Testing meat-eating in early hominids: an analysis of butchery marks on defleshed carcases |
| |
Authors: | M Domínguez-Rodrigo |
| |
Institution: | (1) Departamento de Prehistoria. Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain;(2) Division of Archaeology, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi, Kenya |
| |
Abstract: | The diet of early hominids responsible for the bone accumulations at Plio-Pleistocene sites is still a controversial issue.
Meateating and bone marrow consumption are often presented either as complementary or as opposing strategies of carcass exploitation.
The occurrence of cut marks on fossil bones at early sites is a potential source of information that has not been consistently
used as evidence of what products hominids obtained from carcasses. Some authors interpret them as the result of manipulating
meat-bearing bones, whereas others believe that they can also be the result of extracting marginal scraps of flesh that have
survived carnivores’ initial consumption of carcasses. In this study, a referential framework concerning the latter process
is presented and it is concluded, according to the data drawn from the FLK “Zinj” site and the results obtained in the experiment,
that hominids processed meat-bearing bones (in which flesh was abundant) and not defleshed carcasses from felid kills. This
work constitutes a reference that can also be used for later Pleistocene sites and adds a further dimension to the hunting-versus-scavenging
debate. |
| |
Keywords: | Meat-eating cut marks upper/lower limb bones mid-shaft proximal/distal shafts lions |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|