Morphometric Comparison of Early Hominin Butchery Evidence to Carnivore Modifications within a Bayesian Framework

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Bayesian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The emergence of stone tool use for butchery by early hominins is a contested topic due to the rarity of early tool evidence. In the absence of tools, the primary trace evidence for their use as butchery implements is bone surface modifications (BSM). However, current BSM recognition protocols are subjective. They can lead to conflicting identifications—for example, between cut marks and BSM from carnivores. Canidae species such as *Eucyon wokari are present in the African Pliocene fossil record when early tool-wielding hominins begin to appear. Canids are known to gnaw on bones and create BSM that analysts may incorrectly identify as the result of human butchery behavior. Consequently, Pliocene canids are candidates for having created BSM currently identified as cut marks. To mitigate this problem, 3D technology and modern geometric morphometrics and Bayesian inference have emerged as analytical tools to differentiate between cut marks and other BSM. Here, we use carnivore modifications on bone, made by wolves (*Canis lupus) under controlled conditions to compare against experimentally produced butchery BSM. While canid BSM can appear visually similar to butchery marks, Bayesian inference used in this study can differentiate them and provide a level of probability to their distinction.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Bayesian Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33213