1. Hunting, butchering, carrying and sharing
along the Gran Dolina sequence
The ancient origin of the modern subsistence dynamics
RODRÍGUEZ-HIDALGO, SALADIÉ, ARSUAGA, BERMÚDEZ DE CASTRO & CARBONELL
12. a) More Cut marks in Shafts
b) More Cut marks in Meaty Limbs
Experimental Early Access
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c) More Cut marks in Limb Bones
13. a) Cut marks on Shafts > 70%
c) Cut marks on Limb Bones >30%
b) Cut marks on Meaty Limbs >70%
76-97%
30-47%
41-61%
2-18%
20-66%
Gran Dolina Early Access
14. Slicing marks > 81-96%
Massive breakage of long bones
Intensive processing of the carcasses
Complete chaîne opératoire: Skinning,
evisceration, dismembering, defleshing,
disarticulation
Overlapping of Cutmarks and Tooth marks
always primary access of hominins
Gran Dolina Early Access
Systematic processing of the carcasses
15. Layers with Input of Materials (referential or logistical)
The same skeletal profile for every weight of size
Overlapping of diverse transport strategies
16. Dominance of axial elements (skull and trunks)
Preferential transport of high marrow yield elements
Layer with Output of Materials (kill site)
17. Cooperative Work for
Transport
Partial or Integral Transport of
Carcasses of >150 individuals from the
Kill Sites to Camps
Deferred Consumption Meat Sharing
18. Are the 4 layers identical?
Important differences from a zooarcheological and
taphonomical point of view
Mainly related with the time and nature of the occupations
19. Gradual or Punctuated?
Early emergence of…
Hunting
Large Ungulates
Cooperation
Modern
Butchering
Deferred
Consumption
Prime-adults Sharing
…and Stasis
20. Many thanks to
ESHE Society
Atapuerca Research Team
Pictures and Photos
Kennis & Kennis
Javier Trueba
Mauricio Antón
Stanley Kubrick
Brian Fray
M. Coutureau
thenounproject.com
Notas del editor
Traditionally , the subsistence of hunter-gatherers has been interpreted in terms of gradual evolution. Thus, the oldest human species have been presented as passive actors, opportunistic and a heavy reliance on resources generated by third parties…while
…our own species, is presented as the top of the evolutionary process, epitomized by the expansion of diets during the broad spectrum revolution and the sophistication on the methods and techniques for obtaining animal resources.
This view is especially recurrent for the European record, where scavenging plays an important role in the interpretations of the subsistence of early hominins and loose its central position in the narrative of the subsistence along the development of the evolutionary process
However, the archeological evidences contradicts this gradual evolution, as some of the subsistencial traits and technological implements traditionally associated with modernity are presented in the early stages of human evolution, and emerge suddenly in the fossil record
Our goal in this presentation is asses the validity of the concepts of gradual evolution of the subsistence strategies in the European record. For that we focus in one of the most complete lower Paleolithic Archeological sequences providing empirical data about circa one million years of cultural evolution, the Gran Dolina record
Hominins groups (presumably Homo antecessor and Sima de los Huesos paleodeme and their relatives) used the cave recurrently such as refuge, home base and kill site within diverse occupational dynamics contributing to the formation of different fossil accumulations.
Among the stratigraphically discrete assemblages recovered during the fieldwork, four of them stand out for being almost exclusively anthropogenic, the TD6.2 layer (980 ka), TD10.2 bison bone bed layer (400 ka), TD10.1 bone bed layer and (337 ka) and TD10.1 upper (240 ka). Our work focus in more than thirty-five thousand faunal remains and more than seven hundred millennia.
Along the sequence, all the anthropogenic accumulations are highly dominated by large ungulates, always over the seventy-five percent of the Identified Specimens. In all of the layers, independently of their antiquity, deer, bison and horses are the focus of the subsistence, while it is true that some episodes shows their own characteristics as the case of TD10.2 where bison are the only prey or events the events of cannibalism in TD6.
Appart form ungulates, the butchering marks located in some specimenes of large, medium and small carnivores and in hominis related with early access to the carcasses denote that along the Gran Dolina sequences and at least from 0,9 million years the hominins from Atapuerca are higth in the food web and are top predators, probably predated only by large predators or other hominins.
Mortality profiles provides an indication of hunting strategy, because non-human predators take the youngest, oldest, and weakest members of herds, while only humans are able to hunt prime adults consistently (with some exceptions). The prime-adult-dominated mortality profile of large ungulates in Gran Dolina assemblages must be attributed to ambush hunting or stalking. However other strategies such as the communal hunting of whole bison herds in TD10.2, or the strategies focused in the depletion of the of the individuals involving the least risk in their capture emerges early and demonstrate the behavioural flexibility in hunting behaviours.
Procesamiento es análogo al moderno no hay diferencias significativas con los cazadores recolectores actuales Lupo oConnell, paleoindios, hadzas etc….
Partial or Integral Transport of Carcasses of >150 individuals from the Kill Sites to Camps
Entonces? Son los 4 niveles tratados exactamente iguales desde el punto de vista de la tafonomía?
Aunque los yacimientos son diferentes, muchas de las características que presentan en cuanto caza, procesamiento, transporte y reparto del alimento son comunes, aparecen pronto y se mantienen sin cambios sustanciales a lo largo de las secuencia durante 700 mil años.