Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-mcfzb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-10T04:02:55.792Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bovid mortality profiles in paleoecological context falsify hypotheses of endurance running–hunting and passive scavenging by early Pleistocene hominins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Henry T. Bunn  and
Travis Rayne Pickering
Henry T. Bunn*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, 5240 Social Science Building, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA
Travis Rayne Pickering
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, 5240 Social Science Building, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:htbunn@wisc.edu (H.T. Bunn).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The world’s first archaeological traces from 2.6 million years ago (Ma) at Gona, in Ethiopia, include sharp-edged cutting tools and cut-marked animal bones, which indicate consumption of skeletal muscle by early hominin butchers. From that point, evidence of hominin meat-eating becomes increasingly more common throughout the Pleistocene archaeological record. Thus, the substantive debate about hominin meat-eating now centers on mode(s) of carcass resource acquisition. Two prominent hypotheses suggest, alternatively, (1) that early Homo hunted ungulate prey by running them to physiological failure and then dispatching them, or (2) that early Homo was relegated to passively scavenging carcass residues abandoned by carnivore predators. Various paleontologically testable predictions can be formulated for both hypotheses. Here we test four predictions concerning age-frequency distributions for bovids that contributed carcass remains to the 1.8 Ma. old FLK 22 Zinjanthropus (FLK Zinj, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) fauna, which zooarchaeological and taphonomic data indicate was formed predominantly by early Homo. In all but one case, the bovid mortality data from FLK Zinj violate test predictions of the endurance running-hunting and passive scavenging hypotheses. When combined with other taphonomic data, these results falsify both hypotheses, and lead to the hypothesis that early Homo operated successfully as an ambush predator.

Keywords

UniformitarianismBovid mortality profilesCarcass foragingEarly HomoFLK 22 Zinjanthropus
Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , November 2010 , pp. 395 - 404
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, J.W., (2006). Taphonomy and paleoecology of the Gondolin Pleistocene cave site, South Africa. Ph.D. dissertation. Washington University, .Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths. (1981). Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. Human ancestors: changing views of their behavior. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 4, (1985). 292–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L.R. The hunting hypothesis, archaeological methods and the past. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 30, (1988). 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenschine, R.J. Early hominid scavenging opportunities: implications of carcass availability in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro ecosystems. British Archaeological International Series vol. 283, (1986). Oxford Google Scholar
Blumenschine, R.J. Characteristics of an early hominid scavenging niche. Current Anthropology 28, (1987). 383–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenschine, R.J. An experimental model of the timing of hominid and carnivore influence on archaeological bone assemblages. Journal of Archaeological Science 15, (1988). 483–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenschine, R.J. Hominid carnivory and foraging strategies, and the socio-economic function of early archaeological sites. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 334, (1991). 211–221.Google ScholarPubMed
Blumenschine, R.J. Percussion marks, tooth marks and the experimental determinations of the timing of hominid and carnivore access to long bones at FLK Zinjanthropus, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution 29, (1995). 21–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenschine, R.J., Cavallo, J.A., and Capaldo, S.D. Competition for carcasses and early hominid behavioral ecology: a case study and conceptual framework of early archaeological sites. Journal of Human Evolution 27, (1994). 197–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenschine, R.J., Peters, C.R., Capaldo, S.D., Andrews, P., Njau, J.K., and Pobiner, B.L. Vertebrate taphonomic perspectives on Oldowan hominin land use in the Pleistocene Olduvai Basin, Tanzania. Pickering, T., Schick, K., and Toth, N. Breathing Life into Fossils: Taphonomic Studies in honor of C.K. (Bob) Brain. (2007). Stone Age Institute Press, Gosport, Indiana. 161–179.Google Scholar
Brain, C.K. Some suggested procedures in the analysis of bone accumulations from southern African Quaternary sites. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 29, (1974). 1–8.Google Scholar
Brain, C.K. The Hunters or the Hunted? An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy. (1981). University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Brain, C.K. Swartkrans: A Cave's Chronicle of Early Man. (1993). Transvaal Museum, Pretoria.Google Scholar
Bramble, D.M., and Lieberman, D.E. Endurance running and the evolution of Homo . Nature 432, (2004). 345–352.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bunn, H.T. Archaeological evidence for meat-eating by Pleistocene hominids from Koobi Fora and Olduvai Gorge. Nature 291, (1981). 574–577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunn, H.T., (1982). Meat-eating and human evolution: studies on the diet and subsistence patterns of Plio-Pleistocene hominids in East Africa. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bunn, H.T. Patterns of skeletal representation and hominid subsistence activities at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, and Koobi Fora, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 15, (1986). 673–690.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunn, H.T. Hunting, power scavenging, and butchering by Hadza foragers and by Plio-Pleistocene Homo . Stanford, C.B., and Bunn, H.T. Meat-Eating and Human Evolution. (2001). Oxford University Press, Oxford. 199–218.Google Scholar
Bunn, H.T. Meat made us human. Ungar, P. Evolution of the Human Diet. (2007). Oxford University Press, Oxford. 191–211.Google Scholar
Bunn, H., Harris, J.W.K., Isaac, G., Kaufulu, Z., Kroll, E., Schick, K., Toth, N., and Behrensmeyer, A.K. FxJj 50: an early Pleistocene site in northern Kenya. World Archaeology 12, (1980). 109–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunn, H.T., and Kroll, E.M. Systematic butchery by Pleistocene hominids at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Current Anthropology 27, (1986). 431–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunn, H.T., and Kroll, E.M. On butchery by Olduvai hominids (reply to R. Potts). Current Anthropology 28, (1987). 96–98.Google Scholar
Bunn, H.T., and Kroll, E.M. Fact and fiction about the FLK Zinjanthropus floor: data, arguments, and interpretations (reply to L.R. Binford). Current Anthropology 29, (1988). 135–149.Google Scholar
Bunn, H.T., and Pickering, T.R. Methodological recommendations for ungulate mortality analyses in paleoanthropology. Quaternary Research 74, (2010). 388–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capaldo, S.D., (1997). Experimental determinations of carcass processing by Plio-Pleistocene hominids and carnivores at FLK 22 (Zinjanthropus), Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution 33, 555–597.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Capaldo, S.D. Methods, marks and models for inferring hominid and carnivore behaviour. Journal of Human Evolution 35, (1998). 323–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavallo, J.A., and Blumenschine, R.J. Tree-stored leopard kills: expanding the hominid scavenging niche. Journal of Human Evolution 18, (1989). 393–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cerling, T.E. Development of grasslands and savannas in East Africa during the Neogene. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 97, (1992). 241–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cerling, T.E., Bowman, J.R., and O'Neil, J.R. An isotopic study of a fluvial–lacustrine sequence: the Pleistocene Koobi Fora sequence, East Africa. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 63, (1988). 335–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M. Flesh availability and bone modifications in carcasses consumed by lions: Palaeoecological relevance in hominid foraging patterns. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 149, (1999). 373–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M. Hunting and scavenging in early hominids: the state of the debate. Journal of World Prehistory 16, (2002). 1–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., and Barba, R. New estimates of tooth mark and percussion mark frequencies at the FLK Zinj site: the carnivore–hominid–carnivore hypothesis falsified. Journal of Human Evolution 50, (2006). 170–194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., and Pickering, T.R. Early hominid hunting and scavenging: a zooarchaeological review. Evolutionary Anthropology 12, (2003). 275–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., and Pickering, T.R. A multivariate approach for discriminating bone accumulations created by spotted hyenas and leopards: harnessing actualistic data from East and southern Africa. Journal of Taphonomy 8, (2010). 155–179.Google Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Barba, R., and Egeland, C.P. Deconstructing Olduvai: A Taphonomic Study of the Bed I Sites. (2007). Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Egeland, C.P., and Pickering, T.R. Equifinality in carnivore tooth marks and the extended concept of archaeological palimpsests: implications for models of passive scavenging by hominids. Pickering, T.R., Schick, K., and Toth, N. Breathing Life into Fossils: Taphonomic Studies in Honor of C.K. (Bob) Brain. (2007). Stone Age Institute Press, Gosport, Indiana. 255–267.Google Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Serrallonga, J., Juan-Tresserras, J., Alcala, L., and Luque, L. Woodworking activities by early humans: a plant residue analysis on Acheulian stone tools from Peninj (Tanzania). Journal of Human Evolution 40, (2001). 289–299.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hay, R. Geology of the Olduvai Gorge. (1976). University of California Press, Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, R. Olduvai Gorge: a case history in the interpretation of hominid paleoenvironments in East Africa. Geological Society of America Special Paper 242, (1990). 23–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayden, B. What were they doing in the Oldowan? An ethnoarchaeological perspective on the origins of human behavior. Lithic Technology 33, (2008). 105–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. The archaeology of human origins: studies of the Lower Pleistocene in East Africa, 1971–1981. Wendorf, F., Close, A.E. Advances in World Archaeology Volume 3, (1984). Academic Press, Orlando (FL). 1–87.Google Scholar
Keeley, L., and Toth, N. Microwear polishes on early stone tools from Koobi Fora, Kenya. Nature 293, (1981). 464–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R.G. The mammalian fauna of the Klasies River Mouth sites, southern Cape Province, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 31, (1976). 75–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R.G. Stone age predation on large African bovids. Journal of Archaeological Science 5, (1978). 195–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R.G. Age (mortality) profiles as a means of distinguishing hunted species from scavenged ones in Stone Age archaeological sites. Paleobiology 8, (1982). 151–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R.G. Comment on Systematic butchery by Plio/Pleistocene hominids at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, by H.T. Bunn and E.M. Kroll. Current Anthropology 27, (1986). 446–447.Google Scholar
Klein, R.G., (1999). The Human Career. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Klein, R.G., and Cruz-Uribe, K. The Analysis of Animal Bones from Archeological Sites. (1984). University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Klein, R.G., and Cruz-Uribe, K. Exploitation of large bovids and seals at Middle and Later Stone Age sites in South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 31, (1996). 315–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kruuk, H. The Spotted Hyena. (1972). University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Kuman, K., Field, A.S., and Thackeray, J.F. Discovery of new artefacts at Kromdraai. South African Journal of Science 93, (1997). 187–193.Google Scholar
Leakey, M.D. Olduvai Gorge, vol. 3: Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960–1963. (1971). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lesnik, J., and Thackeray, J.F. Analysis of crown heights of equid dentition from sites in the Cradle of Humankind: behavioural implications. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 43, (2006). 118–120.Google Scholar
Lewis, M.E. Carnivoran paleoguilds of Africa: implications for hominid food procurement strategies. Journal of Human Evolution 32, (1997). 257–288.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lieberman, D.E., Bramble, D.M., Raichlen, D.A., and Shea, J.J. The evolution of endurance running and the tyranny of ethnography: a reply to Pickering and Bunn. Journal of Human Evolution 53, (2007). 434–437.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Menter, C.G., Kuykendall, K.L., Keyser, A.W., and Conroy, G.C. First record of hominid teeth from the Pleistocene site of Gondolin, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 37, (1999). 299–307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Munson, P.J. Age-correlated differential destruction of bones and its effect on archaeological mortality profiles of domestic sheep and goats. Journal of Archaeological Science 27, (2000). 391–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munson, P.J., and Garniewicz, R. Age-mediated survivorship of ungulate mandibles and teeth in canid-ravaged faunal assemblage. Journal of Archaeological Science 30, (2003). 405–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickering, T.R., and Bunn, H.T. The endurance running hypothesis and hunting and scavenging in savanna–woodlands. Journal of Human Evolution 53, (2007). 438–442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pickering, T.R., and Domínguez-Rodrigo, M. The acquisition and use of large mammal carcasses by Oldowan hominins in eastern and southern Africa: a selected review and assessment. Toth, N., and Schick, K. The Oldowan: Studies into the Origins of Human Technology. (2006). Stone Age Institute Press, Gosport, Indiana. 113–128.Google Scholar
Pickering, T.R., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Egeland, C.P., and Brain, C.K. New data and ideas on the foraging behaviour of Early Stone Age hominids at Swartkrans Cave, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 100, (2004). 215–219.Google Scholar
Pickering, T.R., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Egeland, C.P., and Brain, C.K. Beyond leopards: tooth marks and the contribution of multiple carnivore taxa to the accumulation of the Swartkrans Member 3 fossil assemblage. Journal of Human Evolution 46, (2004). 595–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickering, T.R., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Egeland, C.P., and Brain, C.K. The contribution of limb bone fracture patterns to reconstructing early hominid behavior at Swartkrans Cave (South Africa): archaeological application of a new analytical method. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 15, (2005). 247–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickering, T.R., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Egeland, C.P., and Brain, C.K. Carcass foraging by early hominids at Swartkrans Cave (South Africa): a new investigation of the zooarchaeology and taphonomy of Member 3. Pickering, T.R., Schick, K., and Toth, N. Breathing Life into Fossils: Taphonomic Studies in Honor of C.K. (Bob) Brain. (2007). Stone Age Institute Press, Gosport, Indiana. 233–253.Google Scholar
Pickering, T.R., Egeland, C.P., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Brain, C.K., and Schnell, A.G. Testing the “shift in the balance of power” hypothesis at Swartkrans, South Africa: hominid cave use and subsistence behavior in the Early Pleistocene. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27, (2008). 30–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potts, R. Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai. (1988). Aldine de Gruyter, New York.Google Scholar
Pruetz, J.D., Bertolani, P., (2007). Savanna chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, hunt with tools. Current Biology 17, 1–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Reed, K.E. Early hominid evolution and ecological change through the African Plio-Pleistocene. Journal of Human Evolution 32, (1997). 289–322.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaller, G.B. The Serengeti Lion. (1972). University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Schaller, G., and Lowther, G. The relevance of carnivore behavior to the study of early hominids. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 25, (1969). 307–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selvaggio, M.M., (1998). Concerning the three stage model of carcass processing at FLK Zinjanthropus: a reply to Capaldo. Journal of Human Evolution 35, 319–321.Google ScholarPubMed
Sikes, N. Early hominid habitat preferences in East Africa: paleosol carbonate isotopic evidence. Journal of Human Evolution 27, (1994). 25–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spinage, C.A. Ageing the Uganda defassa waterbuck Kobus defassa ugandae Neumann. East African Wildlife Journal 5, (1967). 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spinage, C.A. A Territorial Antelope: The Uganda Waterbuck. (1982). Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Steele, T.E., and Weaver, T.D. The modified triangular graph: a refined method for comparing mortality profiles in archaeological samples. Journal of Archaeological Science 29, (2002). 317–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stiner, M.C. The use of mortality patterns in archaeological studies of hominid predatory adaptations. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9, (1990). 305–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thackeray, J.F. Hominids and carnivores at Kromdraai and other Quaternary sites in southern Africa. Pickering, T.R., Toth, N., and Schick, K. Breathing Life into Fossils: Taphonomic Studies in Honor of C.K. (Bob) Brain. (2007). Stone Age Institute Press, Gosport, Indiana. 67–73.Google Scholar
Thackeray, J.F., and Van Leuvan Smith, T. Implications of crown height measurements of alcelaphine molars from Kromdraai A, South Africa. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 28, (2001). 9–12.Google Scholar
Thackeray, J.F., Venter, A.M., and Nothnagel, G. Bone apatite residues and early Pleistocene stone tools: associations with bone breakage. South African Journal of Science 101, (2005). 17–18.Google Scholar
Watson, V. Composition of the Swartkrans bone accumulations, in terms of skeletal parts and animals represented. Brain, C.K. Swartkrans: A Cave's Chronicle of Early Man. (1993). Transvaal Museum, Pretoria. 35–73.Google Scholar
Watson, V. Glimpses from Gondolin: a faunal analysis of a fossil site near Broederstroom, Transvaal, South Africa. Palaeontologia Africana 30, (1993). 35–42.Google Scholar