A Study of Cut Marks on Small-Sized Carcasses and its Application to the Study of Cut-Marked Bones from Small Mammals at the FLK Zinj Site

  1. Domínguez-Rodrigo, Manuel
  2. Barba, Rebeca
Revista:
Journal of taphonomy

ISSN: 1696-0815

Any de publicació: 2005

Volum: 3

Número: 2-3

Pàgines: 121-134

Tipus: Article

Altres publicacions en: Journal of taphonomy

Resum

Studies of cut marks have long been the subject of controversy regarding their ability to infer hominid carcass exploitation behavior, and the interaction between hominids and carnivores. Previous studies have emphasized the usefulness of cut mark frequency and distribution to reconstruct hominid access to carcasses. Still, one pending issue is how cut mark patterns vary between different carcass sizes (small versus large). This work presents new experimental results in which cut marks on small-sized carcasses are analysed and compared to both 1) experimental samples with larger-sized animals, and 2) the FLK 22 (Zinj) Plio-Pleistocene archaeological site