Text

ETD_3137

http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000057627

theses

Three archaeological assemblages from Okote Member (1.5 Ma) deposits at Koobi Fora, Kenya described by Pobiner (2007, Pobiner et al., 2008) have well preserved cortical surfaces that bear abundant hominin butchery traces on large and small mammalian taxa, minimal carnivore tooth marking, and lack in situ lithic materials. Pobiner suggests that Homo erectus generally enjoyed primary access to carcass resources with a traditional assemblage-scale analysis of butchered specimens and anatomical interpretations of cut mark location. Bunn (1981, 1994) proposes a foraging strategy for Okote hominins that links core tool butchery and curation to locally unavailable stone raw material sources in the Ileret and Koobi Fora areas of the Eastern Turkana basin. Evidence of core tool use is interpreted from the presence of wide, shallow cut marks on large animals bones. To evaluate these interpretations of hominin carnivory and bring greater resolution to archaeofaunal cut mark interpretation, I undertook a series of actualistic butchery experiments to document how tool type (flake versus Oldowan core), butchery action (skinning, defleshing bulk tissue, defleshing scrap tissue, disarticulation) and animal size (goat versus cow) influence skeletal patterns of cut mark location, and to construct general models of cut mark cross-sectional size and the geometric organization of cut mark clusters that can discriminate these independent variables. Results indicate that tool type cannot be identified in any analysis, and that animal size influences cut mark size and organization, falsifying Bunn’s hypothesis of core tool use. Skinning and disarticualtion produce wide and deep cut marks that can be distinguished from defleshing, although the amount of tissue removed (defleshing bulk versus scrap) cannot be determined from cut mark size or cluster organization. All three mark categories occur at distinct skeletal locations, but disarticulation and defleshing cooccur on the elbow. However, these actions can be distinguished on the elbow when cut mark cluster geometry is considered. A model that identifies hominins’ early access to carcass resources from elbow specimens with evidence of defleshing and disarticulation versus late access from disarticulated elbow specimens brings increased behavioral resolution to cut mark interpretation and supports previous findings of Okote hominins’ primary carcass consumption.

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

Includes vita

by Stephen Ryan Merritt

doi:10.7282/T3R78DVJ

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.

ETD

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