bover
tion of cultural material and great quantities of bone from 2001), or perhaps even later (cf. Guerrero Ayuso 1997).
the extinct endemic fauna (Simmons 1988, 1989, 1991, The subfossil evidence that we have for Corsica and
1999). Associated with this site is a huge faunal assem- Sardinia indicates the survival of the rat-hare Prolagus
blage that consists of endemic mammalian species pre- sardous up to very recent epochs, datable between the
viously thought to have become extinct during the Bronze and the Iron Age (Fonzo 1986, Gallin and Fonzo
Pleistocene, prior to the arrival of humans on the island. 1992, Delussu 1997, 2000, Manconi 2000, Wilkens
Most of the osteological material is referable to the 2005). Moreover, the persistence of this animal up to
endemic hippopotamus, while pygmy elephants are also even more recent times, such as the period of classical
represented by several subadult individuals. Simmons antiquity, cannot be ruled out (cf. Vigne 1997, Wilkens
(1991) estimates that a minimum of 200 specimens of and Delussu 2003, Masseti 2009a). In Sardinia, the pres-
Phanouris minor were represented amongst the fossil ence of the vole Microtus henseli has also been docu-
remains of Aetokremnos. Approximately 20% of the bone mented up to archaeological contexts of the Iron Age
was burned and almost none was articulated, but no (Delussu 2000, Wilkens 2005). In the eastern Aegean sea,
clearly butchered bone was identified (Simmons 1991, a population of dwarf elephants seems to have survived
1999). A consistent group of a dozen 14C dates (shell, on the island of Tilos, perhaps at least up to the Bronze
bone, charcoal) arguing in favour of an 11th millennium Age (Symeonidis et al. 1973, Masseti 2001, 2003a), much
BP occupation, with a weighted average of 10,030"35 longer than the last endemic Cypriot proboscideans and
BP, sets the findings of Akrotiri-Aetokremnos only a few hippos, hunted to extinction several millennia earlier (cf.
centuries before the earliest record now available for the Simmons 1999).
pre-pottery Neolithic period, recently discovered at Shil-
lourokambos and dated to the first half of the end of the Nothing beside remains«
9th/8th millennium (see Guilaine et al. 1996, 2000, Briois
et al. 1997). Thus, Akrotiri-Aetokremnos has implications In the light of current knowledge, less than approximately
for early seafaring technology and, more importantly, for one-fourth of the mammalian species found in the con-
the adaptive strategies adopted by these early Mediter- tinental Mediterranean region have been described as
ranean human colonists (Hadjisterkotis and Masala endemic to the area. The number of endemites decreas-
1995). Equally interesting is the association of cultural es drastically, however, if we consider the composition of
materials with extinct late Pleistocene vertebrates. Aetok- the extant fauna on the islands. In fact, in comparison to
remnos appears, in fact, to represent one of the few good the Pleistocene, it can be observed that the extant insular
examples of a late Pleistocene/early Holocene cultural mammalian fauna is richer in species but with a greatly
adaptation directly associated with the extinction of an reduced level of endemics (cf. Vigne 1997, Masseti
endemic vertebrate fauna. In the light of all this, Cyprus 1998). Today, the almost complete absence of endemic
is the first Mediterranean island where some of the species is quite surprising. The insular endemics are
endemic vertebrates effectively appear to have been restricted to just four taxa, possibly comprising two spe-
wiped out by the hunting of human prehistoric groups. cies of shrew, the Sicilian shrew, Crocidura sicula Miller
1900, and the Cretan white-toothed shrew, C. zimmer-
However, not all the endemites became extinct in
ancient times. Several indigenous mammals survived up
Figure 14 Endemic non-volant mammalian species that survived in the Holocene of the Mediterranean islands.
