00:00.00 ALEX And we are back with archaeo animals. We are talking about the zoo archeology of Africa in this episode and as always everyone's favorite part of the episode I'm not going to spend too much time on it because this bit is probably getting old. It's the case studies. Um, but um, is this so bird. 00:21.77 S_ Granarius That was very sound effect contribution. 00:26.51 ALEX But yeah, so we are going to talk about 2 different sites that are probably very important in ah african archeology. Obviously there are loads of sites in Africa. It's very difficult to pick just 2 but I figured. The first one that we talk about is is pretty important arguably one of the most important archaeological and anthropological sites in the entire world. It is oldevoy garge gorge in Tanzania. So if you. You're not familiar with olivvoy gorge it is the site where one of the earliest human species homo habilis was originally settled and they would eventually be followed by parathropus boise homo erectus. And finally Homo Sapiens so and understandably olivoid gorge is a pretty significant site for understanding human evolution as well as the development of social and communal behaviors among human species I think. Speaking again as someone who was a anthropology major in America I think old boy gorge is one of those sites you really tend to talk a lot about and haven't really had a chance to kind of think back about the site since kind of moving to the Uk and doing my stuff there. It's extremely cool Simone I don't know if you've ever really kind of covered this before and your study user. 02:07.33 S_ Granarius Up. No like I've independently read about it because when the very cools. 02:11.00 ALEX Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I guess I'm I you know I can't really speak for the way archaeology is taught on an undergraduate level here in the u k I don't know if it's really kind of. Talked about because like I said in America archaeology and anthropology are very much intertwined so a lot of my early archeology anthrop andology courses. We talked a lot about this site and like I said it's for a very good reason. It is a what like guess I 1 of the most important anthropological and archeological sites in the entire world but we won't be talking about human evolution. Not only because I still don't really understand it. There's a lot of species names in. Physical anthropology that I cannot pronounce and hard for me to remember all of them and that is why I didn't do very well in my physical anthropology classes. But yeah, let's talk more about the animal remains which I guess I've never even really thought about because again it is such a important human evolution site. That's when we were doing research for this episode I was like oh yeah, there would be animal species represented at this site huh. 03:33.51 S_ Granarius Like it. It's just something that doesn't immediately come to mind like for instance like in a previous episode about Europe we have Pompei as one of the case studies and of course everyone's heard of popei but you don't your mind doesn't necessarily go to so what animals did they keep a pompeii. 03:49.66 ALEX Yeah, that is true and it's it's kind of a shame I guess I mean and I think it kind of speaks to that I Guess it's like a bit of an issue in archeology in terms of you know what actually gets press what gets Remembered. It's always a very. Flashy kind of you know and again a lot of times. It is human Nature. It's stuff that's related to humans so say like when we were talking about pompei the thing that people remember are those plaster casts of the bodies left Behind. You know you don't necessarily think of. Oh and of course there were rooster remains in one of the houses you know and I guess ol the Boy Gorge is the same thing we think a lot about the Humanoid kind of remains that are so important to how we. Understand and conceptualize human evolution and no one thinks hey I Wonder if there were animals there but I guess. 04:51.66 S_ Granarius So are you saying that humans are being anthropocentric. 04:56.35 ALEX I Mean it's a hot take I know and no one's ever said this. But as long time listeners know I say the things people are afraid to say and I guess I would say humans might might be but. 05:16.60 S_ Granarius Wholly ever so slightly. 05:17.10 ALEX This is a little bit but you know this is why this podcast exists we are here to look into the zoo archeological stuff that people don't know about and. Yeah, so there are actually a fair number of species present at olddevoy gorge most of them are kind of mammalian animals but particularly large ones so zebras hippos rhinos antelopes pigs giraffes. Elephants crocodiles and other kind of aquatic species some different fish who we will not think about too much because as everyone knows I have a vendetta against fish and various primate species and kind of interesting in that group are the antelopes they are. The most represented among large mammal species at this site and this is actually kind of echoed at contemporary sites across East Africa and the kind of main important part of the zoar archaeological stuff at eldeoid gorge is actually. I mean I guess it is a bit anthropoocentric but it's a major part of a longstanding debate over whether or not the hominids hunted or scavennged these animal remains which we can examine via taphenomic evidence. 06:45.46 S_ Granarius With the answer being probably both. 06:48.68 ALEX Yeah, yeah, ain't that just the way. 06:51.49 S_ Granarius Um, because of course the the butch remarks that were Found. You know that they're indicative of defleing so you know humans did have access to remains before any carnivore caenngers ah likely through. Hunting the animals themselves. 07:09.36 ALEX And the element composition of the sembishes at Aldovoy Gorge seem to favor kind of those meat heavy elements which is could be a evidence of. Say you know transportation of select elements. The ones that did have those meat heavy elements you're going to want to grab those and go for a nice chow down. You know. 07:38.10 S_ Granarius This is like 1 of the theories that we have in zoo archaeology sort of like the meat utility index so because where certain elements would be favored over others based on how much you know meat utility each element has but of course at the same time that. 07:43.92 ALEX And. 07:56.66 S_ Granarius Doesn't necessarily bear in mind you know so certain cultural variance because while a particular element may not be particularly meat Bearing. You would be favored by a specific culture over another I mean like a. Ah, guess a modern day example would be that ah people really like chicken wings but in terms of meat utility not that much there but people love them. 08:19.96 ALEX Yeah, and you know looking at something so deep into the past we're looking at early hominids really don't know what's going on there like even at that kind of cultural level. You know so it really is up in the air for in terms of. That kind of evidence for hunting now on the flip side. We do have kind of the evidence for scavenging so there are carnivore nawmarks and I believe Pat Shipman who's an archeologist. Made the point that it seems like the naw marks were likely made prior to the kind of cut marks that are found in these bones. There's also the fact that these assemblages were in places that are very easily accessible to both humans and carnivorous predators and you know we just talked about the hyenas and how. As a taphonomic agent they would drag animals to you know their dens and have that kind of collection of remains there and you know the fact that humans and animals could actually you know get to these assemblages kind of. Gives you know evidence for the fact that it may be humans coming to these little pits of animals that are half eaten and picking off the rest of them and there's also the presence of marrow breaking marks that are found on all of these animal bones. This is actually pointed out by. Louis Biford who of course loves loves to talk about marrow breaking marks they may be more evidence towards scavenging as if you're scavenging for any kind of meat like this you're going to want to use as much as possible and that includes breaking the bone. 10:12.64 S_ Granarius Especially if you're basically breaking into a Hyena den to scab. That's very very brave. 10:12.26 ALEX To Get to that marrow. Yeah, yeah, no exactly so you you kind of if you're gonna risk life or death for that. You might as well get the most out of it. Yeah. 10:29.50 S_ Granarius Yeah, um, and of course going back to sort of ah taenomic marks that indicate marrow extraction by that we mean is sort of a particular way in which the bone is shattered so like hitted with sort of a percussive kind of element and so the way is shatters indicates that it was hit. To get to the Marrow. Of course it's it's It's a lot easier these days because you just had to saw the bone off and get the marrow that way. But that's too easy. 10:48.60 ALEX Yes, thank you. 10:56.40 ALEX Yeah, and the man did I really look at binford's work on marrow breakage and marrow extraction for my ph d so I have a very good idea of what he's talking about with that now we have evidence for both sides. What's the truth? Well it may be a mixture of the 2 a 1 of the more recent kind of interpretations I've seen put forth is that it could be that the humans the early human species were potentially hunting smaller mammals. But they would scavenge the larger ones that have already been killed by predators and a lot of this has been kind of interpreted through more experimental archeology that has been done looking at survivorship of bones and taphonomic frequencies. But at the end of the day. It seems to be something that we may not really kind of get the the you know quote unquote true from because it's ah it's very much based on timing because it really is kind of chicken and egg almost you know. 12:03.90 S_ Granarius Yeah, and and again like as with most things, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle because like if they were already hunting you know like okay you you hunt your smaller mammals your antelope. But then you see like an antelope that's literally right there and someone's done all the work for it already. You will take advantage of that. 12:21.79 ALEX Yeah I mean Smona What do you think after hearing kind of both sides of the debate. 12:32.27 S_ Granarius Think I'm going with both. 12:34.57 ALEX Yeah I mean I Guess that's kind of cop out. But yeah I mean like you actually make a really good point of you know if you're really, you know you're you're hunting and gathering for your survivor. You don't really have a. The choice to kind of pick or choose per se if you find something that has already been kind of done but there's still meat on that bone. You know you'll probably pick it up. 13:02.36 S_ Granarius And also like if it's a predator that you can scare off relatively easily not because by that your humans are threatening in any way shape or form you know like just looking at at a human like oh it's this thing standing upright with you know, no fangs or claws or anything. However, um, at the same time like is it necessarily worth it to pick a fight with this animal and utilize some of my resources and potentially get injured and it's not necessarily worth it. So Some preators might just you know, go. 13:37.77 ALEX Yeah, so. 13:40.94 S_ Granarius And then then that's and then for for follow me for more like a biology but um. 13:46.80 ALEX Moving on. We will look at our second case study which is the zo archeology of great Zimbabwe now. Great Zimbabwe is unsurprisingly located in Zimbabwe it is more. 14:00.36 S_ Granarius so so medieval site um shes ah located in ah Masvino in province of Zimbabwe. 14:05.43 ALEX Yeah. 14:11.57 ALEX Yeah, and I just it seems really interesting again to kind of look at a site that is technically a medieval site because of those kind of biases that are are built in to not only the both of us who are are located in the U K but also in I guess our training as well. And the way we've been brought up in terms of learning about world history I can say very clearly I never really got any kind of education on the history of the african continent or even say like the asian continent really. So it's it's very easy to kind of not even think about these different time periods. But yeah, great. Zimbabwe was a very important medieval site and it was kind of similar to our last episode when we talked about berka it was probably a major trade. Center as well. So there is evidence of long distance trade including the presence of chinese and islamic material goods and also local trade as there is a lot of goods from central Africa. So. At its height. It was actually a massive capital of probably a more powerful state with at least I believe the population numbers is about 20000 people at its height settle within its territory which is huge. 15:40.14 S_ Granarius Absolutely like especially for the time period when have've been a very sort of substantial population. Um, though the site actually originates from sort of earlier iron age agricultural communities. So course Unurp surprisingly much of the Zo archeological record that we are found. Ah. 15:42.54 ALEX Yes. 15:58.72 S_ Granarius Is concerned with domesticates. Um, so you do see sort of certain trends in terms so of the species that you observe sort of throughout the time periods for instance during the early iron age the most prevalent domesticates was actually sheep. But then as time goes by you see. Them sort of being overshadowed by cattle which then sort of goes on to if you represent the vast majority of sort of the domesticate assemblage among the these agricultural communities. Do you think cattle were actually sort of fairly important for the. People of great Zimbabwe and as much of their wealth was obtained through the control of cattle herds in the region so they would be they would for example reward gold miners with cattle um thus using the gold as part of their extensive trade network. 16:49.72 ALEX Yeah, and there's still kind of debate and research going on looking at the reasons for the eventual decline and abandonment of the sites as they're not really that clear. But it's probably due to the kind of environmental impacts of. Both this large scale cattle herd management as well as the kind of immense pressures that you would get from this extremely long distance trade again, you know going as far as getting chinese goods that's pretty massive trade and it's interesting to kind of think of you know animals. As economically important beyond per se the labor and the kind of secondary products that we get from them. You know in this case, we kind of see how they're a form of currency to kind of support this gigantic trade system. So I mean I guess this is the good thing about doing a series like this where we actually get to kind of see these really interesting difference kind of perspectives and different case studies of places that we would never usually talk about because you know we're we're very comfortable in our. British Shells I guess but I think that does it for this episode as always, you can find us on Twitter at archaeo animalss if you have an idea for a future episode for us to cover if there's something you want us to look more into. You know, just tweet at us. Let us know as always, you can like and subscribe and review us on wherever you get your podcasts tell a friend tell them to follow us and hey maybe even. Join the archeology podcast network as a member and you might find some some bonus bits and bobs from us. Yeah we'll see you next time. Bye. 18:42.43 S_ Granarius Thank you for listening um bye.