“…The lithic assemblages from BL and FN-3 are composed of abundant flakes of small size as well as cores and debris, largely made on flint and to a lesser extent on limestone 29,30 . The technological features of these lithic assemblages, including the small dimensions of the flint flakes (usually <2 cm), allow speculating on carcass acquisition by hominins, which relates to the classical debate on Homo as a “scavenger” or as a “hunter” 25,42–44 (see supplementary discussion and references therein). The first scenario considers that early Homo with Oldowan tools would have secondary access to ungulate carcasses through passive scavenging of abandoned remains 18,42,45–47 .…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The depression was subject during the Early Pleistocene to intense hydrothermal activity. This was a major determinant in the establishment of biodiversity “hot spots” for the fauna of large mammals, which remains were preserved in abundant palaeontological localities in the vicinities of Orce 22–25 .Figure 1Geographical location and stratigraphic series of Barranco León (BL) and Fuente Nueva-3 (FN-3) sites.…”
Ancient evidence of human presence in Europe is recorded in several Early Pleistocene archaeopalaeontological sites from Spain, France and Italy. This is the case of Barranco León (BL) and Fuente Nueva-3 (FN-3), two localities placed near the town of Orce (depression of Baza and Guadix, SE Spain) and dated to ~1.4 Ma. At these sites, huge assemblages of Oldowan tools and evidence of defleshing, butchering and marrow processing of large mammal bones have been recovered together with a deciduous tooth of Homo sp. in the case of level BL-D. In this study, we: (i) describe in detail the anthropic marks found in the bone assemblages from these sites; (ii) analyse patterns of defleshment, butchery and marrow processing, based on the modifications identified in the cortical surface of the fossils; and (iii) discuss on the subsistence strategies of the first hominins that inhabited the European subcontinent during Early Pleistocene times.
“…The lithic assemblages from BL and FN-3 are composed of abundant flakes of small size as well as cores and debris, largely made on flint and to a lesser extent on limestone 29,30 . The technological features of these lithic assemblages, including the small dimensions of the flint flakes (usually <2 cm), allow speculating on carcass acquisition by hominins, which relates to the classical debate on Homo as a “scavenger” or as a “hunter” 25,42–44 (see supplementary discussion and references therein). The first scenario considers that early Homo with Oldowan tools would have secondary access to ungulate carcasses through passive scavenging of abandoned remains 18,42,45–47 .…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The depression was subject during the Early Pleistocene to intense hydrothermal activity. This was a major determinant in the establishment of biodiversity “hot spots” for the fauna of large mammals, which remains were preserved in abundant palaeontological localities in the vicinities of Orce 22–25 .Figure 1Geographical location and stratigraphic series of Barranco León (BL) and Fuente Nueva-3 (FN-3) sites.…”
Ancient evidence of human presence in Europe is recorded in several Early Pleistocene archaeopalaeontological sites from Spain, France and Italy. This is the case of Barranco León (BL) and Fuente Nueva-3 (FN-3), two localities placed near the town of Orce (depression of Baza and Guadix, SE Spain) and dated to ~1.4 Ma. At these sites, huge assemblages of Oldowan tools and evidence of defleshing, butchering and marrow processing of large mammal bones have been recovered together with a deciduous tooth of Homo sp. in the case of level BL-D. In this study, we: (i) describe in detail the anthropic marks found in the bone assemblages from these sites; (ii) analyse patterns of defleshment, butchery and marrow processing, based on the modifications identified in the cortical surface of the fossils; and (iii) discuss on the subsistence strategies of the first hominins that inhabited the European subcontinent during Early Pleistocene times.
The late Early Pleistocene archaeological site of Fuente Nueva 3 (Orce, Guadix-Baza Depression, SE Spain), dated to ~1.4 Ma, provides evidence on the subsistence strategies of the first hominin population that dispersed in Western Europe. The site preserves Oldowan tool assemblages associated with abundant remains of large mammals. A small proportion of these remains show cut marks and percussion marks resulting from defleshing and bone fracturing, and a small proportion of bones also show tooth marks. Previous taphonomic studies of FN3 suggested that the hominins had secondary access to the prey leftovers abandoned by sabretooth cats and other primary predators. However, a recent analysis by Yravedra et al. (2021) of the frequency of anthropogenic marks and tooth marks has concluded that the hominins had primary access to the carcasses of a wide variety of ungulate prey, even though the frequency of evisceration marks is strikingly low. In this rebuttal, we analyse the patterns of bone preservation in FN3, which show that the exploitation of bone marrow by the hominins after hammerstone breakage was a usual activity at the site. Our study also reviews the evidence available on the lesser abilities of sabretooth cats for carcass processing compared to pantherine felids. This reinforces the hypothesis that primary predators provided the hominins the opportunity to scavenge sizeable chunks of meat and bone marrow of their prey carcasses before the arrival of hyaenas. Finally, we also provide new inferences on resource availability and competition intensity among the members of the carnivore guild in FN3, which reinforce our interpretation that a secondary access by the Oldowan hominins to the prey leftovers of sabretooth cats was an optimal foraging strategy in the Guadix-Baza Depression.
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