ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a reanalysis of some major Lower and Middle Pleistocene assemblages in a comparative perspective separate from the baggage of the hunting-and-scavenging debate. It begins by examining problems associated with density-mediated attrition focused on the famous FLK 22 locality at Olduvai Gorge, which has served as the basis for so much debate. The chapter presents a comparative analysis of animal-part representation patterns for medium-sized bovids for a range of Lower and Middle Paleolithic assemblages. Persistence hunting is much in line with other hunting tactics that typify processes of subsistence intensification, since it effectively reduces the risk involved in hunting activities but dramatically lowers return rates. Density-mediated attrition is one of the main agents of equifinality acting on animal bone assemblages, potentially obscuring many important aspects of compositional patterning and underlying many methodological problems inherent in the field of zooarchaeology.
