Anthr op olo gie et P r 6his t oir e, 11I, 2000, 327 -334

Palaeolithic and Mesolithic kill-butchering sites:the hard evidence

Shawn Valeria BIoNpr

L. Introduction

The places where animals have been killedor at least butchered by our ancestors representobviously the best expression of the relationbetween man and his prey. Isaac (Isaac, 1976;Isaac & Cradeq, 1981), referring to Africandeposits of Lower Palaeolithic age, defines asimple kind of such sites as containing theskeleton of a single, large animal, associatedwith lithic artefacts (his type B sites): theyrepresent a unique episode. Howeve4 suchaccumulations seem to be very rare: in fact nearthe carcass of the huge beast almost always othergenerally much more fragmentary remains ofother animals are found. These can represent"background" material without direct relationwith hominid activity, but we cannot be sureof this. Evidently, Isaac's definition does notcover the effective variability of all Palaeolithicand Mesolithic kill and/or butchering sites.Therefore, I have tried, in my tesi di laurea,to develop a typolo gy of the possible kindsof bone concentrations reflecting man's animalprocurement behaviour. For this aim, I drewinformation from various authors discussing thetopic (Binford, 1984; Clark & Haynes, 1970;Crader, 1983; Meignen & Texieq, 1956) and reada selected number of papers dealing directly,or indirectly through discussions or summaries,with some 30 sites, my reading assignmentdepending to some extent on the accessibilityof the papers included. I am aware that mysampling of sites is limited and perhaps biasedand that the evidence as presented by thevarious authors is often equivocal, but I hopethat my attempt will stimulate the developmentof a site typology which could be a useful toolfor classification and research.

2. Suggested site typology

a. Butchering sifes: places with animal naturaldeaths, later utilised by mary such as sites

FLK N Lev. 6 (fig.1) and FLK N Deinotheriumat Olduvai (Crader, 1983; Leakey, 1971), andsite HAS (fig.2) at Koobi Fora (Cradeq, 1983).

b. Killing and butchering sites 1: a singleanimal carcass representing a unique huntingepisode. This kind of accumulation is similarto Isaac's type B sites. An American exampleis Pleasant Lake (Fishea 1984; fig. 3).

c. Killing and butchefing sites 2: extensivedisarticulation and dispersion of the bonesof a few big animals at the most associatedwith a comparatively small number of stoneartefacts. Examples are Windhoek (Clark& Haynes, 1970) and perhaps Mwanganda(Clark & Haynes,1970).

d. Hunting losses: animals killed but not util-ised by man; High Furlong (Hallam et al.,1973) would be an example.

e. Hunting stations: dense distributions ofosseous remains reflecting the reutilizationof the locality for a lorig period, often on aseasonal base. Examples of such palimpsestsof archaeological remains could be Mauran(Farizy & David, in press; Girard-Farizy &Leclerc, 1981), Stellmoor (Rus! 1937) andLa Cotte de Saint-Brelade, lev. 3 and 6 (Scott,1980; ftg. q. A subtype of hunting stationscould be represented by American mass kills,as for example the Casper Site (Frison, 1974).In these sites, not examined here, animals arenormally killed with game drive techniques.

f. Hunting stops: they can be relatively simpleor quite complex: sometimes the hunters seekshelter behind a high rock and light a smallfire as suggested by Binford (Binford, 1981).An example could be Phase IVA of the Grottede l'Hortus (de Lumley, 1971).

g. Sighting sites: they would be characterisedby modest bone accumulations in locationswith a panoramic position and allowingto detect game and its movements easily.Examples are the Mesolithic sites describedby Bagolini and Dalmeri (Bagolini & Dalmeri,

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Palaeolithic and Mesolithic kitl-butchering sites: the hard evidence 329

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1987) at Colbricon near San Martino diCastrozza, Trentino, Northern ltaly, at 2 000 mof altitude. They all are located along a rockycrest, far from wate4, near which base campsare found (fig. 5).

3. Development through time

In the next paragraphs, the evaluated sitesare discussed per period.

3.1. Lower Palaeolithic

Scavengine: exploitation of the carcasses of biganimals that died for natural causes; theyare often found near lakes or swamps, asthe elephant and maybe the Deinotherium atOlduvai (Leakey, 1971), the hippopotamus ofKoobi Fora (Isaac, 7976) and the elephantsof Kathu Pan (Klein, 1988), Namib IV (Kleirr,1988) and Mwanganda's Village (Clark &Haynes, 1970).

Hunting: scanty traces of hunters' action are en-countered. At Olorgesailie, occasional killingof some baboons with a head blow seemsto have occurred (Shipman, Bosler & Davis,1981). At Torralba and Ambrona, peoplemay have killed elephants using woodenspears (fragments of wooden artefacts arepresent) and big stones (Allain" 1952). AtLehringen (Movius, 1950), hominids killedan Elephas antiquus with a wooden speardiscovered in the site (see also Weber, thisvolume).

Planning: very limited or absent. The exploita-tion of animals would have been occasionaland opportunistic with short and limitedoccupation of sites by small groups, as atOlduvai (Cradeq, 1983), Koobi Fora (Cradeq,1983), etc.

Food transport: Acheulean people are saidto have carried away the most useful andmeaty parts of animal carcasses at Torralba(Freemary 1975), Ambrona (Freem an, 1975),Elandsfontein (Klein, 1988), etc. In earlier

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times, people apparently consumed the meaton the find spot.

Specialised activities: at the already cited sitesof Torralba, Ambrona and at Mwangandadistinct associations between certain bonesand tools would occur: they may representspecialised activity areas.

Butchering tools: hand-axes and hachereauxare sometimes associated with big animalsat Olorgesailie (Shipman, Bosler & Davis,1981), Elandsfontein (Klein, 1988), KathuPan (Klein, 1988), Namib IV (Klein, 1988)etc., suggesting that they were used forbutchering.

3.2. Middle Palaeolithic

Hunting: Sites such as Zwolen (Gautier, 1989)and Mauran (Farrzy & David, in press;Girard-Farrzy & Leclerc,1981) preserve clearevidence of active hunting.

Planning: killings are less often occasional.Neanderthal man returns periodically (orseasonally) to special places rich in gameand with a natural topography propitiousto hunting activities. This testifies to anintentional and calculated choice, as at thesites already mentioned.

Specialisation: sometimes man specialises in thecapture of a particular animal species: bigbovids at Mauran (Farizy & David, in press),

horses at Zwolen (Gautier, 1989), wild goatsat the Grotte de l'Hortus (de Lumley, 1971).

Hunting techniques: probably some kind ofgame driving was practised at Mauran(Farizy & David, in press), Zwolen (Gautieq,1989), La Quina (Jelinek, Debenath & Dibble,7989) and La Cotte de Saint-Brelade (Scott,1e80).

Seasonal killings: many killings are probablyseasonal, animals fall in discrete age groupsat Zwolen (Gautieq, 1989) and La Quina(]elinek, Debenath & Dibble, 1989).

Food transport: the lightest and most meatybones (hind limbs, pulni, ribs, vertebrae) maybe carried away. In kill sites man leaves bigand useless parts of animal skeletons (skulls,jaws etc.). Transport of meaty skeletal partsmay be exemplified at Mauran (Farizy &David, in press).

Butchering activities: at Maurary Farizy andDavid (Fafizy & David, in press) notice manyphases in the butchering process: dismem-berment, removal of muscular masses andbone breakage for marrow extraction.

3.3. Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic

Hunting: the archaeological record leaves ussome direct evidence of man's hunting activ-ities. At Meiendorf (Rust 1937) and Stell-moor (Rusf 1937), some bones of reindeer

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and birds still conserve weapon marks and afew pieces of silex have remained thrusted inmammalian bones; man kills reindeer withharpoons and sticks (fractured skulls), birdswith bows and maybe slings. Three fracturedskulls of red deer in Abri Pataud (Bouchud,1975), and one bovid skull with a circularorifice in Saint Marcel (Allain, 1952) suggestthe practice of the so called " co'up de merlin":man has delivered a blow similar to theone used today to butcher cattle. Probablythe animal already immobilized (woundedor entrapped) was hit on the frontal with a

big stone. At Kokorevo I (Siberia), a largescapula of bison is pierced by the upper endof a point made of bone (Boriskowksi, 1965).At High Furlong (Mesolithic), an elk wasdiscovered with the marks of L7 woundsmade by barbed points, of which two werefound in the site, and by other arms. Theanimal had apparently been attacked attwo distinct occasions: during the first one,hunters aimed at the legs to lame the animal(fig. 6),later hunters hit the thoracic regionand the lungs to kill it. However the elkdied in a little lake, perhaps imprisoned in

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the ice, and man had no access to the meat.The animal represents in fact a hunting loss(Hallam et a1.,1973).

Planning: very good. Many sites belongto Wpe e, were occupied periodically orseasonally and specialised in the capture of aparticular game (e.9., horse, reindeeq, ibex).Game drive towards cliffs have been claimedand Solutr6 (Combier & Th6venot,1976)haslong figured as an example,but the evidenceis far from conclusive.

Scavenging; no doubt H. sapiens still killedor exploited animals in the occasional andopportunistic way of Lower Palaeolithictimes. According to Lindner (Lindner,1941),hunters at Predmost utilised the carcasses ofhundreds of mammoths that probably suc-cumbed as a result of natural catastrophes, asfood.

Food transporf: selective transport of the mostuseful animal parts is claimed for many sites.

Specialised activifies: sometimes the material isdislocated in distinct clusters that could re-flect specialised activity areas as for exampleat Solutr6 (Combier & Th6venot, 1976).

Site topography: some hunting sites werelocated in valleys enclosed by steep slopesas at Rascano (Gonziilez-Echegaray, 1979),Stellmoor (Rust, 1937), Meiendorf (Rust1937), or at the foot of rocky cliffs at Solutr6(Combier & Th6venot, 1,976).

4. Conclusions

Most of the Lower Palaeolithic sites analysedhere belong to category a (butchering sites);

other kind of concentrations are rare and diffi-cult to ascertain. A number of hunting stations(category e) and a hunting stop (category f)form my sample for the age of Neanderthal manand related people. The Upper Palaeolithic ischaracterised by many hunting stations, whilein Mesolithic times a irunting los (category d )was found as well as several sighting sites(category g). The foregoing distribution seemsto reflect in a vague way an evolution fromscavenging and haphazard opportunistic hunt-ing to well organised, selective hunting activ-ities. However, this reflection results no doubtin part from a priori assumptions concerningthe evolution of hominid meat procurementoften colouring the interpretations offered forthe osseous "hard" data; these are frequentlyequivocal.

AcknowledgementsI thank Prof. Dr. M. Mussi, Prof. Dr. D. Zampetti

(Roma) and Prof. Dr. A. Gautier (Ghent) for adviceand help with the transformation of my tesi di laureadata into this small paper.

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Author's address:

Shawn Valeria BIoNntVia Anassagora, T0

I-00124 Roma (Italia)