Editing Deer (section)

===Prehistoric===

Deer were an important source of food for early hominids. In China, ''[[Homo erectus]]'' fed upon the [[sika deer]], while the red deer was hunted in Germany. In the [[Upper Palaeolithic]], the reindeer was the staple food for [[Cro-Magnon]] people,<ref name=guide/> while the [[cave paintings]] at [[Lascaux]] in southwestern France include some 90 images of stags.<ref name=Curtis>{{cite book |last=Curtis |first=Gregory |title=The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists |year=2006 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-1400043484 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cavepaintersprob00curt/page/96 96–97, 102] |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/cavepaintersprob00curt/page/96 }}</ref> In [[China]], deer continued to be a main source of food for millennia even after people began farming, and it is possible that sika and other deer benefited from the frequently abandoned field sites.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lander |first1=Brian |last2=Brunson |first2=Katherine |title=Wild Mammals of Ancient North China |journal=The Journal of Chinese History |date=2018 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=291–312 |doi=10.1017/jch.2017.45|s2cid=90662935 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brunson |first1=Katherine |last2=Lander |first2=Brian |title=Deer and Humans in the Early Farming Communities of the Yellow River Valley: A Symbiotic Relationship |journal=Human Ecology |date=2023 |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=609–625 |doi=10.1007/s10745-023-00432-x |bibcode=2023HumEc..51..609B |s2cid=261164022 }}</ref>