Use of meat resources in the Early Pleistocene assemblages from Fuente Nueva 3 (Orce, Granada, Spain)

José Yravedra,Clara Mielgo,Carmen Luzón,Gonzalo Linares‐Matás ,Juha Saarinen,Darío Herranz‐Rodrigo ,Lloyd A Courtenay,Oriol Oms,Hugues Alexandre Blain ,José Antonio García Solano ,Eva Montilla,Juan José Rodríguez‐Alba ,Alexia Serrano‐Ramos ,Mikael Fortelius,Stefanía Titton ,Jordi Agustı́ ,Isidro Toro-Moyano,Déborah Barsky ,Auxiliadora Ruiz,Christian Sánchez‐Bandera ,José Miguel Molina Cámara ,Juan Manuel Jiménez‐Arenas

doi:10.1007/s12520-021-01461-7

Abstract

Over the last few decades, several types of evidence such as presence of hominin remains, lithic assemblages, and bones with anthropogenic surface modifications have demonstrated that early human communities inhabited the European subcontinent prior to the Jaramillo Subchron (1.07–0.98 Ma). While most studies have focused primarily on early European lithic technologies and raw material management, relatively little is known about food procurement strategies. While there is some evidence showing access to meat and other animal-based food resources, their mode of acquisition and associated butchery processes are still poorly understood. This paper presents a taphonomic and zooarchaeological analysis of the Fuente Nueva-3 (FN3) (Guadix-Baza, Spain) faunal assemblage, providing a more in-depth understanding of early hominin subsistence strategies in Europe. The present results show that hominins had access to the meat and marrow of a wide range of animal taxa, including elephants, hippopotami, and small- and medium-sized animals. At the same time, evidence of carnivore activity at the site suggests that these communities likely faced some degree of competition from large predators when acquiring and processing carcasses.

Highlights

Recent publications have amply demonstrated that hominins inhabited Europe prior to the Jaramillo Subchron (1.07–0.98 Ma). Sites such as Barranco León, Fuente Nueva 3 (FN3) (Barsky et al, 2010, 2015; Titton et al, 2019, 2020; Toro-Moyano et al, 2009, 2010a, 2010b, 2011, 2013), and Sima del Elefante in Spain (Parés et al, 2006; Carbonell et al 2008), Le Vallonnet (Michel et al, 2017), Bois-de-Riquet, and Pont-de-Lavaud in France (Bourguignon et al, 2015; Despriée et al, 2018; LozanoFernández et al, 2019), and Kozarnika cave in Bulgaria (Sirakov et al, 2010) as well as Pirro Nord in Italy (Arzarello et al, 2016; Pavia et al, 2012) have provided extensive evidence of hominin activities older than 1 Ma
When conceptualising carcass acquisition strategies, primary access implies that hominins processed the remains before any other predator, while secondary access implies that hominin consumption of animal resources took place after other predators had already been feeding upon the carcass
Faunal remains were quantified by the number of identifiable specimens (NISP), minimun number of elements (MNE), and minimum number of individuals (MNI)

Summary

Introduction

Recent publications have amply demonstrated that hominins inhabited Europe prior to the Jaramillo Subchron (1.07–0.98 Ma). With regards to the exploitation of animal resources, some evidence is known of cut-marked bones, providing direct evidence of hominin access to meat resources In some cases, such as Kozarnika cave (Sirakov et al, 2010), Trlica (Vislobokova et al, 2020), or Pirro Nord (Cheheb et al, 2019), sample sizes are small and present ambiguous distribution patterns. When conceptualising carcass acquisition strategies, primary access implies that hominins processed the remains before any other predator, while secondary access implies that hominin consumption of animal resources took place after other predators had already been feeding upon the carcass

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Results

Conclusion