Chew Marks and Cut Marks on Animal Bones from the Kasteelberg B and Dune Field Midden Later Stone Age Sites, Western Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

The Later Stone Age sites at Kasteelberg B (KBB) and the Dune Field Midden (DFM), western Cape Province, South Africa, were occupied at least 300-700 years after domestic stock and pottery were first introduced to the region between 2000 and 1600 years ago. Fur seal bones abound at both sites, but bones of stock are common only at KBB. At both sites, predepositional damage to bones consists mostly of chew marks, probably produced mainly by dogs. Macroscopically visible cut marks are relatively rare, suggesting that, like stone age people elsewhere, the KBB and DFM butchers avoided prolonged contact with bone. At both sites, cut marks tend to occur near major limb joints, at acute angles to long bone shafts, implying that the marks were produced mainly by disarticulation or skinning as opposed to filleting. Differences in the frequency of cut marks on homologous bones of sheep and seal at KBB probably partly reflect differences in disarticulation patterns due to differences in anatomy, but other factors, including the removal of cut marks by dog-chewing (much more common on seal bones), differences in average distance between carcass and site, and differences in average carcass condition, probably also played a role. The rarity or absence of chew marks on seal bones from older sites may imply that dogs appeared or became abundant locally only after the introduction of stock. The abundance of chew marks at the DFM may mean that the occupants were fundamentally herders, even though they left few bones of stock at the site.