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A plausible case of human predation on a suid (Kolpochoerus majus) from Bodo, Middle
Pleistocene, Ethiopia
Antoine SOURON1, Socorro BÁEZ-MOLGADO2, Henry GILBERT3
1PACEA, UMR CNRS 5199, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France (antoine.souron@u-bordeaux.fr); 2Texas
State University, San Marcos, USA & California State University, East Bay, Hayward, USA
(socorro@forost.org); 3Human Evolution Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, USA &
California State University, East Bay, Hayward, USA (henry.gilbert@csueastbay.edu).
For most of their evolutionary history, hominids likely had little predatory impact on other
large animals and frequently fell prey to large carnivorous mammals and crocodiles. The
archeological record indicates that later hominids (definitely after 2.6 Ma and probably
earlier) gradually incorporated more meat into their diet than we see eaten by modern chimps,
either through hunting or scavenging. In order to understand the timing and processes of the
transition from occasional meat eater to adept hunter, estimating to what extent early
hominids obtained meat through hunting or scavenging is one of the major questions in
paleoanthropology. The relevant fossil record is extremely scarce during the Plio-Pleistocene
and therefore any new data point is crucial. Plausible evidence for suid (pig family) predation
and possible consumption by humans is apparent on the nearly complete cranium of an adult
female of Kolpochoerus majus coming from the Upper Bodo Sand Unit sediments (Middle
Awash valley, Afar Depression, northern Ethiopia), dated to around 600 ka (Middle
Pleistocene). A deep, well-delimited oval depressed stellate fracture with multiple radiating
linear fractures is located on the cranial vault between the orbits and displays all the
diagnostic characteristics of blunt force traumatic injuries on fresh bone. Marks located on the
occipital bone are consistent with stone tool-induced cut marks produced during the process
of butchery when disarticulating the head and/or removing the neck muscles. This exceptional
case study potentially represents rare early direct evidence of predation for meat consumption
by humans on a single specimen. We therefore initiated a project dedicated to actualistic
experiments aimed at reconstructing the observed cranial traumatic injuries and marks on
heads of freshly dead wild boars (Sus scrofa). Potential cut marks will be characterized
quantitatively by scanning them using a confocal microscope to reconstruct their topography
in three dimensions at a microscopic scale. The marks will then be compared qualitatively and
quantitatively (shape analysis) to available experimental series (cut marks, crocodile and
carnivoran mammal tooth marks, and trampling marks). This project will develop innovative
methodological techniques and produce new data about the fossil record of human predation.