Early hominid utilisation of fish resources and implications for seasonality and behaviour

Abstract

While research into the diet and subsistence of early hominids has focussed primarily on medium to large size mammals, modern ethnographic and dietary evidence suggests that other food sources are of equal or greater importance in hunter-gatherer diets, particularly in seasonally stressful times of year. Fish is examined in this paper as an alternative food source for early hominids. Nutritional, ecological and ethnographic evidence indicates that fish would be a seasonally available, nutritious and easy to procure alternative food source for early hominids, particularly during periods when other food sources may be of poor quality. Carnivores and non-human primates rely on fish as a seasonal resource, and archaeological findings also document the importance of fish for Late Pleistocene hominid groups. Fish remains are associated with many early hominid sites, and five sites at Olduvai Gorge are examined here in detail. The patterns of fish exploitation seen in Late Pleistocene archaeological sites are manifested in three of the Olduvai Gorge sites, making a strong, although not absolute, case for early hominid fish procurement. The implications for early hominid behaviour of fish procurement are several, and include timing of the early hominid seasonal round to exploit spawning or stranded fish, and group size larger than the nuclear family unit, with greater social interaction. Further investigation must also be conducted on the possible differences in procurement strategy between the hominid species at FLKNN (Homo habilis) and BK (presumed H. erectus).