Osteodontokeratic culture
The term osteodontokeratic culture (from Greek ὀστέον 'bone', ὀδούς 'tooth' and κέρας 'horn') was coined by the Australian paleoanthropologist Raymond Dart based on the findings of bed 3 of Makapansgat ( Transvaal ), where in a hard gray limestone breccia During the monitoring of quarry work since 1946, over 7159 animal bones have been found, mainly those of large animal species such as kudu , rhinos , hippos and equidae . Dart's theory has been refuted by Charles Kimberlin Brain's taphonomic studies .
Dart believed that Australopithecus africanus used bones, teeth and horns for hunting ("killer ape") before stone tools came into use. He relied on the representation of various bones - mainly parts of the skull - and the existence of fractures, which he attributed to the action of Australopithecus prometheus (today Australopithecus africanus ). He first presented this theory at the 3rd Pan-African Prehistory Congress in Livingstone in 1955: "These Makapansgat protomen ... were mighty hunters" . Dart considered it unlikely that hyenas were involved in the bone entry. He assumed that Australopithecus preferred to move bones and body parts that could be used as weapons and tools in the cave. Skulls of baboons explained Darts with conscious headhunting by the hominids.
Dart published very imaginative descriptions of the violent behavior of our ancestors: "man's predecessors ... seized living creatures by violence, battered them to death ... slaking their ravenous thirst with the hot blood of victims and greedily devouring livid writhing flesh" .
Dart's thoughts were taken up and a. by the American playwright Robert Ardrey , who in his book "African Genesis" described the ancestors of Homo sapiens as bloodthirsty beings, and also by the science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke , in his novel version 2001: A Space Odyssey, co-created with Stanley Kubrick , the well-known scene with the thighbone -swinging pre- humans is included, which also appears in Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey .
literature
- Raymond Dart: The predatory implemental technique of Australopithecus. In: Americal Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 7, No. 1, 1949, pp. 1-38, doi: 10.1002 / ajpa.1330070103
- Raymond Dart: The bone-bludgeoning hunting technique of Australopithecus. In: South African Journal of Science. Volume 2, 1949, pp. 150-152.
- Raymond Dart: The predatory transition from ape to man. In: International anthropological and linguistic review. Volume 1, 1953, pp. 201-208.
- Raymond Dart: The Osteodontoceratic culture of Australopithecus prometheus. In: Transvaal Museum Memoir. Volume 10, Pretoria 1957, pp. 1-105.
- Charles Kimberlin Brain: The Hunters or the hunted? An introduction to African cave taphonomy. University of Chicago Press, 1981, ISBN 978-0-22607090-2
Individual evidence
- ^ Raymond Dart, Cultural status of the South African man-apes. Smithsonian Report 4240, 1956, p. 317
- ^ Raymond Dart, The predatory transition from ape to man. In: International anthropological and linguistic review. Volume 1, 1953, pp. 201-208
- ^ Lydia Pyne: The Taung Child: The Rise of a Folk Hero . Chapter 3 in: Dies .: Seven Skeletons. The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils. Viking, New York 2016, p. 109, ISBN 978-0-525-42985-2