Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:06:28.402Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mastodon butchery: microscopic evidence of carcass processing and bone tool use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Pat Shipman ,
Daniel C. Fisher  and
Jennie J. Rose
Pat Shipman
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 725 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205
Daniel C. Fisher
Affiliation:
Museum of Paleontology and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Jennie J. Rose
Affiliation:
Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 725 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) examination of bone surfaces from the Pleasant Lake mastodon, excavated in southern Michigan, documents features indicative of butchery. These features are identified by comparison with modern bones modified by human and natural processes. We report new studies of (1) marks made by bone tools during removal of meat from and disarticulation of carcasses and (2) use wear developed on bone tools. We also apply previously developed criteria for recognizing stone tool cutmarks and stages in the burning of bone. The Pleasant Lake site, dated to between 10,395 ± 100 and 12,845 ± 165 b.p., provides compelling evidence of mastodon butchery and bone tool use. Another site, near New Hudson, Michigan, provides replication of much of this evidence. Together these sites offer new examples of patterns of bone modification and extend the geographic and temporal representation of the much discussed, but still controversial, late Pleistocene bone technology.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , Summer 1984 , pp. 358 - 365
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Behrensmeyer, A. K. 1978. Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering. Paleobiology. 4:150–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1981. Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths. Academic Press; New York.Google Scholar
Bonnichsen, R. 1979. Pleistocene Bone Technology in the Beringian Refugium. Mercury Series, Paper 89. Archaeol. Surv. Can.; Ottawa.Google Scholar
Bonnichsen, R. 1982. Bone technology as a taphonomic factor: an introductory statement. Can. J. Anthropol. 2:137–144.Google Scholar
Brain, C. K. 1981. The Hunters or the Hunted? Univ. Chicago Press; Chicago.Google Scholar
Fisher, D. C. 1981. Evidence of mastodon butchering in southeastern Michigan. Geol. Soc. Am., Abst. Prog. 13:452.Google Scholar
Fisher, D. C. 1984a. Mastodon butchery by North American Paleo-Indians. Nature. 308:271–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, D. C. 1984b. Taphonomic analysis of late Pleistocene mastodon occurrences: evidence of butchery by North American Paleo-Indians. Paleobiology. 10:338–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frison, G. C. 1978. Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains. Academic Press; New York.Google Scholar
Graham, R. W., Haynes, C. V., Johnson, D. L., and Kay, M. 1981. Kimmswick: a Clovis-mastodon association in eastern Missouri. Science. 213:1115–1117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harington, C. R., Bonnichsen, R., and Morlan, R. E. 1975. Bones say man lived in Yukon 27,000 years ago. Can. Geogr. J. 91:42–48.Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V. Jr. 1969. The earliest Americans. Science. 166:709–715.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haynes, G. 1980. Evidence of carnivore gnawing on Pleistocene and Recent mammalian bones. Paleobiology. 6:341–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, A. 1976. On carnivore and weathering damage to bone. Curr. Anthropol. 17:335–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irwin-Williams, C. 1967. Associations of Early Man with horse, camel, and mastodon at Hueyatlaco, Valsequillo (Puebla, Mexico). Pp. 337–347. In: Martin, P. S. and Wright, H. E. Jr., eds. Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search for a Cause. Yale Univ. Press; New Haven.Google Scholar
Meltzer, D. J. and Mead, J. I. 1983. The timing of late Pleistocene mammalian extinctions in North America. Quat. Res. 19:130–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morlan, R. E. 1979. A stratigraphic framework for Pleistocene artifacts from Old Crow River, northern Yukon Territory. Pp. 125–145. In: Humphrey, R. L. and Stanford, D., eds. Pre-Llano Cultures of the Americas: Paradoxes and Possibilities. Anthropol. Soc.; Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Morlan, R. E. 1980. Taphonomy and Archaeology in the Upper Pleistocene of the Northern Yukon Territory: A Glimpse of the Peopling of the New World. Mercury Series, Paper 94. Archaeol. Surv. Can.; Ottawa.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, T. P., Voorhies, M. R., and Corner, R. G. 1980. Spiral fractures and bone pseudotools at paleontological sites. Am. Antiq. 45:483–490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potts, R. and Shipman, P. 1981. Cutmarks made by stone tools on bones from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Nature. 291:577–580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, J. J. 1983. A replication technique for scanning electron microscopy: applications for anthropologists. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 62:255–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shephard, A. O. 1956. Ceramics for the Archaeologist. Publ. No. 609. Carnegie Inst. Washington; Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Shipman, P. 1981a. Life History of a Fossil: An Introduction to Taphonomy and Paleoecology. Harvard Univ. Press; Cambridge.Google Scholar
Shipman, P. 1981b. Applications of scanning electron microscopy to taphonomic problems. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 376:357–386.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shipman, P., Foster, G., and Schoeninger, M. 1984. Burnt bones and teeth: an experimental study of color, morphology, crystal structure and shrinkage. J. Archaeol. Sci. 11:307–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shipman, P. and Rose, J. 1983. Evidence of butchery and hominid activities at Torralba and Ambrona: an evaluation using microscopic techniques. J. Archaeol. Sci. 10:465–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanford, D. 1979. The Selby and Dutton sites: evidence for a possible pre-Clovis occupation of the High Plains. Pp. 101–123. In: Humphrey, R. L. and Stanford, D., eds. Pre-Llano Cultures of the Americas: Paradoxes and Possibilities. Anthropol. Soc.; Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Stanford, D., Bonnichsen, R., and Morlan, R. E. 1981. The Ginsberg experiment: modern and prehistoric evidence of a bone-flaking technology. Science. 212:438–440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tylecote, R. F. 1962. Metallurgy in Archaeology. Arnold; London.Google Scholar
Wright, H. A. and Bailey, A. W. 1982. Fire Ecology. Wiley; New York.Google Scholar