The scavenger or the scavenged? Human consumption of hyaena during the Middle Peistocene on Maltravieso cave

Maltravieso cave is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the environs of the city of Cáceres (Extremadura, Spain). This karstic cavity contains several archaeological levels and sites spanning a broad chronology, from the Middle Pleistocene to the Bronze Age.

One of the rooms which the cavity is composed of has a fill that has been dated between 117 and 183 kyr B.P. by uranium series. This room is known as “Sala de los Huesos” (Hall of Bones), because of its abundance of Quaternary mammal fossils. The species identified mostly belong to ungulates. The carnivores are abundant, above all hyaena specimens (Crocuta crocuta). The archaeological fieldwork conducted in this cavity provides evidence of the use of the room as a hyaena den with a low human impact, despite the presence of lithic tools and a dozen bones with cut marks.

Cutmarks documented on Crocuta crocuta ulna of Sala de los Huesos (Maltravieso cave) - Photo: Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo

Among the elements that have cut marks, some belong to the hyaenas themselves. In particular there is an adult hyaena ulna that shows cut marks on the anterior face, product of defleshing, and a hyaena innominate that shows cut marks and peeling, product of disarticulation of the femur.

The interaction between hyaenas and hominids during the Middle Pleistocene is one of the central topics in research on human evolution and has been approached from different disciplines. Taphonomic studies are the most likely ones to have contributed data to this issue since the 80s of the last century. The case of the Maltravieso cave shows a kind of interaction between hominids and hyaenas that had not previously been documented. Consumption of carnivores is not common during the Pleistocene, although some cases are known. However, consumption of hyaenas was unknown until now. The particularity of this case is also due to the fact that the archaeological context does not correspond with a hominid home base. Sala de los Huesos was primarily a hyaena den. Hence there are two possible interpretations: 1) the hyaena remains were processed by hominids outside the cavity and, once abandoned, they were transported by other hyaenas to the Sala de los Huesos den, or 2) the hominids processed in situ the remains of hyaena.

The latter hypothesis is suggestive, since it would imply the entry of hominids in the dens to search for resources, perhaps for carrion or maybe in the context of hyaena hunting.

The scientific research was carried out by Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo, researcher of the Primeros Pobladores de Extremadura team and collaborator of the Institut Català de Paleoeoclogia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES) in collaboration with Palmira Saladié (IPHES) and Antoni Canals (URV).

For further information

Article “The scavenger or the scavenged?” A. Rodríguez-Hidalgo
Journal of Taphonomy, 1(2010): 75-76

Contact
Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo

antonio.rodriguez@prehistoria.urv.cat

Right handedness of Homo heidelbergensis from Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca, Spain) 500.000 years ago

Handedness is a product of brain specialization, and so it has been subject of evolution. Handedness in living humans is well known and shows the highest degree of manual specialization. Studies on hand laterality in non human primates, particularly in chimpanzees are still controversial, since the results vary depending on features such as the tasks performed and the environment where the individuals live. Determining when handedness installed in human evolution has been traced back through several methods, including paleoneurological analyses, stone tool flaking, zooarchaeological studies and the dental wear analyses, being the latest the most reliable one.

Incisors of Homo heidelbergensis from Sima de los Huesos site (Spain) - Equipo Investigación Atapuerca (EIA)


Here we report an experimental and paleoanthropological study about the hand laterality of a sample of 28 hominids from Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca, Spain), dated at about 500.000 years ago, and we compare the results with the dental microwear analyzed in other fossil samples such as Krapina (Croatia), as well as modern traditional societies.

Results point that European Middle Pleistocene Homo heidelbergensis was already as right-handed as modern populations.

Fore more information:

Article "Right handedness of Homo heidelbergensis froma Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca, Sapin) 500.000 years ago", Lozano, M; Mosquera, M; Bermúdez de Castro, JM; Arsuaga, JL and Carbonell, E.

Evolution and Human Behaviour (in press, avalaible on line)

Contact

Marina Lozano

Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES)

mlozano@prehistoria.urv.cat

Marina Mosquera Area of Prehistory (Rovira i Virgili University)

marina.mosquera@urv.cat

Human consumption of tortoises in the Later Middle Pleistocene

Bolomor Cave, located on the southern slope of the Valldigna valley, approximately two kilometres south-east of the town of Tavernes (Valencia, Spain), reveals that tortoise consumption by humans appears to have been common practice in the Later Middle Pleistocene.
The acquisition and consumption of small prey in the pre-Upper Palaeolithic is a highly debated topic at present. For some authors, the systematic obtaining of these animals is only part of the subsistence strategies used by anatomically modern Humans. Several researches consider that the systematic capturing of small prey is more related to the gathering that with the hunting and therefore, the technology required for their obtaining should be more complex and sophisticated (traps, etc.).

However, the consumption of small prey dates back to the Plio-Pleistocene chronologies in some sites. Although the utilization of leporids has been recorded in several pre-Late Pleistocene European sites, the evidence of tortoise consumption is documented not as common for these periods. However, Level IV of Bolomor Cave, dated in Later Middle Pleistocene, has clear diagnostic elements to document the acquisition and use of tortoises (Testudo hermanni) for food.

The scientific research was carried out by Ruth Blasco, collaborator of Area de Prehistoria Universitat Rovira i Virgili of Tarragona (URV) and Institut de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES). The results were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, 35 (2008): 2839-2848.

Cutmarks documented on tortoises at Level IV of Bolomor Cave - Photo: Ruth Blasco

According to Ruth Blasco, the use of tortoises for food appears to be quite common among the hominids that occupied at Level IV of Bolomor Cave. The evidences documented are: (1) cutmarks on limb bones and ventral surface of the carapace and plastron; (2) presence of burning on tortoise skeleton and shell; (3) elements of anthropogenic breakage on carapace and plastron and; (4) human toothmarks on limb bones.

This research show patterns in the tortoise consumption sequence from Level IV of Bolomor Cave and improves data on the butchery process and tortoise consumption in the Late Middle Pleistocene.

Bolomor Cave, apart from providing human fossils, has revealed important discoveries related to the discovery and use of fire. The site provides a stratigraphical sequence of approximately 250,000 years of levels with and without fire and document the evidence oldest of anthropogenic structures of combustion in the Iberian Peninsula and therefore, in the Southern Europe.


For more information

Article “Human consumption of tortoises at Lever IV of Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain)”, R. Blasco

Journal of Archaeological Science, 35 (2008): 2839-2848.

Contact

Ruth Blasco

Area de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili de Tarragona - Institut Català Paleocologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES)

rblasco@prehistoria.urv.cat