Articlegreen2003

Carcass Processing Intensity and Cutmark Creation: An Experimental Approach

83 citations0/0 files storedPlains Anthropologist

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

1 known location can be tried.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Archaeology and ancient environmental studies Archaeological and Geological Studies

Abstract

Cutmarks observed in archaeofaunal assemblages are an important source of evidence in the reconstruction of prehistoric butchery strategies. Inherent in these reconstructions is the assumed covariance of the intensity of butchery activities and the resulting cutmarks. This study proposes a simple measure of processing (butchery) intensity—the number of tool strokes amassed during defleshing activities—in an attempt to test this assumption. Data on this measure of processing intensity were collected during the experimental butchery of 16 appendicular carcass segments from large ungulates. Based on the measure of processing intensity utilized here, there seems to be no clear-cut relationship between the number of tool strokes and the resulting frequency of cutmarks or the frequency with which specific bone specimen classes are cutmarked. The results presented here have substantial implications for the interpretation of cutmarks and concomitant assessments of prehistoric human diet and subsistence behavior.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 83 citations exist upstream.

References

1981Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths 1986Systematic Butchery by Plio/Pleistocene Hominids at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania [and Comments and Reply]1996Blind Tests of Inter-analyst Correspondence and Accuracy in the Identification of Cut Marks, Percussion Marks, and Carnivore Tooth Marks on Bone Surfaces 1985Faunal Remains from Klasies River Mouth 1981Archaeological evidence for meat-eating by Plio-Pleistocene hominids from Koobi Fora and Olduvai Gorge 1986Scavenging or Hunting in Early Hominids: Theoretical Framework and Tests 2002Cut and Tooth Mark Distributions on Large Animal Bones: Ethnoarchaeological Data from the Hadza and Their Implications For Current Ideas About Early Human Carnivory 1998Evidence for Hominid Predation at Klasies River Mouth, South Africa, and its Implications for the Behaviour of Early Modern Humans

Cited by

2005Experimental patterns of hammerstone percussion damage on bones: implications for inferences of carcass processing by humans 2009Raw material quality and Oldowan hominin toolstone preferences: evidence from Kanjera South, Kenya 2008New evidence for hominin carcass processing strategies at 1.5Ma, Koobi Fora, Kenya 2012Neandertal mobility and large-game hunting: The exploitation of reindeer during the Quina Mousterian at Chez-Pinaud Jonzac (Charente-Maritime, France)

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.