Taphonomy of the Swartkrans Hominid Postcrania and Its Bearing on Issues of Meat-Eating and Fire Management

Travis Rayne Pickering

31 citations0/0 files stored

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

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Archaeology and ancient environmental studies Archaeology and Rock Art Studies

Abstract

Abstract The Plio-Pleistocene cave site of Swartkrans (Gauteng, South Africa) has long been a valuable source for evidence of early hominid evolution and behavior. Most recently, the meticulous excavations and analyses of Swartkrans fossils under the direction of C. K. Brain (1965–1986) have prompted exciting new ideas about the behavioral and technological capabilities of early hominids in South Africa (summarized in Brain 1981, 1993a, 1993b; Brain et al. 1988). Particularly, the juxtaposition of cut marked and burned bones, with stone tools and hominid fossils in Swartkrans Member 3 raises an important question. The question is whether the spatial association between stone tools, cut marked and burned bones, and the remains of hominid individuals implicates these particular individuals as the parties completely or partially responsible for these cultural traces that indicate the utilization of large mammal carcasses and a mastery of fire.

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.

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