Discussion

Kara-Bom is considered to be a major Siberian Paleolithic archaeological site because of its apparently very early occurrence of stone blade production (Derevianko et al. 2001c, Okladnikov 1983, Otte and Kozlowski 2001). Assessing the contribution of stone type to blade production has apparently not been done. While the perimortem bone damage includes a number of good examples of human cutting and chopping, substantiating the stone artifact evidence for human occupancy, there is also good osteological evidence for cave hyena and other carnivore presence. This evidence includes identified hyena skeletal remains, as well as seven pieces with acid erosion that we feel is due primarily to the bone collagen extracting power of the hyena gastro-intestinal tract, not damage caused by soil chemistry. This fact, and its corollary of possible stratigraphic disturbance due to hyena digging and burrowing behavior, should be kept in mind when reconstructing the evolution of blade production in northeast Asia. As mentioned elsewhere, burrowing disturbances could mix discontinuous, non-evolutionary, stratigraphic deposits into what would appear to be continuous or local evolution deposits.

It is particularly interesting that the interpretation of the deposits and stratigraphy by Derevianko and Rybin (2005) makes no mention of bioturbation. They say only that the site might have been impacted by hydrological disturbance, erosion fTom flow of glacial melt water, and gravitational slope erosion (Derevianko and Rybin 2005:236-237).

We can only wonder what sort of relationship existed between the Kara-Bom humans and the cave hyenas. Were the hyenas simply scavenging Kara-Bom refuse when humans were absent? Or might they have driven the few human occupants away to get at fresh meat they carried to the workshop after one or more successful hunts? It is unsettling, if not in fact terrifying, to think about how those people might have reacted to a pack of noisy cave hyenas circling the Kara-Bom camp in the dark following sunset - circling with the intent of rushing into grab scraps offoodorwhatever else their powerful jaws might clamp onto. A Kara-Bom human infant comes too readily to mind in this speculative scenario. Speculative or not, as will be discussed, modern hyenas do attack humans and carry off younger individuals.