The Allure of Proboscideans: Rethinking the Effect of Large Prey Attractiveness on Human Evolution

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Elephant Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The ubiquity of Proboscidean remains in early archaeological sites across the Old and New World underscores their significance in human prehistory. However, ethnography-based estimates of Proboscidean hunting returns have consistently undervalued their exceptional attractiveness as prey during the Paleolithic period. This study presents a critical reevaluation of three key parameters—encounter rates, pursuit costs, and target function—to demonstrate the unique appeal of Proboscideans to early human hunters.

Crucially, the human body's limited ability to convert protein to energy (approximately 35% of energetic requirements) necessitates obtaining 65% of energy from non-protein sources, namely, fats and carbohydrates. Proboscideans represent a highly profitable and dependable source of large quantities of fat which, as ethnographic evidence and interpretation of archaeozoological data corroborate, was humans’ major prey choice criteria.

We expend on the role of targeting fat in the extinctions and declines in populations of Proboscideans and other large prey. We then propose the need to energetically cope with that decline as a unifying driver of human evolution.

This unifying hypothesis provides a novel framework for understanding human evolution and behavioral/cultural change, integrating dietary needs, hunting strategies, and environmental factors into a cohesive narrative of our species' development.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Elephant Archaeology

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51049