Paleoanthropological implications of the Nonarcheological Bone Assemblage from Swartklip I, South-Western Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

The relative frequencies of different skeletal elements within the bone assemblage recovered from a late Pleistocene fissure fill at Swartklip (South-Western Cape Province, South Africa) are shown to resemble those in the assemblage from the Transvaal australopithecine site of Makapansgat. Since there is evidence that carnivores, probably hyenas, accumulated the bones at Swartklip, it follows that carnivores, rather than hominids, may have accumulated the bones at Makapansgat.