Rethinking the emergence of bone grease procurement

Abstract The extraction of grease from deliberately comminuted cancellous bone is a low-return activity that has important evolutionary ramifications because it potentially constitutes an early form of resource intensification. From an archaeological standpoint, bone grease extraction is also of significance because it can substantially modify anatomical profiles. Whether this practice is a relatively recent phenomenon or has deep roots reaching back into the Paleolithic, however, remains controversial. The goal of this paper is to cast broader light on the emergence of bone grease procurement by briefly revisiting three French Middle Paleolithic sites (Roc de Marsal, les Pradelles and Grotte du Noisetier) that have been interpreted as potentially early evidence for human processing of cancellous bone for food. To determine whether the published patterns are consistent with this practice, faunal trends at these sites are compared here with recently acquired experimental and ethnographic data on bone comminution activities. The results presented in this paper emphasize the importance of considering human consumption of bone meal as a viable alternative when evaluating competing hypotheses to account for the frequent lack of articular ends in European Paleolithic sites, including many assemblages that show little evidence of carnivore intervention and density-mediated attrition. The analysis also highlights the significance of other activities such as soup making, the use of bone as fuel, ritual disposal of fragments, site cleaning and feeding dogs with pounded bones, which are possible sources of variation when interpreting highly fragmented faunal assemblages. These observations are integrated into a general model focused on the interpretation of bone processing in the archaeological record.