The Magdalenian open air site of Gönnersdorf (Rhineland, Germany) continues to provide new insights into the organisation of Upper Palaeolithic human societies. This analysis of the faunal remains at the site goes far beyond a mere presentation of primary archaeozoological data to investigate the ways in which the Magdalenian site occupants incorporated hunting and subsistence into their daily life and social organisation.

Methods including targeted strategies of radiocarbon dating, analyses of mortality patterns of horse, the main prey animal, meticulous recording of evidence for butchery, and the plotting and interpretation of spatial patterning of animal remains place the faunal data in context. Integrating these approaches, the authors have produced a convincing description of a Magdalenian settlement occupied seasonally in response to environmental opportunities and constraints, organised according to a strict spatial template and functioning as a semi-permanent »village«, thus foreshadowing the full sedentarism emerging in the contemporary Near East.