Hominid butchers and biting crocodiles in the African Plio–Pleistocene
Contributed by Tim D. White, October 4, 2017 (sent for review September 17, 2017; reviewed by Clark Spencer Larsen and Sileshi Semaw)
Commentary
November 29, 2017
Significance
The idea that early Australopithecus shaped stone tools to butcher large mammals before the emergence of Homo around 2 million years ago has excited both primatologists and archaeologists. Such claims depend on interpreting modifications found on the surfaces of fossil bones. Recent experiments involving the feeding of mammal carcasses to modern crocodiles have revealed that equifinality—the creation of similar products by different processes—is more important than previously appreciated by zooarchaeologists. Application of these findings to Ethiopian fossils casts doubt on claims for the earliest large mammal butchery and indicates the need for reassessment of all Oldowan-associated bone assemblages to determine the degree to which equifinality compromises earlier interpretations of hominid subsistence activities and their role in human evolution.
Abstract
Zooarchaeologists have long relied on linear traces and pits found on the surfaces of ancient bones to infer ancient hominid behaviors such as slicing, chopping, and percussive actions during butchery of mammal carcasses. However, such claims about Plio–Pleistocene hominids rely mostly on very small assemblages of bony remains. Furthermore, recent experiments on trampling animals and biting crocodiles have shown each to be capable of producing mimics of such marks. This equifinality—the creation of similar products by different processes—makes deciphering early archaeological bone assemblages difficult. Bone modifications among Ethiopian Plio–Pleistocene hominid and faunal remains at Asa Issie, Maka, Hadar, and Bouri were reassessed in light of these findings. The results show that crocodiles were important modifiers of these bone assemblages. The relative roles of hominids, mammalian carnivores, and crocodiles in the formation of Oldowan zooarchaeological assemblages will only be accurately revealed by better bounding equifinality. Critical analysis within a consilience-based approach is identified as the pathway forward. More experimental studies and increased archaeological fieldwork aimed at generating adequate samples are now required.
Acknowledgments
We thank the Afar people and numerous other field and laboratory workers for their contributions; W. Kimbel and K. Reed for access to fossils from Hadar; D. DeGusta, G. Richards, and B. Plowman for all SEM images; M. Brasil for NextEngine laser scanning; J. Carlson for figure preparation; several students for assistance during the butchery experiment; and A. Blanco-Lapaz for maceration of bones. T.D.W. thanks Z. Alemseged for showing him the two original Dikika surface-modified fossils, and T. Pickering for discussion over same. Thanks to the Human Evolution Research Center's donors, particularly for Glynn Isaac postdoctoral fellowship support for Y.S., who also acknowledges support from the German Research Foundation (DFG FOR 2237). This work benefitted from discussions and support from W. H. Gilbert, J. Carlson, B. Asfaw, J. Njau, Y. Beyene, and G. WoldeGabriel. We thank the Authority for Research and Conservation of the Cultural Heritage, the Cultural Heritage Collection and Laboratory Service Directorate at the National Museum of Ethiopia (at which all antiquities used in this study are permanently curated), and the Afar Regional Bureau for permission and facilitation. Sensofar confocal profilometry microscopy was acquired via award from the Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg to K. Harvati.
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Cover image: Pictured is a supraglacial river on the Greenland ice sheet. Laurence C. Smith et al. measured meltwater discharge in a supraglacial river for 72 hours in July 2015 while mapping its upstream catchment using high-resolution satellite and drone images. The data were used to calibrate a hydrological model that yielded more accurate estimates of the volume and timing of runoff compared with climate models, suggesting that supraglacial river catchment size and shape influence the timing and volume of meltwater entering moulins and the ice sheet bed. See the article by Laurence C. Smith et al. on pages E10622–E10631. Image courtesy of Josh Haner/The New York Times.
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Copyright © 2017 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
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Published online: November 6, 2017
Published in issue: December 12, 2017
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Acknowledgments
We thank the Afar people and numerous other field and laboratory workers for their contributions; W. Kimbel and K. Reed for access to fossils from Hadar; D. DeGusta, G. Richards, and B. Plowman for all SEM images; M. Brasil for NextEngine laser scanning; J. Carlson for figure preparation; several students for assistance during the butchery experiment; and A. Blanco-Lapaz for maceration of bones. T.D.W. thanks Z. Alemseged for showing him the two original Dikika surface-modified fossils, and T. Pickering for discussion over same. Thanks to the Human Evolution Research Center's donors, particularly for Glynn Isaac postdoctoral fellowship support for Y.S., who also acknowledges support from the German Research Foundation (DFG FOR 2237). This work benefitted from discussions and support from W. H. Gilbert, J. Carlson, B. Asfaw, J. Njau, Y. Beyene, and G. WoldeGabriel. We thank the Authority for Research and Conservation of the Cultural Heritage, the Cultural Heritage Collection and Laboratory Service Directorate at the National Museum of Ethiopia (at which all antiquities used in this study are permanently curated), and the Afar Regional Bureau for permission and facilitation. Sensofar confocal profilometry microscopy was acquired via award from the Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg to K. Harvati.
Notes
See Commentary on page 13066.
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Competing Interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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