Early hominid hunting, butchering, and carcass-processing behaviors: Approaches to the fossil record

doi:10.1016/0278-4165(83)90008-9

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

Volume 2, Issue 1, March 1983, Pages 57-98

https://doi.org/10.1016/0278-4165(83)90008-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

A major aim of paleoanthropology is to learn what ancient behaviors were related to the acquisition, processing, and consumption of meat and when these behaviors arose. For this reason, studies focusing on purported early hominid hunting and butchery sites are important if rigorous criteria for recognizing such sites are used. Different criteria currently used as evidence of hominid involvement with ancient bones are reviewed and it is concluded that the presence of cutmarks, verified by scanning electron microscope (SEM) inspection, is the most reliable. Successful application of this criterion depends upon a thorough knowledge of the normal variations in microscopic morphology of different types of marks that are found on bones. Therefore, variations in microscopic and gross morphology within and among a large sample of known stone tool cutmarks, carnivore tooth scratches, and rodent gnawing marks are documented. The effects of sedimentary abrasion, as caused by fluvial transport of bones, are also presented. Guidelines are presented for using microscopic criteria to identify unknown marks on fossils and possible applications of this approach are discussed. Further, it is suggested that evidence of hominid carcass-processing activities can be placed into one of three ranked categories of certainty according to the type of data used. Explicitly stating the category and type of evidence used to deduce hominid activities, and by extension to define site types (i.e., butchery, kill, base camp), may improve the clarity of hypotheses about and interpretations of early hominid behaviors.

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Early hominid hunting, butchering, and carcass-processing behaviors: Approaches to the fossil record

Abstract

Nature (London)

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Journal of Human Evolution

Palaeontographica Africana

Expériences de taille d'outils préhistoriques dans des os d'éléphant

Quaternaria

African genesis: A personal investigation into the animal origins and nature of man

The hunting hypothesis: A personal conclusion concerning the evolutionary nature of man

Feeding habits of spotted hyenas in a woodland habitat

East African Wildlife Journal

The taphonomy and paleoecology of the Plio-Pleistocene vertebrate assemblages east of Lake Rudolf, Kenya

Taphonomy and paleoecology of the Plio-Pleistocene vertebrate assemblages east of Lake Rudolf, Kenya

Museum of Comparative Zoology Bulletin

Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering

Paleobiology

The recent bones of Amboseli Park, Kenya, in relation to East African paleoecology

New perspectives in vertebrate paleoecology from a recent bone assemblage

Paleobiology

Olorgesailie deserves more than the usual book review

Journal of Anthropological Research

Bones: Ancient men and modern myths

Bone frequencies and attritional processes

Hominid taphonomy: Transport of human skeletal parts in an artificial fluviatile environment

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Some operational aspects of human and animal bone alterations

Pleistocene bone technology in the Beringian Refugium

Archaeological Survey of Canada, Paper 89

Hottentot food remains and their bearing on the interpretation of fossil bone assemblages

Scientific Papers of the Namib Desert Research Station

New finds at the Swartkrans australopithecine site

Nature (London)

Some suggested procedures in the analysis of bone accumulations from southern African Quaternary sites

Annals of the Transvaal Museum

Some principles in the interpretation of bone accumulations associated with man

Some criteria for the recognition of bone-collecting agencies in African caves

The hunters or the hunted? An introduction to African cave taphonomy

An overview of Paleo-American prehistory from a circum-Pacific perspective

Archaeological evidence for meat-eating by Plio-Pleistocene hominids from Koobi Fora and Olduvai Gorge

Nature (London)

Bones from a modern hunter-gatherer camp in Botswana

Diet and subsistence patterns of Plio-Pleistocene hominids at Koobi Fora, Kenya and Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

FxJj 50: An Early Pleistocene site in northern Kenya

World Archaeology

Our roots in time: Significant new hominid discoveries

L.S.B. Leakey News

An elephant butchery site at Mwangande's Village, Karonga, Malawi, and its relevance for Paleolithic archaeology

World Archaeology

The effects of scavengers on bone material from a large mammal: An experiment conducted among the Bisa of the Luangwa Valley, Zambia

Contemporary single-carcass bone scatters and the problem of “butchery” sites in the archaeological record

The predatory implemental technique of Australopithecus

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

The Osteodontokeratic culture of Australopithecus prometheus

Transvaal Museum Memoirs

Adventures with the missing link

Carbon isotope evidence for different feeding patterns in two hyrax species occuping the same habitat

Science

Carbon isotope ratios of apatite from fossil bone cannot be used to reconstruct diets of animals

Nature (London)

The Casper site: A Hell Gap bison kill on the High Plains

Prehistoric hunters of the High Plains

Observation of modern human settlements as an aid to archaeological interpretation

Ethnoarchaeological observations on natural processes affecting cultural materials

Taphonomy and paleoecology: A critical review of archaeology's sister disciplines

Early archaeological sites, hominid remains and traces of fire from Chesowanja, Kenya

Nature (London)

Aboriginal butchering techniques at the Eschelman site (36LA12), Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Archaeologist

Fluvial taphonomic processes: Models and experiments

Introduction to biological scanning electron microscopy

Time, environment and early man

Arctic Anthropologist

Paleoenvironments and cultural diversity in Late Pleistocene South America: A reply to A. L. Bryan

Quaternary Research

Evidence of carnivore gnawing on Pleistocene and recent mammalian bones

Paleobiology

Bone modifications and skeletal disturbances by natural agencies: Studies in North America

Utilization and skeletal disturbances of North American prey carcasses

Arctic