Butchery and tool-assisted scavenging
Descarnado y carroñeo con útiles de piedra
- Date
- c. 2.5 Ma · confidence medium
- Place
- Bouri and Gona (Afar), Ethiopia
- Credited to
- Australopithecus garhi / early Homo
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Ungulate bones with cut marks and percussion fractures show the use of flakes to access meat and marrow. It marks hominins' entry into the carnivore niche.
The cut marks at Dikika (3.4 Ma) are disputed: they may be trampling marks left by animals.
What it led to
- A high-calorie diet financing a larger brain (the expensive-tissue hypothesis)
- Competition with carnivores: selective pressure on cooperation and vigilance
- Food sharing within the group: the first sharing economies
Built on
- Oldowan industry (Mode 1 choppers and flakes)c. 2.6 Ma
- Oldowan industry (Mode 1 choppers and flakes)
Made possible
- Control of firec. 1 Ma
- Cookingc. 780 ka
- Control of fire