[mamelukesabre]

12,500 years ago humans already knew they didn’t live well with large cats around and had DISPOSED of all the
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WRONG!

There were lions in europe during the time of the greeks and romans...middle east as well.

[muawiyah]

"NEAR THEM" ~ sure, there were lions in Europe and if they weren't under tight control there was considerable organized hunting to get rid of them.

Eventually Europeans disposed of the lions found in even the most remote areas.

By the time the Swedes obtained rights to mine the Carpathians, half the wolves in Europe were confined to those mountains. Today there's a residual population, but NO ONE WANTS THEM BACK.

Let's go back to 12,500 years ago in Anatolia ~ in that area where those hunter gatherers did their funeral celebrations THERE WERE NO LARGE TIGERS ~ or lions ~ or wolves ~ else they'd carved statues of them.

No doubt there were the occasional stray large carnivore, but certainly no Sabre Toothed tigers of whatever species. Early Americans, similar to the people recently found in Central Alaska from 11,500 years ago, are credited with ELIMINATING the saber toothed tigers and dire wolves, and with them, the mastadons, etc.

Stone age human beings were quite capable of getting rid of entire species of large dangerous animals and did so!