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Abstract: In this paper we present an experimental study of bone modifications caused by human chewing during consumption. Traditionally, tooth marks have been attributed to non-human actors. However, ethnoarchaeological as well as previous experimental work has shown that humans can make many modifications during chewing. Our results suggest that the range of damage is as extensive as that most likely to be produced by carnivores. This damage includes furrowing, scooping-out, crenulated and saw-toothed edges, longitudinal cracking, crushing, peeling and tooth marks. In this paper we present a description of the types of damage observed in the experimental sample. Some of this damage shows parallels between the experimental modifications and archaeological assemblages from Pleistocene and Holocene deposits at the Sierra de Atapuerca sites (Burgos, Spain). The repetition of morphologies allowed us to attribute some of the damage to tooth marks made by human chewing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we compare cannibalism in chimpanzees, modern humans, and in archaeological cases with cannibalism inferred from evidence from the Early Pleistocene assemblage of level TD6 of Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). The cannibalism documented in level TD6 mainly involves the consumption of infants and other immature individuals. The human induced modifications on Homo antecessor and deer remains suggest that butchering processes were similar for both taxa, and the remains were discarded on the living floor in the same way. This finding implies that a group of hominins that used the Gran Dolina cave periodically hunted and consumed individuals from another group. However, the age distribution of the cannibalized hominins in the TD6 assemblage is not consistent with that from other cases of exo-cannibalism by human/hominin groups. Instead, it is similar to the age profiles seen in cannibalism associated with intergroup aggression in chimpanzees. For this reason, we use an analogy with chimpanzees to propose that the TD6 hominins mounted low-risk attacks on members of other groups to defend access to resources within their own territories and to try and expand their territories at the expense of neighboring groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]