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The Larger Mammal Fossil Assemblages from Beds Iii and Iv, Olduvai Gorge

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The Larger Mammal Fossil Assemblages from Beds Iii and Iv, Olduvai Gorge THE LARGER MAMMAL FOSSIL ASSEMBLAGES FROM BEDS III AND IV, OLDUVAI GORGE, TANZANIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FEEDING BEHAVIOR OF HOMO ERECTUS by MICHAEL C. PANTE A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School‐New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Anthropology Written under the direction of Professor Robert Blumenschine And approved by ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey October, 2010 2010 Michael C. Pante ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION THE LARGER MAMMAL FOSSIL ASSEMBLAGES FROM BEDS III AND IV, OLDUVAI GORGE, TANZANIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FEEDING BEHAVIOR OF HOMO ERECTUS By MICHAEL C. PANTE Dissertation Director: Professor Robert Blumenschine This dissertation represents the first taphonomically‐informed assessment of the feeding behavior of Homo erectus. Until now studies of the feeding behavior of Early Stone Age hominins based on the assemblage‐wide proportions of tooth, cut, and percussion marks have focused on Oldowan sites attributed to Homo habilis leaving assessments of the subsistence capabilities of Homo erectus to inference. This trend is the direct result of the river/channel depositional settings for most sites that are attributed to Homo erectus and the lack of a theoretically‐grounded basis for interpreting fossil assemblages from such sites. Using a flume I have generated the first experimental sample designed to interpret bone assemblages that were modified by hominins and carnivores and subsequently disturbed by flowing water. Results show that the transportability of bone fragments is inversely related to the size of bone fragments as measured by length, iii width, cortical thickness, and indirectly by the size group of the carcass from which the fragments were generated. More importantly, fluvial processes should not significantly alter the assemblage‐wide proportions of tooth, cut, and percussion marks in low‐ energy fluvial environments. The results of flume experiments are applied here in the first taphonomic analysis of the larger mammal fossil assemblages from JK2, Bed III and WK, Bed IV, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. The results for both sites indicate that Homo erectus likely acquired earlier access to carcasses than its Oldowan hominin ancestors. However, only the younger WK site exhibits evidence for cooking indicating that the feeding behavior of the species was continually evolving. The significance of this research lies not only in the results reported for the Bed III and IV fossil assemblages, but also in the methodology that was developed to interpret the results, which is broadly applicable to archaeological sites regardless of age or geographic location. Further application of these methods will allow paleoanthropologists to track the increasingly pervasive role played by Homo erectus in the larger carnivore guild. For it is through this research that the social behavior of the species may ultimately be revealed and a greater understanding of our own behavior and societies can be obtained. iv Acknowledgement First and foremost, I would like to thank those that provided generous funding to this research including the Wenner‐Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (grant number 7640), the Bigel Endowment Award for Graduate Research in Anthropology of the Rutgers University Anthropology Department, and the Rutgers Center for Human Evolutionary Studies (CHES). I am grateful to the agencies that provided clearance for this research. These include the National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi, and COSTECH and Antiquities in Tanzania. I would like to thank my dissertation committee Rob Blumenschine, Jack Harris, Rob Scott, and Ian Stanistreet for the guidance and contributions to this work. I consider them all to be good friends, which is a rarity for graduate students to find in their mentors. Rob Blumenschine and Jack Harris deserve additional credit for mentoring me not only in the classroom, but also in the field where I learned a great deal about being a paleoanthropologist. I received logistical support from my Kenyan and Tanzanian colleagues and friends for which I am grateful. The assistance of Dr. Fidelis Masao and Dr. Jackson Njau proved invaluable in acquiring the necessary permits to conduct this research. Jackson, his wife Angela, and daughter Avery always welcomed me into their home in Arusha and treated me with home cooked meals. My friend, Frank Mataro, kept me well fed in the field and dealt with the daily politics associated with living on site at Olduvai Gorge. Augustino, Goodluck, and others were always helpful in Arusha and at Olduvai. In v Kenya, Dr. Purity Kiura, Paul Watene, and many others in the Paleontology and Archaeological Departments of the National Museums of Kenya welcomed me and assisted me with the collections. I also express my gratitude to Dr. Meave Leakey who was kind enough to write a letter to the Archives Department at NMK on my behalf affording me the opportunity to photocopy the Olduvai excavation catalogs for Beds III and IV. She also searched her own records for any information that may have been useful to my research. I would like to thank those who have provided useful comments on the portions of this dissertation that have already been submitted for publication including Connie Fellmann, Susan Antón, Curtis Marean, Stephen Merritt, Jackson Njau, Charles Egeland, and several anonymous reviewers. Their suggestions have greatly improved the presentation of my results. I would like to thank my coauthors for their contributions on chapters of this dissertation that have been submitted for publication. Chapter two was submitted under the same title to the Journal of Human Evolution with Rob Blumenschine, Sal Capaldo, and Rob Scott as coauthors and is currently in review. Chapter three was also submitted under the same title to the Journal of Archaeological Science with Rob Blumenschine as a coauthor and was published in 2010. I thank Charlotte Fuller, Piotr Nawrot, and the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, for their assistance with flume operations. Many hours were spent working with the flume and Charlotte and Piotr were always helpful in addressing my concerns and keeping the flume operational. vi Finally, I express love and gratitude to my family and friends for their support, especially while I was in Africa. My wife, Connie gave me the strength and inspiration to complete this research for it is my love for her that motivates me to succeed. My parents, Dom and Carol have always been supportive and provided encouragement no matter the path that I chose for myself. My good friend, Joe Savino was kind enough to call with updates on the New York Giants, while I was at Olduvai. vii Table of Contents Abstract of the Dissertation………………………………………………………………………………………..…ii Acknowledments………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…iv Table of content…………………………………………………………………………………………………………...vii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….xiv List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………………………………………...xvi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1) Research Problem…………………………..…………………………………………………………………..…….2 2) Background…………………..………………………………………………………………………………………..…4 i) Acheulean Fossil Assemblages……………………………………………………………………..…4 ii) Beds III and IV, Olduvai Gorge…………………………..……………………………………….….6 a) Stratigraphic context and Paleoclimate………………………………..……….…..8 b) Stone Tool Industries and Fauna………..……………………………………………...9 3) Methods and Theory in Zooarchaeology………………………………………………………………….10 4) Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………………………………………13 CHAPTER 2: VALIDATION OF BONE SURFACE MODIFICATION MODELS FOR INFERRING FOSSIL HOMININ AND CARNIVORE FEEDING INTERACTIONS, WITH REAPPLICATION TO FLK 22 OLDUVAI GORGE, TANZANIA 1) Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……21 2) Methods………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....24 i) One Consumer Type……………………………………………………………………………………..25 ii) Two Consumer Types…………………………………………………………………………………..26 viii iii) Three Consumer Types……………………………………………………………………….………26 iv) The FLK 22 Assemblage…................................................................................29 v) Bootstrap Methods……………………………………………………………………………………..30 a) The Bootstrap Algorithm…………………………………………………………..…….30 b) Interpreting Bootstrap Distributions……………………………………………….32 3) Results……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………33 i) Percussion Marks………………………………………………………………………..……………...33 ii) Tooth Marks……………………………………………………………………………………………….34 iii) Cut Marks………………………………………………………………………………………………….34 iv) Tooth and Butchery Marks………………………………………………………………………..35 4) Discussion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………36 i) The Bootstrap Method Refines and Validates the Feeding Trace Models……36 ii) Unwarranted Doubts Surrounding the Use of Feeding Trace Models…….…..38 iii) Implications for Hominin and Carnivore Behavior at FLK 22………………………43 5) Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………………………………………48 CHAPTER 3: FLUVIAL TRANSPORT OF BOVIL LONG BONES FRAGMENTED BY THE FEEDING ACTIVITIES OF HOMININS AND CARNIVORES 1) Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………64 2) Methods…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………66 i) Flume……………………………………………….………………………………………………………….66 ii) Sample………………………………………………………………………………………………………..66 iii) Preparation of Experiments………………………………………………………………………..69 ix iv) Experimental
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