Butchering of Giant Geladas at an Acheulian Site [and Comments and Reply]

Primate fossils from the Acheulian handaxe site at Olorgesailie, Kenya, are analyzed in an attempt to evaluate Isaac's suggestion that Locality DE/89 B preserves the remains of the hunting and butchering of giant gelada baboons. The age and sex structure of the 90 individuals suggests that attritional mortality occurred. This evidence is consistent with predation on small numbers of individuals at a time by either hominids or carnivores. A comparative method of analyzing breakage patterns is used. The type and frequency of breaks on each skeletal element are compared statistically with those on the same skeletal elements of primates from broadly contemporaneous sites where hunting and butchering are not suggested to have occured but where carnivore activity and other sources of damage have occurred. Some aspects of the breakage pattern on the Olorgesailie baboon material are significantly different from those at the nonhominid sites. The breaks in question could have occurred during disarticulation of the...