Impact Notches on Megafaunal Limb Bones: Hammerstone Versus Carnivore Tooth Notch Shapes on Samples of Experimental, Paleontological, and Archaeological Bones

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Impact notches on megafaunal limb bones can be diagnostic of marrow extraction and tool blank production behavior by hominins. Notch shape statistics have been applied to impact-fractured megafaunal limb bones from Old World Paleolithic sites to demonstrate hominin technology that begins 2.6 mya in Africa. We compare data from experimental cow femora breakage experiments, first from hammerstone-produced notches, and second from experimental static pressure notches on cow femora to mimic tooth impact. Comparative statistics demonstrate significant differences in notch shape between high-velocity impacts and static pressure. We compare percussion notch shape on cow femora with notches on camel limb bones from a 550-780 ka paleontological site in California and a 350 ka site in Nebraska. These notch shapes match the pressure-produced notch shapes and appear to be representative of tooth pressure notches. These data are then compared to notch shape from experimental hammerstone breakage of elephant femora and notches on archaeological specimens of mammoth limb bone. The notch shapes on elephant and mammoth limb bones compare well with the hammerstone impact shapes on cow bone but not with the notches produced by pressure. We propose that impact notch shape can identify human versus carnivore-produced notches in the archaeological record.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39493.0