Journal ArticleDOI
Bone surface modifications in zooarchaeology
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TLDR
The current status of bone surface modification studies is assessed with regard to such issues as the need for greater analytical standardization, the selection of instruments for examining bone specimens, tactics for identifying the origins of marks on bones, and strategies for inferring human behaviors.Abstract:
Cutmarks made by stone tools, conchoidal flake scars from hammerstone percussion, carnivore tooth marks, striations from sedimentary abrasion, and other surface modifications on bones from archaeological sites constitute a crucial body of evidence for investigating the role of human behaviors and of nonhuman taphonomic processes in site formation. This paper describes the various kinds of bone surface modifications produced by humans and by nonhuman processes and assesses the current status of bone surface modification studies with regard to such issues as the need for greater analytical standardization, the selection of instruments for examining bone specimens, tactics for identifying the origins of marks on bones, and strategies for inferring human behaviors.read more
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Journal Article
Taphonomic and Ecologic Information Form Bone Weathering
TL;DR: In this article, a categorization of weathering characteristics into six stages, recognizable on descriptive criteria, provides a basis for investigation of the weathering rates and processes of recent mammals in the Amboseli Basin.
Journal ArticleDOI
Nassarius kraussianus shell beads from Blombos Cave: evidence for symbolic behaviour in the Middle Stone Age
TL;DR: Morphometric, taphonomic and microscopic analysis of modern assemblages of living and dead tick shell demonstrate that the presence of perforated Nassarius kraussianus shells in the Blombos MSA levels cannot be due to natural processes or accidental transport by humans.
Journal ArticleDOI
Evidence for stone-tool-assisted consumption of animal tissues before 3.39 million years ago at Dikika, Ethiopia
Shannon P. McPherron,Zeresenay Alemseged,Curtis W. Marean,Jonathan G. Wynn,Denné Reed,Denis Geraads,René Bobe,Hamdallah Bearat +7 more
TL;DR: The discovery of stone-tool-inflicted marks on bones found during recent survey work in Dikika, Ethiopia, extends by approximately 800,000 years the antiquity of stone tools and ofStone- tool-assisted consumption of ungulates by hominins and can now be attributed to Australopithecus afarensis.
Journal ArticleDOI
Engraved ochres from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa
TL;DR: Thirteen additional pieces of incised ochre recovered from c.
Journal ArticleDOI
New estimates of tooth mark and percussion mark frequencies at the FLK Zinj site: the carnivore-hominid-carnivore hypothesis falsified
TL;DR: Examination of percussion marks, notches, and breakage patterns provide data which are best interpreted as the results of hominid activity (hammerstone percussion and marrow extraction), based on experimentally-derived referential frameworks indicate that hominids had early access to fleshed carcasses that were transported, processed, and accumulated at the FLK Zinj site.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering
TL;DR: In this paper, a categorization of weathering characteristics into six stages, recognizable on descriptive criteria, provides a basis for investigation of the weathering rates and processes of recent mammals in the Amboseli Basin.
Book
Formation processes of the archaeological record
TL;DR: The authors synthesize the most important principles of cultural and environmental formation processes for both students and practicing archaeologists, and provide a valuable checklist of sources of variability when observations on the archaeological record are used to justify inferences.
Book
The Hunters or the Hunted?: An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy
TL;DR: The Hunters or the Hunted? is a very important book for paleo-anthropology as discussed by the authors, which presents the first thorough analysis of the Sterkfontein Valley assemblages, contributes significantly to the resolution of lingering controversies and, by placing the old information in a fresh perspective, enables new and more sophisticated questions to be asked not only of the South African material but of similar assembls elsewhere.
Journal ArticleDOI
Breakage patterns of human long bones
Paola Villa,Eric Mahieu +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the use of fracture morphologies and fragmentation indices for distinguishing green from postdepositional bone breakage is assessed using three assemblages of human bone broken by unique and well known causes, i.e., marrow fracturing of green bone, sediment pressure and impact on subfossil bone.