The Bone Assemblages from the Excavated Sites

Abstract

Abstract More than a dozen assemblages of fossil bones, associated in most cases with stone artefacts, have been recovered from archaeological sites within the Koobi Fora Formation. These bone assemblages, along with those of equivalent age from Olduvai Gorge, constitute some of the best available evidence from the Plio-Pleistocene of hominid subsistence behaviour, in particular the consumption of meat and marrow. In this chapter I first summarize the methods of bone analysis used at Koobi Fora, then I present the basic empirical data obtained from all of the major sites, and, finally, from an archaeological and taphonomic perspective, I consider various possible interpretations of the bone assemblages. Because my principal aim here is to describe the bone assemblages in terms of the specific information they may contribute towards a better understanding of ancient hominid behaviour, I place emphasis on determining the sequence of taphonomic events, including hominid activity, that led to the accumulation of the bone assemblages and to the formation of the sites.