Cut marks at Dikika
Bones from 3.4 million years ago carry marks argued to be butchery — and argued to be trampling.
- When
- Known to
- ± 50 thousand years
- Era
- Pliocene, Cenozoic
Two animal bones from Dikika in Ethiopia bear linear marks that their describers interpreted in 2010 as stone-tool cut marks made while removing flesh and marrow, which would push meat-eating with tools back before Lomekwi. Critics responded that the marks are indistinguishable from damage caused by trampling on sandy sediment. The dispute is unresolved and is a good illustration of how thin the evidence gets at the edges of the record — and how much weight a single ambiguous specimen can be asked to carry.