Taphonomy of the Swartkrans Hominid Postcrania and Its Bearing on Issues of Meat-Eating and Fire Management

Abstract The Plio-Pleistocene cave site of Swartkrans (Gauteng, South Africa) has long been a valuable source for evidence of early hominid evolution and behavior. Most recently, the meticulous excavations and analyses of Swartkrans fossils under the direction of C. K. Brain (1965–1986) have prompted exciting new ideas about the behavioral and technological capabilities of early hominids in South Africa (summarized in Brain 1981, 1993a, 1993b; Brain et al. 1988). Particularly, the juxtaposition of cut marked and burned bones, with stone tools and hominid fossils in Swartkrans Member 3 raises an important question. The question is whether the spatial association between stone tools, cut marked and burned bones, and the remains of hominid individuals implicates these particular individuals as the parties completely or partially responsible for these cultural traces that indicate the utilization of large mammal carcasses and a mastery of fire.