Early Stone Age hominin habitat preferences: predictions from a modern taphonomic and ecological study in Kenya

Summary

Two key resources that would have conditioned hominin behavior and habitat preferences in the Early Stone Age of Africa are food and water. This talk presents an examination of spatial relationships of these resources from a modern taphonomic and ecological study of large mammal carcasses at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya. The locations of fresh carnivore kills and older bone scatters that still retained within-bone nutrients (marrow and brains) are examined to determine whether these dietary resources are clustered or randomly distributed across the landscape, which habitat types they are most often found within, and how closely associated they are with fresh water. Based on these results, I will offer some ideas regarding hominin habitat preferences during the Early Stone Age – a time of increasing evidence for procurement of food resources from large mammal carcasses.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Ecological Perspectives on Hominin Landscape Use during the Early Stone Age of Africa

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15045