Question 5 A new hominin site is discovered in Africa, dating to approximately 1

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Question 5

A new hominin site is discovered in Africa, dating to approximately 1.6 mya, and there are three bones that show intriguing marks. However, your colleagues disagree if they are cut marks or carnivore tooth marks and ask you to take a look at the bones. Pictures of Marks 1-3 are close ups of the marks taken using a scanning electron microscope.

Look at the following three marks and say if you think they represent cut marks or carnivore tooth marks, and explain the reasoning behind your answers.

Mark 1

Mark 2

Mark 3

Mark 2:

Question 6

You are examining the animal remains found at two hominin sites that are located relatively near each other on the Western Coast of Italy (Site A and Site B). You are still waiting for the official reports on the dates for the sites, but it is likely that one dates to around 65 kya, and the other dates to around 24 kya. You just can’t remember which is which. The lists below give the primary animal species that were excavated from the sites, and cut marks, burning, and breakage patterns show the animals were consumed by humans. Hint- you are given scientific names for the species, and I suggest doing a Google search to get the common names, which you will need to help reconstruct the behavior at the sites.

Use the animal species found in the two sites to determine which date belongs to which site. Be sure to explain your answer. Also, discuss what other types of cultural remains you might expect to see at the site.

Site A:

Cervus elaphus

Bos primigenius

Monodonta turbinate

Testudo graeca

Coturnix coturnix

Oryctolagus cuniculus

Site B:

Cervus elaphus

Bos primigenius

Capreolus capreolus

Mark 1

Mark 2

Mark 3

Explanation / Answer

Ans. comparative damage morphology taken under electron microscopy is an important tool to identify the carnivore teeth cut mark and differentiating it with the other cut mark.

Mark 1 : It is the mark of carnivorous tooth of some animal. It is because the tooth pit marks are seen in the picture. Secondly, Square shape, parallel striations on bottom and sides of groove, top edges may have chipping/crumbling. Often series of parallel grooves These are the form of cuts done by Multi-toothed blade drawn across bone.

Mark 2: It is a sharp deep clean mark, which is significant feature of a sharp cut by an object. It is clearly visible that there is V-shaped to U-shaped in cross-section (depending on tool used), multiple fine striations in main groove parallel to slicing direction which occurs usually by Blade drawn across bone parallel to long axis of blade.

Mark 3: This is a cut mark occur by both the cut mark of sharp object as well as the cut mark done by carnivore tooth. it is because there are signs of parallel deep cut grooves along with some tooth pits signature. this shows that the=is is a sin of both.

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