Subsistence activities and the sexual division of labor in the European Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic: Evidence from upper limb enthesopathies (original) (raw)
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Throwing in the Middle and Upper Paleolithic: inferences from an analysis of humeral retroversion
Journal of human evolution, 2009
When in evolutionary history did long-range projectile weapons become an important component of hunting toolkits? The archeological evidence for the development of projectile weaponry is complex and generally indirect, and has led to different conclusions about the origin and spread of this technology. Lithic evidence from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) has led some researchers to suggest that true longrange projectile weaponry developed in Africa perhaps as early as 80,000 years ago, and was part of the subsistence toolkit carried by modern humans who expanded out of Africa after 50,000 years ago. Alternatively, temporal patterns in the morphology of pointed lithics has led others to posit an independent, convergent origin of projectile weaponry in Africa, the Near East, and Europe during the interval between 50,000-40,000 years ago. By either scenario, projectile weapons would not have been a component of the hunting arsenal of Neandertals, but may have been in use by European early modern humans and thus, projectile technology may have entered into the competitive dynamics that existed between these two groups. The origins of projectile weapons can be addressed, in part, through analyses of the skeletal remains of the prehistoric humans who made and used them. Habitual behavior patternsdincluding those related to the production and use of technologydcan be imprinted on the skeleton through both genetic and epigenetic pathways. Recent studies in the field of sports medicine indicate that individuals who engage in habitual throwing have increased humeral retroversion angles in their throwing arms and a greater degree of bilateral asymmetry in retroversion angles than do nonthrowers. This contribution investigates humeral torsion through analysis of the retroversion angle in samples of Eurasian Neandertals, European early modern humans of the middle and late Upper Paleolithic, and comparative samples of recent humans. This analysis was conducted under the assumption that if throwing-based projectile weaponry was used by early modern Europeans but not Neandertals, Upper Paleolithic samples should be similar to recent human groups engaged in habitual throwing in the degree of humeral retroversion in the dominant limb and in bilateral asymmetry in this feature. Neandertals on the other hand, would not be expected to show marked asymmetry in humeral retroversion. Consistent with other studies, Neandertals exhibit increased retroversion angles (decreased humeral torsion or a more posteriorly oriented humeral head) relative to most modern human samples, although this appears more likely related to body form and overall activity levels than to habitual throwing. Although Neandertals with bilaterally preserved humeri sufficient for measurement are rare (consisting of only two males and one female), levels of bilateral asymmetry in humeral retroversion are low, suggesting a lack of regular throwing. While patterning across fossil and comparative samples in levels of humeral retroversion was not clear cut, males of both the middle and late Upper Paleolithic demonstrate a high level of bilateral asymmetry, comparable to or in excess of that seen in samples of throwing athletes. This may indicate habitual use of throwing-based projectile weaponry by middle Upper Paleolithic times. Small sample sizes and relatively great variance in the fossil samples makes these results, however, suggestive rather than conclusive. Throwing in the Middle and Upper Paleolithic: inferences from an analysis of humeral retroversion, J Hum Evol ,
A Critical Analysis of the Evidence for Sexual Division of Tasks in the European Upper Paleolithic
In Karenleigh A. Overmann and Frederick L. Coolidge (eds), Squeezing minds from stones: Cognitive archaeology and the evolution of the human mind, Oxford University Press, 2019
This chapter provides a critical analysis of the evidence for technical activity specialization in the European Upper Paleolithic by sex. I review the arguments based upon the kind of evidence we are likely to collect (e.g., direct, indirect, analogical). Some hypotheses are based on suppositions generated by ethnographic comparisons, while others rely on direct or indirect indices (task diversification, activity zone locations, skill level identification, diversity of grave goods, and body evidence like hand prints and skeletons). I aim to show that there was a reasoned distribution of activities within groups, accompanied by an emerging social hierarchy, but that it is very difficult to account exactly for what women and men did. And even if we suspect that some tasks were respectively performed by males or females, it is however possible that there was also a certain amount of technical specialization that was not related to sex.
Journal of Human Evolution, 2016
Analyses of upper limb bone bilateral asymmetry can shed light on manipulative behavior, sexual division of labor, and the effects of economic transitions on skeletal morphology. We compared the maximum (absolute) and directional asymmetry in humeral length, articular breadth, and cross-sectional diaphyseal geometry (CSG) in a large (n > 1200) European sample distributed among 11 archaeological periods from the Early Upper Paleolithic through the 20 th century. Asymmetry in length and articular breadth is rightbiased, but relatively small and fairly constant between temporal periods. Females show more asymmetry in length than males. This suggests a low impact of behavioral changes on asymmetry in length and breadth, but strong genetic control with probable sex linkage of asymmetry in length. Asymmetry in CSG properties is much more marked than in length and articular breadth, with sex-specific variation. In males, a major decline in asymmetry occurs between the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic. There is no further decline in asymmetry between the Mesolithic and Neolithic in males and only limited variation during the Holocene. In females, a major decline occurs between the Mesolithic and Neolithic, with resulting average directional asymmetry close to zero. Asymmetry among females continues to be very low in the subsequent Copper and Bronze Ages, but increases again in the Iron Age. Changes in female asymmetry result in an increase of sexual dimorphism during the early agricultural periods, followed by a decrease in the Iron Age. Sexual dimorphism again slightly declines after the Late Medieval. Our results indicate that changes in manipulative behavior were sex-specific with a probable higher impact of changes in hunting behavior on male asymmetry (e.g., shift from unimanual throwing to use of the bow-and-arrow) and food grain processing in females, specifically, use of two-handed saddle querns in the early agricultural periods and one-handed rotary querns in later agricultural periods.
JOURNAL OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE, 2009
The present work contributes to the debate of skeletal part use in archaeology to reconstruct hominid economic behaviour during the Pleistocene. It doubles the sample of sites where comparison of long limb bone element quantification is made by using alternative identification techniques based on epiphyses and epiphyses plus shafts. A refined method of long limb element quantification using shafts is discussed and applied to four sites representing different time periods from the end of the Middle Pleistocene to the end of the Upper Pleistocene. It is shown that when long limb elements are properly quantified a hypothesis of early access to carcasses at these sites can be supported. The data thus drawn are also used to compare skeletal part evenness across the time periods represented by the four sites selected. The results indicate low-cost transport decisions by hominids at these sites. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The intensification of agriculture is often associated with declining mobility and bone strength through time, although women often exhibit less pronounced trends than men. For example, previous studies of prehistoric Central European agriculturalists (~5300 calibrated years BC to 850 AD) demonstrated a significant reduction in tibial rigidity among men, whereas women were characterized by low tibial rigidity, little temporal change, and high variability. Because of the potential for sex-specific skeletal responses to mechanical loading and a lack of modern comparative data, women's activity in prehistory remains difficult to interpret. This study compares humeral and tibial cross-sectional rigidity, shape, and interlimb loading among prehistoric Central European women agriculturalists and living European women of known behavior (athletes and controls). Prehistoric female tibial rigidity at all time periods was highly variable, but differed little from living sedentary women on average, and was significantly lower than that of living runners and football players. However, humeral rigidity exceeded that of living athletes for the first ~5500 years of farming, with loading intensity biased heavily toward the upper limb. Interlimb strength proportions among Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age women were most similar to those of living semi-elite rowers. These results suggest that, in contrast to men, rigorous manual labor was a more important component of prehistoric women's behavior than was terrestrial mobility through thousands of years of European agriculture, at levels far exceeding those of modern women.
This article discusses the subject of manipulative skills of early hominids in the context of stone toolmaking capabilities. A juxtaposition of morphological characteristics of fossilised bones with precise technological analyses, in particular studies on operational sequences (chaîne opératoire) and debitage reassembly, allows us to determine which movement sequences were necessary to make tools. Analyses of the upper extremities of hominini are based on the comparison with well-studied principles which govern the functioning of the upper limb of Homo sapiens. Detailing the biomechanics of lithic reduction (stone knapping) by Homo sapiens enabled us to establish the required sequence of movements. This was compared with technological analyses of Lower Paleolithic materials. Based on biomechanical and technological studies we arrived at a number of characteristics in the morphological structure of upper limbs which could make it easier to specify which species had been capable of making tools. The set of characteristics was compared with data from analyses of fossilised bones of early hominids.
Journal of Human Evolution, 1986
Bone modification patterns ha\T been widely used to discuss early hominid diet and subsistence strategies, This paper presents the results ofa stud\' of bone modification at the Kenyan Pastoral Neolithic site ofNgamuriak, and discusses its rele\'ance to the interpretation of taunas from early hominid sites, Neolithic butchery of large b()\'ids at ?\garnuriak appears generally similar to that reported trJr large bovids from the FLK-Zinjanthropus site at Olduva; Gorge, specificallY nIl marks on limb shafts are common in both assemblages, This counters Shipman's contentions that early hominid butchery difTers from the Neolithic pattern, and that a high frequency of cuts on limb shafts at early hominid sites can be used as an indication of early hominid scawnging activities, However, butchery patterns difTer between large and small bm'ids at Ngamuriak and between small boyids at Ngamuriak and FLK-ZinjanthropuL Small bovids at FLK-Zinjanthropus are more intensi\Tly processed than at Ngmuriak, The difl"rence between large and small bovid butchery at Ngamuriak gives some time depth to the lindings of some recent ethnoarchaeological studies and emphasises the importance of considering difTerent size categories separately in the interpretation of early hominid sites, 'Vhil" there are some areas where i'\eolithic bone modification is patterned by recent technology, i'\eolithic faunal assemblages can provide a use/til link between early hominid and contemporary faunal assemblages, ./ournal of Hllman El'oilltion (1986) 15,661-672
2009
Poster HYOID BONE TRAUMA FROM BRONZE AGE Al Oumaoui I, Jiménez-Brobeil SA, Roca Rodríguez MG, Fernández de la Gala J. Universidad de Granada, Spain We present a mature-age male from the Bronze Age discovered at the site of Motilla del Azuer (Daimiel, Ciudad Real) in the Spanish region of La Mancha. Hyoid bone from this individual exhibits changes thought to be due to a healed fracture, an exceptional finding in an archaeological population. This injury is very rare, and it is even more uncommon for individuals to survive this lesion. It was probably produced by a direct impact to the neck, either accidental, e.g., by fall, or resulting from intentional aggression. We discuss the latter possibility in the context of trauma patterns found at this and other sites from the Bronze Age. Poster NEW PALAEOPATHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF PRE-COLOMBIAN TREPONEMATOSES FROM NORTHERN FRANCE Armelle Alduc-Le Bagousse, Joël Blondiaux, Thomas Colart, Pierre-Marie Danzé, Anne-Sophie Drucbert, Xavier Demond...