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(Of Africa)? Site Formation at Dmanisi and Actualistic Studies in Africa

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(Of Africa)? Site Formation at Dmanisi and Actualistic Studies in Africa stone age institute publication series Series Editors Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth Stone Age Institute Gosport, Indiana and Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana Number 1. THE OLDOWAN: Case Studies into the Earliest Stone Age Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick, editors Number 2. BREATHING LIFE INTO FOSSILS: Taphonomic Studies in Honor of C.K. (Bob) Brain Travis Rayne Pickering, Kathy Schick, and Nicholas Toth, editors Number 3. THE CUTTING EDGE: New Approaches to the Archaeology of Human Origins Kathy Schick, and Nicholas Toth, editors Number 4. THE HUMAN BRAIN EVOLVING: Paleoneurological Studies in Honor of Ralph L. Holloway Douglas Broadfield, Michael Yuan, Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth, editors STONE AGE INSTITUTE PUBLICATION SERIES NUMBER 2 Series Editors Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth breathing life into fossils: Taphonomic Studies in Honor of C.K. (Bob) Brain Editors Travis Rayne Pickering University of Wisconsin, Madison Kathy Schick Indiana University Nicholas Toth Indiana University Stone Age Institute Press · www.stoneageinstitute.org 1392 W. Dittemore Road · Gosport, IN 47433 COVER CAPTIONS AND CREDITS. Front cover, clockwise from top left. Top left: Artist’s reconstruction of the depositional context of Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, with a leopard consuming a hominid carcass in a tree outside the cave: bones would subsequently wash into the cave and be incorporated in the breccia deposits. © 1985 Jay H. Matternes. Top right: The Swartkrans cave deposits in South Africa, where excavations have yielded many hominids and other animal fossils. ©1985 David L. Brill. Bottom right: Reconstruction of a hominid being carried by a leopard. © 1985 Jay H. Matternes. Bottom left: Photograph of a leopard mandible and the skull cap of a hominid from Swartkrans, with the leopard’s canines juxtaposed with puncture marks likely produced by a leopard carrying its hominid prey. © 1985 David L. Brill. Center: Photo of Bob Brain holding a cast of a spotted hyena skull signed by all of the taphonomy conference participants. © 2004 Kathy Schick, Stone Age Institute. Back cover credits. Top: © 2004 Stone Age Institute. Bottom left: © 2004 Kathy Schick, Stone Age Institute. Bottom right: © 2005 Greg Murphy. Published by the Stone Age Institute. ISBN-10: 0-9792-2761-5 ISBN-13: 978-0-9792-2761-5 Copyright © 2007, Stone Age Institute Press. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher. CHAPTER 7 ARE YOU IN OR OUT (OF AFRICA)? SITE FORMATION AT DMANISI AND ACTUALISTIC STUDIES IN AFRICA MARTHA TAPPEN, DAV I D LORDKIPANIDZE, MAIA BUKSHIANIDZE, REID FERRING AND ABESALOM VEKUA ABSTRACT of taphonomy are conducted all over the world, most have been conducted in Africa, where parks conserve Researchers from all over the world use the actualis- relatively healthy ecosystems retaining large carnivores tic studies conducted in Africa to interpret the formation that are key preburial taphonomic agents, and where the of faunal localities. Aspects of applying African models early archaeological record begins. But how universally to the early Pleistocene faunas from Dmanisi in Georgia can the observations from actualistic studies conducted are discussed. Currently, there is no compelling evidence by Africanists be applied to localities outside of Africa? that the mammalian taxa from Dmanisi migrated from Which features of bone accumulation and modifi cation Africa at the same time as Homo. Preliminary analyses are robust enough to be generalized, with constrained of taphonomic and stratigraphic evidence indicate that amounts of variation possible or probable? This question Dmanisi has a complex, but not a long taphonomic his- is important to untangling the ecology of hominins and tory. Several taphonomic agents were involved in modi- the taphonomic histories of early Palaeolithic sites found fying the fauna and hominin fossil assemblage, rather outside of Africa, and gets to the heart of factors that al- than one agent predominating, yet the bones accumu- lowed the original range expansion into higher latitudes, lated relatively rapidly. Hominins left cut marks, carni- because it requires precise paleoecological and behav- vores left tooth marks, and porcupines gnawed some of ioral reconstruction. Was the initial spread of Homo be- the bones. Many specimens seem to have little alteration yond the australopithecine geographic range due to the at all, including no weathering, no evidence for geologic spreading of African-like biomes, or was it due to novel, transport (rounding or microstriations), and remain as intrinsic behaviors of Homo? In this paper we discuss articulated subunits, but not as whole animals. In many some of these issues, and make some comparisons be- ways Dmanisi does not fi t classic models of human habi- tween the paleoecologic and taphonomic record of the tation sites, hyena dens, or mass death sites. Specifi cally, early Pleistocene site of Dmanisi, in Georgia (Trans- the areas excavated at Dmanisi so far do not have enough Caucasus), and actualistic taphonomic studies in Africa. stone tool damage to be primarily accumulated by homi- We outline some of the major taphonomic characteristics nins, nor do they have as much carnivore tooth scoring of Dmanisi, and argue that the signature from the site as as modern dens. Detailed spatial analysis of taphonomic a whole is not a good match for our archetypal models modifi cations is still underway, and may allow spatial of bone formation processes of hominin sites, carnivore parsing of the site into areas by taphonomic agent. dens, or porcupine dens. We compare some key tapho- nomic features to time-averaged attritional death bone INTRODUCTION deposition studies as models for predation arenas from Africa to Dmanisi. While there are still more analyses The interpretations of fossil bone assemblages de- to conduct, the predation arena model also does not fi t rive from observations of the taphonomic journeys of Dmanisi’s signature in some key ways. present day animal remains. While actualistic studies 120 Breathing Life into Fossils: Taphonomic Studies in Honor of C.K. (Bob) Brain DMANISI: GENERAL BACKGROUND is the core taphonomic question at Dmanisi. The site has eight species of large predator in direct association with Dmanisi is located around a thousand miles from of Homo erectus sensu lato, thus Bob Brain’s celebrated o the NE tip of Africa at 41 N latitude, south of the Cau- question of “The hunter or the hunted?” is immediately casus Mountains in Georgia. Numerous hominin fossils apropos. Interestingly, there are several other analo- have been found in direct association with a large as- gies to the South African karstic cave sites that Brain so semblage of mammalian fauna and simply fl aked stone carefully deciphered: some of the bones accumulated in tools. David Lordkipanidze leads the excavations with underground hydraulically formed pipes that eventually an international team of principal investigators including breached the surface, which can be thought of as mini- the authors of this paper, with Philip Rightmire of SUNY analogs to karstic cave formation, and many of the bones Binghamton, Marcia Ponce de Leon and Christophe Zol- were introduced into the pipes by predators. likofer of the University of Zurich, and others. The hom- The stratigraphy of the site is being worked out by inin occupations date to the earliest Pleistocene, shortly Reid Ferring of the University of North Texas, with pre- after the Olduvai Normal Subchron which ended at 1.78 liminary dating by Carl Swisher, and detailed work con- mya (Van Couvering, 1997). Geological and paleobio- tinues. On top of basalt that dates to within the Olduvai logical evidence suggests that the these levels with Mode subchron, there are two main strata, A and B. The A lay- 1 tools date to before 1.7 mya, and are closer to 1.77 mya ers are normal and from within the Olduvai subchron, (Gabunia and Vekua, 1995; Gabunia et al., 2000; Vekua and the B layers were deposited immediately after this; et al., 2002). they have reversed polarity and so post-date 1.78 myr. A Today rainfall, seasonality and habitat character- series of hydraulic pipes formed within the A sediments, istics in Georgia vary greatly with elevation and from creating tunnels that then were fi lled with bones as well west to east. Eastern Georgia tends to be drier and have as reversed B1 sediment. Microstratigraphic analysis by a more continental pattern, while in Western Georgia the Ferring indicates that pipes fi lled and some collapsed, weather has a more Mediterranean pattern. The site is forming low spots and then small drainage runnels. As in the South Central region (Kvemo Kartli Province) at of now, his evidence indicates that most of the hominins an elevation of 915 meters above sea level. The region as well as artifacts and the majority of the fauna come around Dmanisi has a good deal of topographic relief from within these pipes and from on top of pipes that had with hills and valleys that would have enhanced the po- collapsed and thus would have been low-lying land sur- tential for a mosaic of habitats, and the fauna indicate faces and small sediment traps when bones were depos- there were both wooded and open areas (Gabunia et al., ited. The B2 stratum sediment that was deposited above 2000). Dmanisi is an open air site on a promontory over- also contains fauna and Mode 1 tools. Later a post depo- looking the confl uence of the Pinazauri and Mashavera sitional carbonate zone (K) was formed that sealed in rivers. These rivers have eroded down, in place, through the lower deposits of the site, especially the lower pipes 80–100 meters of basalt since the early Pleistocene, leav- and pipe collapses, protecting the bones from compac- ing the site high above them today (Figure 1).
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