Beyond bones: archaeological sites, early hominid subsistence, and the costs and benefits of exploiting wild plant foods in east African riverine landscapes

Abstract

Abstract Plant remains are rare at early archaeological sites in Africa, and consequently the contribution of plant foods to the subsistence behaviors of early hominids has been difficult to investigate archaeologically. Research on the quality, abundance, and distribution of plant foods in modern African habitats can contribute to reconstructions of the paleoenvironmental context of early archaeological sites. Results of fieldwork near the upper Semliki River, Parc National des Virunga, eastern Zaire demonstrate some ecological parameters of primate plant food availability that would have constrained early hominids foraging for plant foods. Such actualistic studies provide a frame of reference from which to interpret variations in the composition of early assemblages of artifacts and fossil bones, and help focus inferences about the likely adaptive significance of plant foods in early hominid diets.