ABSTRACT
Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another. —Homer, Iliad, translation by Samuel Butler
Introduction 202 Reasons for Bone Gnawing, Other Damage, and Dispersal 202 Mechanics of Terrestrial Carnivore Bone Gnawing 204
Leverage and Bone Crushing 205 Long Bone Gnawing Sequences 206 Direct Marks on Bone 210 Gastric Corrosion 212
Body Part Consumption Sequences 214 Bone Dispersal 217 Bone Aggregation (Reconcentration) 218
Den Characteristics 219 Caching 220
Carnivore Gnawing Characteristics 221 Distinguishing among Carnivore Bone Gnawers, Large and Small 223
Overall Skeletal Damage and Locations 225 Dental Arcade Bite Pattern and Size 230 Tooth Mark Morphology and Size 231
Pig Gnawing Characteristics 231 Ungulate Osteophagia Characteristics 233 Porcupine and Other Large Rodent Gnawing Characteristics 234 Small Rodent Gnawing Characteristics 235
Fresh Remains 236 Dry/Weathered Bone 238
Termite Gnawing Characteristics 239 Conclusions and Recommendations 241 Acknowledgments 242 References 242
Humans and their relatives in the family Hominidae have a long history of being eaten by species that have evolved to do precisely that (Brain 1980, 1981; Corbett 1944; DomínguezRodrigo 1999; Hart 2002; Hart and Sussman 2008; Kerbis Peterhans 1990; Kerbis Peterhans and Gnoske 2001; Kruuk 2002; Patterson 1996; Payne 1983; Treves and Naughton-Treves 1999; Wroe et al. 2005). This sometimes unpleasant trophic relationship also applies to our extant relatives among the Hominoidea (Boesch 1991; Fay et al. 1995; Galdikas 1978; Kerbis Peterhans et al. 1993) and other large primates (Hart 2002; Pickering and Carlson 2004; Simons 1966). This relationship extends to remains examined in forensic anthropology, since a large number of these hunting/scavenging species still coexist with humans, despite the generally severe decreases in population sizes and restrictions and fragmentations of territories of the former over the past several 1000 years. A hominid body, whether it was one of our distant ancestors felled by a leopard in East Africa or a recent murder victim dumped into the New England woods, represents an enormous temporary boost in consumable resources for the local ecosystem into which it was introduced. Thousands of vertebrate and invertebrate species have evolved for millennia to exploit those and similar resources as efficiently and fully as possible, or their own survival would not be as secure. In short, a deceased human is nothing new to the many populations of decomposers and consumers that would exploit it. These interactions follow similar patterns with other large mammal carcasses, despite variations in anatomy and body mass.
