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View - Kowalewski, M. - Virginia Tech

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PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY PAPERS, V. 8, 2002those employed to analyze predation in general.The meat available on a typical human bodyis distributed similarly to meat on quadrupeds;therefore, cutmarking during butchering, bodysectioning, or skinning by humans using stone ormetal should also be similar. Bone breakage formarrow extraction will also be identifiable, asopposed to bone breakage in order to section thebody for re-burial or trophy distribution. In otherwords, culinary cannibalism will leavebutchermarks or damage to human bones patternedlike the marking and damage to animal-prey bones.Thus, for an interpretation of cannibalism towithstand scrutiny, it is necessary that a site’shuman and animal bones be similarly butchermarkedand fragmented (Turner and Turner, 1999;White, 1992). Otherwise the human skeletalsectioning represented by cutmarks, chop damage,and bone breakage may reflect not butchering afterpredation but preparation for re-burial or ceremonialtreatment, which many ethnographicallydocumented human groups are known to have done.Murder, violent killings of other humans.—Urbanized state societies see plenty of violentkillings, such as in organized warfare, gang wars,serial or mass murder, and individual murder, butthese are not forms of “predation” as defined byecologists. Keeley (1996, p. 32–33) surveyed theliterature, and estimated that non-state societieswere at war with other social groups even morefrequently than were state societies: 70–90% ofnon-state societies seem to have been at war onceevery couple of years; and even the simplest,lowest-density forager groups (the Kalahari Sanor “Bushman” groups in southern Africa, forexample) have had murder rates as high or higherthan among modern urban populations.Murder as a form of predation is abioarcheological and forensic issue, and theanalytical and interpretive literature to helpunderstand human actions based on archeologicalbones is slowly growing. Walker (2001) providesa good introduction to the topic; Haglund and Sorg(1997) provide a wide survey of case studies andemerging principles.When prehistoric human bodies are so wellpreserved that soft tissue survives, archeologists canuse standard forensic analysis to determine if thecause of death was murder. Some of the “bog bodies”from Iron Age Europe were probably killed as eithersacrifices or executions; a few have nooses aroundtheir necks, or show severe soft-tissue trauma suchas slashed throats (see Brothwell, 1986; Glob, 1971).In the absence of signs of violent damage to softtissue and bone, archeologists also may submit tissuesamples in search of poison or the presence of toxicchemicals in human tissues.In prehistoric cases where no soft tissue ispresent, a careful examination of human skeletonsfrom ancient graveyards or single-burial sites mayreveal projectile points embedded in bones. Forexample, the bones of 8,400-radiocarbon-year-old“Kennewick Man” from Washington state had ahealing wound in his pelvis where a stone-tippedspear had been thrust or thrown (Chatters, 2001).The famous 5,300-radiocarbon-year-old “Iceman”discovered in the Italian/Austrian alps (Spindler,1995) had died from an arrow shot into his back(Glausiusz, 2002). There are other known instancesof prehistoric human skeletons—in Africa, NorthAmerica, Europe—discovered with probable arrowor spear points bedded with them in graves orcemetery pits, strongly suggesting death at thehands of other humans.Killing for trophies such as enemy heads,other body parts, or scalps (Keeley, 1996, p. 99–103; Milner et al., 1991, and references therein)can be discerned in the prehistoric records frommany parts of the world. Like murder or ritualexecutions, these examples are generally notconsidered clear cases of predation, because thebodies usually were not butchered to be eaten;but they are instances where a battery of similaranalytical methods can discern the surprisingextent of humans killing humans in thearcheological record (Keeley, 1996).Carnivore predation on humans.—Occasionally an ancient human skeleton is recoveredthat appears to have been ravaged by carnivores.Most were probably individuals who died from avariety of non-predation causes such as old age ordisease, and whose bodies were scavenged by62

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