HOMO ANTECESSOR. Hip disarticulation
Postmortem
separation of the leg from the pelvis in individuals of own species was
performed by our evolutionary predecessors. In particular, this was done in the
Homo antecessor community, which practiced cannibalism (2003TuttC). Ferna Y.
et al. (1999) described evidence of intentional crushing of the femur diaphysis
in a young individual (ATD6-76), presumably to extract bone marrow. The bone
retained traces of not only several impacts by a striker, but also of an anvil
on which the bone lay. The age of the said find in the Gran Dolina cave (Spain)
is estimated at about 780 thousand years (1999FernaY_RosellJ).
The above
features indicate that the femur was initially separated from the soft tissues.
In the second stage, the butcher had to use a stone tool to cut the muscles and
strong external ligaments of the hip joint. In the next stage, he tore, or
perhaps cut off, the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) to mobilize the hip and
further manipulate it.
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| Homo antecessor Author: Mauricio Antón; image source: prehistoric-wiki.fandom.com collection (CC-BY-SA license, no changes). |
Homo
antecessor colonized the Iberian Peninsula 1200-800 Kya
(2015MorenoD_ArsuagaJL). Therefore, the skill of hip arthrotomy in hominids
could have appeared more than 780 Kya (2001CarreteroJ_ArsuagaJL). It must be
assumed that from this period human ancestors learned about the presence of LCF
in their hip joint. Hominids observed LCF in animals when cutting up carcasses.
The cutting was done with stone hand axes and blades. The oldest stone tools,
3.3 million years old, were discovered in Kenya (2015HarmandS_RocheH). Stone
tools from Kenya with signs of wear, implying the processing of plant and
animal tissues by hominins, are dated to the interval of 3.03-2.58 Ma
(2023PlummerTW_PottsR).
Thus,
knowledge of LCF in animals is more than three million years old. This
information is contemporary with the genus Homo itself, which formed between
4.30 and 2.56 Ma (2021PüschelHP_PüschelTA).
References
Tutt C. Cannibalism among fossil hominids: Is there archaeological evidence?. The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology. 2003;11(1). [ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php]
Ferna Y, Dı JC, Ca I, Rosell J. Human cannibalism in the Early Pleistocene of Europe (Gran Dolina, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). Journal of human evolution. 1999;37(3-4)591-622. [academia.edu]
Moreno D, Falgueres C, Pérez-González A, Voinchet P, Ghaleb B, Despriée J, ... Arsuaga JL. New radiometric dates on the lowest stratigraphical section (TD1 to TD6) of Gran Dolina site (Atapuerca, Spain). Quaternary Geochronology. 2015;30В:535-40. [daviniamoreno.com]
Carretero J, Lorenzo C, Arsuaga JL. Restes post-craniens du niveau TD6 du site en grotte du Pleistocene inferieur de Gran Dolina, Sierra de Atapuerca, Espagne. L'Anthropologie. 2001;105(2)179-201. [sciencedirect.com]
Harmand S, Lewis JE, Feibel CS, Lepre CJ, Prat S, Lenoble A, ... Roche H. 3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature. 2015;521(7552)310-5. [nature.com]
Plummer TW, Oliver JS, Finestone EM, … Potts R. Expanded geographic distribution and dietary strategies of the earliest Oldowan hominins and Paranthropus. Science. 2023;379(6632)561-6. [researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk]
Divergence-time estimates for hominins provide insight into encephalization and body mass trends in human evolution. Nature ecology & evolution. 2021;5(6)808-19. [nature.com]
Keywords
ligamentum capitis femoris, ligamentum teres, ligament of head of femur, doctrine, homo antecessor, disarticulation
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