Early Hominid and Cultural Behavior

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Archeologist as well as paleontologist are often keen on understanding length of time represented in bone assemblage of the vertebrates. It is for a fact that time average is likely to affect the evolutionary as well as paleontologist analyses when it comes to faunal assemblages. The greatest debate that has existed between archeologist is the evidence on whether hunting or scavenging contributed to the bone assemblage in various sites. In hominid activities, behavioral interpretations are likely to be influenced by information about the period of time accumulation. Bone weathering has proved to be an important way of estimating the time that has lapsed since a mammal died, the preceded to when the bones were buried, thus period of accumulation of bones on the land whether ancient or modern may be determined. This paper will examine if the early hominids were either hunters or scavengers by determining the assemblage of fossils in the Olduvai Gorge, an archeological site in Tanzania.

Olduvai Gorge, a site in Tanzania holds earliest evidence on human’s existence as well as their ancestors. Paleoanthropologists have discovered fossilized bones as well as the tools from the area which can be dated back to as early as millions of years ago. Louis and Mary Leakey are attributed to be the first family of paleontologist who discovered the site. Among their finds at the site include extinct vertebrates, proconsul primate that can be dated to be more than 25 million years old, a few fossil ape skulls and tools believed to have been used by the first humans. In their exploration, they stumbled also on 400 pieces of a complete skull which was dated to 1.75 million years ago, this made the discovery one of the oldest hominid to ever be discovered. They were able to get a fossil foot that had been well preserved supporting the theory that hominids walked while upright. Basically, their discoveries supported human evolution theory as the different bones which were dated in different periods during history had different defining features.

The best preserved archeological evidence from meat eating by hominids has been said to be Olduvai Gorge. Louis and May Leakey discovered the Zinjathropous Homin Cranium which exposed some stratigraphic levels including stones and bones buried to a depth of 12 m. The bone weathering that was seen on the fossils indicated that the assemblage is likely to have accumulated over a period of 5-10 years. From the evidence gathered from the site, Mary Leakey hypothesized that this may have been the location where the hominins dispersed and would later come back after a hunt (Rose, 1996). These beds contained bones and stones that would help shed a light on the early man behavior including their diet as well as their evolution.

Diet of the first early man is likely to have been omnivorous just as modern chimpanzees. Early man was thought to have eaten leaves, flowers and fruits because of the dental and tooth morphology. However, with evolution man became better adapted to taking meat. Scientists begun recognizing butchery marks on bones in 1980s and this is when the debate on whether early man scavenged or hunted for meat begun (Blumenschine, 1992). The place may have been a home base where food sharing may have happened. It is likely that carcasses that were obtained either from hunting or scavenging were brought and deposited at these locations and thus over the years there was an assemblage of bones. According to Bunn who was the first to examine the bone surface for marks, the Olduvai Gorge bed may have been a kill site for the carnivores and afterwards scavenging by hominins in search of the bone marrow (Bunn, 1986).

Archeologist have often used the proportional representation of the bones as parts I the assemblage to help them in the classification of archeological sites. In doing this they are able to understand how the bones got to the site i.e. fewer humans responsible for the transportation of bones to the site or animals such as the lion. There are two basic ways in which one may be able to understand or to get information from an archeological site they include: features and artifacts. Features are non-portable evidence and may include human behavior, their technology or activity. Artifacts on the other hand are portable objects that may indicate presence of humans such as their tools. Bones have also formed an important part when it comes to understanding archeology because of the important information it holds. A bone carcass may be important in obtaining of information such as was death natural or as a result of carnivore hominins. Study of the skeletal bone representation including bone surface modification as well as the analysis of the bone breakage pattern holds very important information. Olduvai gorge is among the archeological sites that have been named to have evidence on hominin-carnivore assemblage.

Both hunting and scavenging may have resulted in the bone assemblage at Olduvai Gorge. There have been debates that have existed between the experts on nature of hominid site use in plio-pleistocene. Bone accumulation in various sites including Olduvai Gorge and Koobi Fora portray a reflection of repeated transport of large animal carcasses and Dr. Leakey supports this. Others have however pointed out that these archaeological sites are a representation of competitive refugia. Hominins were likely to have faced constraints during the transportation of the edible remains to a central point. Assemblage points that are as result of scavenging are likely to how a relationship between skeletal part representation and the frequencies of bone breakage while assemblage by hunting is likely to show complete long bones and more complete.

Stone tools which were part of the artefacts that were discovered in Olduvai gorge indicates that human ancestors were both scavengers and hunters. The evidence from Olduvai gorge that points to eating of meat was dated 1.8 million years ago. Cut marks on carcasses ma suggest use of crude weapons in cutting up the meat. The humans through their evolution became adapted to using tools as they became handy men which would have been important in their hunting. In scavenging, man is thought to have collected heads. Animals like hyenas were often unable to crack the skull of their kills to access the brain. Early man would take the brains and crack them up in order to access energy-rich, nutritious fatty brains. The nutrition may have contributed to body changes as seen in the human evolution for example in homo erectus

In understanding scavenging, it is important to look at animals including leopards and hyenas. These two animals have often been known to be carnivores that transported their prey. However, there is a great difference that exists among the taphonomic characteristics if these bones are found. The leopard is likely to transport an almost complete carcass including the limb bones as well as the axial skeleton. The bone surface of the carcasses also has few tooth marks as compared to a carcass that may have been ravaged by a hyena. According to Cruz-Uribe and Siner, bone accumulation made by a hyena may be characterized by the abundance of compact bones, hones as well as antlers. Often the carcasses have a relative abundance on remains of the carnivore.

Unlike hyenas and leopards, most lions tend to consume their kill on site. Bones are more likely to create bone assemblage as they do not transport their prey (Pante, 2012). Archeologists have often stated that carcasses that were left on the field were transported to early location by scavengers the early humans. The bone surface modification on most of these bones that have been recovered on the archeological site has proved one of the best ways that evidence is collected especially on meat eating by hominins. The debate on lion and contribution of bone assemblage was supported by butchery marks that were present as well as carnivore tooth marks on the bones. These modifications have been important in demining the timing that the hominins and carnivores had access to the carcasses (Dominquez-Rodrigo, 2014). Bone breakage pattern is an important bone modification that can help in identification of a carnivore that may be responsible for the bone assemblage for example hyenas are likely to break bones in search of nutrients while on the other hand lions just tear into the fleshy meaty part.

I believe that early hominids use hunting and power scavenging which was confrontation with predators who made primary kill in order to have access to the carcasses. There are factors that may have contributed to humans being able to hunt or savage. Hominids were able to use weaponry for catching a prey or chasing away carnivore competitors. Passive scavenging by the early hominids may have been rear whereby they may have scavenged for kills already done. Evidence suggest that early man may have scavenged by stealing kills from leopards that were stored away in trees thus accommodating the cut marks evidence. There have been theories also that hominids may have obtained carcasses in occurrence of mass disasters such as the drowning of wild beast.

There are limitations that have arisen in understanding hominid evolution their behavior and diet. The first limitation is despite the fact that there are evidences on the assemblage, most are small analytical data sets. They contain very few specimens and the bone surface preservation is also poor. Most of the archeological sites including the Olduvai Gorge preserves evidence of one or more hominid butcher acts but it’s often within a very small fauna collection. From the Lowdown hominins archeologists have reported that they consumed animal tissue occasionally. Due to limited amount of behavioral information on the assemblage it is quite difficult to ascertain if the records reflect if hominids were actually carnivores. Another limitation is that in recovering these assemblages, most are not recovered in stratigraphic succession and thus it becomes quite difficult to demonstrate continuity of a certain hominid behavior. With just a single ecological context then getting considerable interpretive as well as analytical information may prove to be quite difficult.

In conclusion, many paleo-archeologists studying faunal assemblages have pointed out that it is possible humans obtained meat and bone marrow from hunting and scavenging. However, there has been evidence that marks structures on some carcasses were not made by man but rather by other carnivores supporting the theory that humans scavenged especially obtaining food by chasing way predators who may have made the kills. Hunting and scavenging whether passive or confrontational were both employed by early man depending on different ecological as well as behavioral variable such as prey size, the habitat, other available food resources, number of hominins in the group for the carcass procurement and presence of other predators who were their competitor. The experimental models on frequency, tooth marks, location of cut and percussion have been important factors in giving information of timing of access as well as the accumulators that led to assemblage.

References

Blumenschine, RJ and Cavallo, JA (1992) Scavenging and human evolution. Scientific American 267: 90-96.

Bunn, HT and Kroll, EM (1986) Systematic butchery by Plio/Pleistocene hominids at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Current Anthropology 27: 431-452.

Dominquez-Rodrigo M, Bunn HT, and Yravedra J (2014) A critical re-evaluation of bone surface modification models for inferring fossil hominin and carnivore interactions through a multivariate approach: Application to the FLK Zinj archaeofaunal assemblage. Quaternary International 322-323: 32-43.

Pante MC, Blumenschine RJ, Capaldo SD, and Scott RS (2012) Validation of bone surface modification models for inferring fossil hominin and carnivore feeding interactions, with reapplication to FLK 22, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution 63: 395-407.

Rose, L and Marshall, F (1996) Meat eating, hominid sociality, and home bases revisited. CurrentAnthropology 37: 307-338.