Evidence of butchery and hominid activities at Torralba and Ambrona; an evaluation using microscopic techniques

Torralba and Ambrona have been interpreted as butchery sites for many years, a contention recently challenged; natural death or carnivore activities are invoked as an alternative explanation. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of bone surface replicas distinguishes among hominid-produced cutmarks, carnivore tooth scratches, and other types of bone damage. A sample of 102 replicas, comprising the most likely cutmarks on a combined sample of roughly 3000 fossils from Torralba and Ambrona, were scanned to determine the major agent of damage. Microscopically verified cutmarks are present, but rare, occurring in less than 1% of the bones in the combined sample. Carnivore tooth scratches are comparably rare. In contrast, evidence of sedimentary abrasion, which obliterates the diagnostic features of cutmarks, is present on nearly every bone from Torralba and Ambrona. It remains unresolved whether cutmarks were initially more common on these bones and were subsequently obliterated by abrasion, or whether the incidence of cutmarks was always low. These data demonstrate clearly that hominids and carnivores each damaged some bones at Torralba and Ambrona, but the frequency of each type of mark is too low to confirm strongly the interpretation of these sites as either butchery or carnivore remains.     

A new protocol to differentiate trampling marks from butchery cut marks

Microscopic signatures have previously been used to emphasize the similarities of butchery and trampling marks. The experimental background applied to differentiate both types of marks has been rather limited and authors have sometimes reached conflicting conclusions. This is partly due to methodological reasons: some authors have used very high magnification to examine microscopic features, whereas others have relied on more reduced magnification. Likewise, some experiments have exposed bones to trampling for reduced periods (minutes) whereas others have used longer time periods (hours). The present study stresses that the use of a scanning electronic microscope is not practical for identifying the impact of butchery and trampling marks in complete bone assemblages. It also emphasizes that previous studies have not addressed all the possible variables that could potentially be used to discriminate these marks, nor have they quantified the morphological patterns of each type of mark. Here we present a multivariate analysis of more than a dozen variables and show that butchery and trampling marks have very distinctive microscopic morphology. We advocate the use of a low magnification approach (≤40×), which can enable the analysis of complete assemblages using either hand lenses or binocular lenses. We also show the morphological criteria that differentiate butchery cut marks made with simple and retouched tools. We show that whereas complete discrimination of marks is impossible due to some degree of overlap, the list of criteria derived through multivariate analyses can be confidently used to correctly differentiate butchery and trampling marks in more than 90% of cases.     

Cutmark systematics: Analyzing morphometrics and spatial patterning at Palangana

Cutmarks have played an important role in addressing whether our hominid ancestors were hunters or scavengers, describing ritual modification of human bone, defining the origin of metallurgy, and highlighting the diversity of prehistoric butchering behavior. The widespread occurrence of cutmarks on animal bones and their variability allows archaeologists to use this kind of evidence to address a broad range of questions. One goal in examining cutmark diversity is to identify diagnostic cutmarks of prehistoric butchering, processing, and consuming behaviors. Linking cutmarks to specific activities allows us to test fine-grained hypotheses concerning the nature of an archaeological site, and to do this a systematic method for addressing variability in both the appearance and anatomical position of cutmarks is essential. An analysis of caribou bones collected by Lewis Binford from the Palangana site in Alaska is used to build and test a diagnostic cutmark classification using their morphometric and spatial properties. This case study demonstrates that cutmarks can be used to simultaneously address large-scale anthropological questions and reveal intra-site behavioral variability in the archaeological record.     

Taphonomy of ungulate ribs and the consumption of meat and bone by 1.2-million-year-old hominins at Olduvai Gorge,Tanzania

The phenomenon of equifinality complicates behavioral interpretations of faunal assemblages from contexts in which Pleistocene hominins are suspected bone accumulators. Stone tool butchery marks on ungulate fossils are diagnostic of hominin activities, but debate continues over the higher-order implications of butchered bones for the foraging capabilities of hominins. Additionally, tooth marks imparted on bones by hominins overlap in morphology and dimensions with those created by some non-hominin carnivores, further confounding our view of early hominins as meat-eating hunters, scavengers or both. We report on the manual/oral peeling of cortical layers of ungulate ribs as taphonomically diagnostic of hominoid/hominin meat- and bone-eating behavior that indicates access to large herbivore carcasses by hominins at the site of BK, Olduvai. Supporting these inferences, we show that certain types of rib peeling damage are very rare or completely unknown in faunas created by modern carnivores and African porcupines, but common in faunas modified by the butchery and/or consumption activities of modern humans and chimpanzees, during which these hominoids often grasp ribs with their hands, and then used their teeth to peel strips of cortex from raggedly chewed ends of the ribs. Carnivores consume ungulate ribcage tissues soon after kills, so diagnostic traces of hominin butchery/consumption on ribs (i.e., peeling and butchery marks) indicate early access to ungulate carcasses by BK hominins. Tooth marks associated with the peeling and butchery marks are probably hominin-derived, and may indicate that it was not uncommon for our ancestors to use their teeth to strip meat from and to consume portions of ribs. Recognition of rib peeling as a diagnostic signature of hominoid/hominin behavior may also aid the search for pre-archaeological traces of hominin meat-eating.     

Testing the Efficiency of Simple Flakes,Retouched Flakes and Small Handaxes During Butchery

Handaxes, simple flakes and retouched flakes are three types of stone tools whose adaptive advantages are highly debated. Interpretations of these technologically different tools suggest that their adequacy for butchery is uneven. Although some experimentation has been made in this regard, further research is needed to understand which of these tool types are more efficient for butchery, thus granting adaptive advantages to the hominins who used them. The present experimental work shows that small handaxes provide higher return rates in butchery activities than simple and retouched flakes. Efficiency (measured in time) is significantly positive in handaxes compared to the other tools when defleshing. In contrast, when comparing the three stone tool sets (simple flakes, retouched flakes and handaxes), the return values obtained for disarticulation are very similar. This study also shows that cut marks do not occur randomly and are less stochastic than previously assumed. Defleshing leaves a preferential cluster of cut marks on mid‐shafts from long bones and even on these sections, depending on element type, patterns are statistically demonstrable.     

Cutmarks and hominid handedness

Handedness in humans has been linked to brain lateralization and the evolution of language, but recent data on chimpanzee tool use suggest that the lateralization of hand and brain function may have instead preceded the time when the hominid and panid lineages split. The hominid paleontological and archaeological records are two sources for testing this hypothesis by helping to establish the antiquity of hominid handedness. As such, several methods have been proposed for identifying traces of hominid handedness in those records. Included among those methods is using the orientation of stone tool cutmarks on ungulate limb bone fragments. Here we report on an experiment created to test the accuracy and efficacy of one such method proposed by Bromage and his colleagues [Bromage, T.G., Boyde, A., 1984. Microscopic criteria for the determination of directionality of cutmarks on bone. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 65, 359–366; Bromage, T.G., Bermudez de Castro, J.M., Jalvo, Y.F., 1991. The SEM in taphonomic research and its application to studies of cutmarks generally and the determination of handedness specifically. Anthropologie 29, 163–169]. Our data indicate that the methodology proposed by Bromage and colleagues can yield accurate results in an experimental setting. However, considering the complexity of uncontrolled (i.e., non-experimental) human butchery, we question the method's efficacy for investigating the antiquity of human handedness as potentially recorded in the zooarchaeological record. Our results highlight the limitations of current approaches, but it is hoped that they will also stimulate new, more productive techniques that use the archaeological record to discern the development of human handedness and its evolutionary significance.     

Experimental study of cut marks made with rocks unmodified by human flaking and its bearing on claims of ∼3.4-million-year-old butchery evidence from Dikika, Ethiopia

In order to assess further the recent claims of ∼3.4 Ma butchery marks on two fossil bones from the site of Dikika (Ethiopia), we broadened the actualistic-interpretive zooarchaeological framework by conducting butchery experiments that utilized naïve butchers and rocks unmodified by human flaking to deflesh chicken and sheep long limb bones. It is claimed that the purported Dikika cut marks present their unexpectedly atypical morphologies because they were produced by early hominins utilizing just such rocks. The composition of the cut mark sample produced in our experiments is quite dissimilar to the sample of linear bone surface modifications preserved on the Dikika fossils. This finding substantiates and expands our earlier conclusion that—considering the morphologies and patterns of the Dikika bone surface modifications and the inferred coarse-grained depositional context of the fossils on which they occur—the Dikika bone damage was caused incidentally by the movement of the fossils on and/or within their depositional substrate(s), and not by early hominin butchery. Thus, contrary to initial claims, the Dikika evidence does not warrant a major shift in our understanding of early hominin behavioral evolution with regard to carcass foraging and meat-eating.     

The hunted hunter: the capture of a lion (Panthera leo fossilis) at the Gran Dolina site,Sierra de Atapuerca,Spain

Many Pleistocene caves and rock shelters contain evidence of carnivore and human activities. For this reason, it is common to recover at these sites faunal remains left by both biological agents. In order to explain the role that carnivores play at the archaeological sites it is necessary to analyse several elements, such as the taxonomical and skeletal representation, the age profiles, the ratio of NISP to MNI, the anthropogenic processing marks on the carcasses (location and purpose of cutmarks and burning and bone breakage patterns), carnivore damage (digested bones, location and frequencies of toothmarks and bone breakage), length of the long bones, frequencies of coprolites and vertical distribution of the faunal remains, inter alia. From this, the documentation of carnivores in a faunal assemblage with a clear anthropogenic component can be understood from three main phenomena: (1) the carnivores as accumulators and the use of the site as a den; (2) carnivores as scavengers of hominid refuse and; (3) carnivores as hominids’ prey. Of these three phenomena, the last one is the least documented at the Middle Pleistocene sites. From this perspective, here we present the case of the anthropogenic use of a lion (Panthera leo fossilis) from level TD10-1 of Gran Dolina (MIS 9, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). The lion bone remains show signs of direct interaction between this big cat and human groups that occupied Gran Dolina in these chronologies. From this perspective, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of the role developed by large carnivores in the anthropogenic contexts and to provide data on human use of these predators at the European Middle Pleistocene sites.     

Middle Pleistocene bird consumption at Level XI of Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain)

The consumption of small prey dates back to the Plio-Pleistocene chronologies in some African sites. However, the systematic acquisition and consumption of small prey in the pre-Upper Palaeolithic times is still a highly debated topic in Europe. Although the utilization of leporids has been recorded in several pre-Late Pleistocene European sites, the evidence of bird consumption is not as common for these periods. Nevertheless, Level XI (MIS 6) of Bolomor Cave has clear diagnostic elements to document the acquisition and use of birds (Aythya sp.) for food in the form of: (1) cutmarks on bones of both the front and hind limb; (2) presence of burning patterns on the extremities of the bones (areas of the skeleton with less meat); and (3) human toothmarks on limb bones. The capture of birds is classified as quick-flying game in the archaeological sites. The acquiring of fast-running (mostly lagomorphs) and quick-flying small prey requires a sophisticated technology and involves obtaining and processing ways different from those used for large- and medium-sized animals. From this perspective, the aim of this paper is to examine possible patterns in the processing sequence of birds from Level XI of Bolomor Cave and to improve the data on their butchery and human consumption in the Middle Pleistocene of Iberian Peninsula.     

Micro-photogrammetric and morphometric differentiation of cut marks on bones using metal knives,quartzite, and flint flakes

In a previous article, we presented an innovative method to analyze cut marks produced with metal tools on animal bones from a metrical and tridimensional perspective (Maté-González et al. 2015). Such analysis developed a low-cost alternative technique to traditional microscopic methods for the tridimensional reconstruction of marks, using their measurements and sections. This article presents the results of an experimental study to test this photogrammetric and morphometric method for differentiating cut marks generated with metal, flint, and quartzite flakes. The results indicate statistically significant differences among cut marks produced by these three types of raw material. These results encourage the application of this method to archeological assemblages in order to establish a link between carcass processing and lithic reduction sequences on different raw materials and also to define the kind of tools used during butchery.     

Human consumption of tortoises at Level IV of Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain)

The acquisition and consumption of small prey in the pre-Upper Palaeolithic is a highly debated topic at present. For some authors, the systematic obtaining of these animals is only part of the subsistence strategies used by anatomically modern Humans. However, the consumption of small prey dates back to the Plio-Pleistocene chronologies in some sites. Although the utilization of leporids has been recorded in several pre-Late Pleistocene European sites, the evidence of tortoise consumption is documented not as common for these periods. However, Level IV of Bolomor Cave has clear diagnostic elements to document the acquisition and use of tortoises (Testudo hermanni) for food in the form of: (1) cutmarks on limb bones and ventral surface of the carapace and plastron; (2) presence of burning on tortoise skeleton and shell; (3) elements of anthropogenic breakage on carapace and plastron: percussion pits, percussion notches and impact flakes; and (4) human toothmarks on limb bones. This paper tries to examine the possible patterns in the tortoise consumption sequence from Level IV of Bolomor Cave and improves data on the butchery process and tortoise consumption in the Late Middle Pleistocene.     

A new method for the quantitative analysis of cutmark micromorphology

Cutmarks found on the fossilised bones of butchered animals provide direct evidence for the procurement of meat through technological means. As such, they hold some of the oldest available information on cognitive ability and behaviour in human evolution. Here we present a new method that allows a three-dimensional reconstruction of cutmark morphology and the quantification of profile parameters. We have tested this new technique on cutmarks that were experimentally inflicted on a pig rib using a steel knife and an un-retouched flint flake at different angles. The method allows for the cross-sectional shape, the sharpness and depths of the resulting cutmarks to be quantified. The data show that knife mark sections are characterised by a V-shape or √-shape depending on the inclination of the knife. Cutmarks produced with the flint flake were less clearly defined and generally less sharp than those produced by the knife. We discuss the method's potential to provide new information on butchery technique and cognitive abilities developed by the human lineage, from the earliest tool-using hominins through to modern Homo sapiens.     

Factors affecting Early Stone Age cut mark cross-sectional size: implications from actualistic butchery trials

Early Stone Age cut marks are byproducts of hominins' tool-assisted animal carcass consumption and provide a potential avenue of inference into the paleoecology of hominin carnivory. If diagnostic cut mark characteristics can be linked to flake and core tool use or the completion of distinct butchery actions, it may be possible to infer ancient tool preferences, reconstruct the consumption of specific muscular tissues, and illuminate landscape-scale stone resource use. Recently, diagnostic morphological criteria including cut mark width and depth have been used to identify marks made by different classes of experimental and archaeological stone tools (Bello, S.M., Parfitt, S.A., Stringer, C., 2009. Quantitative micromorphological analyses of cut marks produced by ancient and modern handaxes. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 1869–1880; de Juana, S., Galan, A.B., Dominguez-Rodrigo, M., 2010. Taphonomic identification of cut marks made with lithic handaxes: an experimental study. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 1841–1850; Dominguez-Rodrigo, M., de Juana, S., Galan, A. B., Rodriguez, M., 2009. A new protocol to differentiate trampling marks from butchery cut marks. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 2643–2654). The work presented here adds to this experimental butchery database by using measurements of cut mark cross-section taken from bone surface molds to investigate how stone tool characteristics including flake versus core tool type, edge angle, and tool weight, influence cut mark width and depth, ultimately testing whether cut mark size is a useful indicator of tool identity. Additionally, these experiments investigate the influence of contextual factors, including butchery action, carcass size, and bone density on cut mark size. An experienced butcher used replicated Oldowan flakes and bifacial core tools in experimental trials that isolated skinning, bulk and scrap muscle defleshing, and element disarticulation cut marks on goat and cow skeletons. This sample explores cut mark traces generated under realistic butchery scenarios and suggests the following results: 1) Core and flake tools were equally efficient at completing all butchery tasks in size 1 and 3 bovid carcasses. 2) Samples of cut mark width and depth produced by core and flake tools were similar and cut marks could not be accurately classified to a known tool type. 3) Skinning and disarticulation activities produced significantly wider and deeper marks than defleshing activities. 4) Cut marks on cows tended to be wider and deeper than those on goats. 5) Cut mark width is negatively correlated with bone density when carcass size and bone portion are taken into consideration. These results suggest that a general quantitative model for inferring tool type or edge characteristics from archaeological cut mark size is not warranted.     

Cutmarks on Capsian human remains: implications for Maghreb Holocene social organization and palaeoeconomy

In 1930, the remains of five adults, one subadult, and one infant were excavated from Site 12, a ca. 8000 bp Capsian escargotière in Algeria. Recently, cutmarks were found on several postcranial bones of each of the adult individuals. In an attempt to reconstruct the burial circumstances, archival materials including photographs and field notes were retrieved from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the Logan Museum at Beloit College, and a detailed study of the cutmarks was carried out. The cutmarks are associated mostly with long bones and skulls, while two individuals show cutmarks on the thorax. Using theories relating secondary burial practices to a nomadic lifestyle, it is hypothesized that the individuals died away from camp. Initial preparations, while awaiting transport to Site 12, involved limited exposure, followed by decapitation, dismemberment, and possibly defleshing of the thorax and removal of the internal organs. At Site 12, a formal burial ceremony was conducted during which red ochre was used. In some cases the dismembered extremities were placed in the grave with the rest of the body, but several skulls and long bones are missing. It is not known what the missing bones were used for, although Capsian groups are known for modifying human bones for either utilitarian or ritual purposes. This is the first time that cutmarks on human remains are reported for this area and period. The idea that Capsian people practiced decapitation and dismemberment has been suggested before, based on observations on other sites, however. Studies of human skeletal material from the Maghreb, often excavated decades ago, may therefore reveal similar types of evidence. It is suggested that such studies will contribute significantly to our understanding of Holocene Maghreb burial practices, and our ability to reconstruct social organization and palaeoeconomy. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identifying the Involvement of Multiple Carnivore Taxa with Archaeological Bone Assemblages

Information on the number of carnivore taxa that were involved with archaeological bone assemblages is pertinent to questions of site formation, hominid and carnivore competition for carcasses and the sequence of hominid and carnivore activity at sites. A majority of early archaeological bone assemblages bear evidence that both hominids and carnivores removed flesh and/or marrow from the bones. Whether flesh specialists (felids) or bone-crunchers (hyaenas), or both, fed upon the carcasses is crucial for deciphering the timing of hominid involvement with the assemblages. Here we present an initial attempt to differentiate the tooth mark signature inflicted on bones by a single carnivore species versus multiple carnivore taxa. Quantitative data on carnivore tooth pits, those resembling a tooth crown or a cusp, are presented for two characteristics: the area of the marks in millimetres, and the shape as determined by the ratio of the major axis to the minor axis of the mark. Tooth pits from bones modified by extant East African carnivores and latex impressions of tooth pits from extinct carnivore species are compared to those in the FLK Zinjanthropus bone assemblage. Data on tooth mark shape indicate greater variability in theZinj sample than is exhibited by any individual extant or extinct carnivore species in the comparative sample. Data on tooth mark area demonstrate that bone density is related to the size of marks. Taken together, these data support the inference that felids defleshed bones in the Zinj assemblage and that hyaenas had final access to any grease or tissues that remained.     

Non-dietary Marks in the Anterior Dentition of the Krapina Neanderthals

A sample of 82 anterior teeth from Krapina (Croatia) was studied using a light binocular microscope and a scanning electron microscope to document the presence of non-dietary dental scratches. The patterns of distribution, location and orientation of these marks suggest two different aetiologies: scratches on the labial-occlusal enamel border appear to be related to the action of clenching abrasive materials between teeth, while the scratches primarily in the centre of the labial face correspond to cutmarks as described by other researchers. These scratches may have been produced when flake tools involved in processing materials held between the anterior teeth came into contact with the labial enamel face. Alternatively, they may simply reflect some consistent operation which pulled hard objects across the labial surfaces of the anterior teeth. In either case, the marks on the central face of the labial surface provide evidence for manual dexterity in the Neanderthals. Of the seven Krapina individuals which show a predominant pattern, one shows a pattern of left oblique marks, while six provide evidence of right-handedness. Coupled with other Neanderthal or Upper Pleistocene individuals with these patterns, right-handedness is the dominant pattern in 90 per cent of the documented cases. One complicating factor in the analysis of these scratches in the Krapina hominids is that marks of a similar morphology are found in several anterior teeth of Ursus spelaeus from the site. While resembling the marks on the hominid incisors, the scratches on the bears lack a dominant orientation on the labial face and appear to be more variable in their widths. Despite the occurrence of some similarities in the enamel scratches between ursids and hominids at Krapina, the study of anterior dental marks provides information about manipulative activities which are unique to ancient humans. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol., 7 : 133–149 (1997) No. of Figures: 9. No. of Tables: 5. No. of References: 34.     

Examining histology to identify burned bone

Early research suggests that examination of the microscopic internal structure is a valid method for distinguishing burned from unburned bone in the archaeological record. This study compares burned and unburned modern bones with archaeological bones from Sibudu Cave (ca. 60,000 years ago) and Cave of Hearths (over 200,000 years ago) to more fully describe the heat-induced histological changes to bone. We also explore the effects of diagenesis on those changes to determine if histological evidence of burning preserves through fossilisation and diagenetic processes and can be successfully used to identify ancient burning. Application of this technique can help in addressing various issues, including the origins of controlled use of fire and understanding animal butchery and disposal.     

Shell tool use by early members of Homo erectus in Sangiran,central Java,Indonesia: cut mark evidence

Sangiran has been known as a source of fossil Homo erectus but is better known for the absence of archaeological tools. Cut mark analysis of Pleistocene mammalian fossils documents 18 cut marks inflicted by tools of thick clamshell flakes on two bovid bones created during butchery at the Pucangan Formation in Sangiran between 1.6 and 1.5 million years ago. These cut marks document the use of the first tools in Sangiran and the oldest evidence of shell tool use in the world.     

An Experimental Study of the Anatomical Distribution of Cut Marks Created by Filleting and Disarticulation on Long Bone Ends

Analogical frameworks created through experimentation are a vital part of taphonomic studies for interpreting the archaeological record. Understanding the anatomical location of cut marks is crucial for interpreting the butchery behaviour of humans in the past, as well as for indirectly inferring the subsistence and economic function of archaeological sites. Two experimental/ethnoarchaeological studies have provided taphonomists with analogues to interpret filleting and disarticulation butchery behaviours from archaeofaunal assemblages. However, these analogues were made with limited control and both involved the use of metal knives. The present work provides the first systematic and controlled study of cut mark distribution on long bones made with stone tools, aimed at differentiating cut marks created by filleting or defleshing from those inflicted during disarticulation. It also studies the variability of cut mark distribution according to stone tool type (simple flakes, retouched flakes and handaxes). The results show some differences with previous studies made with metal tools and offer an updated analogue to interpret butchery (filleting, dismembering and skinning) from prehistoric contexts.