Meat-eating by early hominids at the FLK 22Zinjanthropussite, Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania): an experimental approach using cut-mark data |
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Authors: | Zinjanthropus |
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Institution: | Departamento de Prehistoria, Facultad de Geografia e Historia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain;Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, Douglass Campus, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08903-0270, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | The meat-eating behavior of Plio-Pleistocene hominids, responsible for the bone accumulations at the earliest archaeological sites, is still a hotly-debated issue in paleoanthropology. In particular, meat-eating and bone marrow consumption are often presented as either complementary or opposing strategies of carcass exploitation. The presence of cut marks on fossil archeofauna is a potential source of information that has not been consistently used as evidence of carcass consumption by hominids. Some authors interpret cut marks as the result of hominids manipulating meat-bearing bones, while others argue that they can also be the result of hominids extracting marginal scraps of carcass flesh that have survived carnivores’ initial consumption. In this study, a referential framework concerning the interpretation of cut marks is presented, based on a set of experiments conducted by the author. It is suggested, according to these experiments and data drawn from the FLK “Zinj” site, that hominids processed meat-bearing bones (on which flesh was abundant) rather than defleshed carcasses from felid kills. |
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Keywords: | meat-eating cut marks upper/lower limb bones mid-shafts proximal/distal shafts lions Plio-Pleistocene sites Olduvai |
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