Evidence for Hominid Predation at Klasies River Mouth, South Africa, and its Implications for the Behaviour of Early Modern Humans

Abstract

I report the results of a microscopic study of the bone modification in the identified bovid assemblage from Cave 1 at Klasies River Mouth (KRM), in South Africa. The study was undertaken in an effort to resolve divergent interpretations of the predatory competence of the early modern humans there. The microscopic data suggest that the hominids had relatively unrestricted access to the choicest parts of bovids in all size classes. The carnivore damage signature is ephemeral; it does not support assertions that large carcasses were carnivore-ravaged before their appropriation by hominids or that carnivores contributed a meaningful number of smaller bovids to the faunal assemblage. The data therefore lead to the conclusion that hominids were the sole, regular accumulators of bovids in all size classes. That many of those bovids were obtained by active hunting is suggested by the tip of a stone point embedded in a cervical vertebra of the extinct giant buffalo,Pelorovis antiquus. Finally, some attributes of the butchering patterning hint that the Klasies hominids formed socially mediated task groups to accomplish labour-intensive tasks. These results challenge the general perception that modern morphology pre-dated modern behaviour and the specific assertion that the KRM hominids were behaviourally very primitive. The KRM hominids were apparently active hunters who produced composite tools and who planned and executed complex tasks within a social framework. To the extent that these behaviours presage the modern condition, the KRM hominids were as behaviourally near-modern as they were anatomically near-modern.