Mid- to northern latitude hunting economies: Unpredictable returns, nutritional constraints, "meat" caching, and archaeological conundrums

Abstract

Mid- to northern latitude hunting peoples could not consume more than ∼300 g of protein per day (∼1200 kcal). Exceeding that limit could lead within a week or two to a debilitating, even lethal condition known as "rabbit starvation." The remaining energy deficit had to be filled using non-protein sources, mostly animal fat. To minimize the risk of rabbit starvation, hunting peoples typically consumed diets in which protein remained well below 300 g and fat contributed two-thirds to three-quarters of total calories. Wild ungulate muscle has almost no intramuscular fat, and extramuscular fat is limited and often depleted seasonally. Thus, whenever possible, hunters targeted the fattest animals, took primarily the fattiest body parts, discarded much of the lean muscle (especially thighs and shoulders), and often killed multiple animals each day just to get enough fat. North American communal bison drives, despite their obvious success at killing dozens to hundreds of animals, were often nutritional failures, with many, at times most, of the carcasses simply left to rot, largely or entirely untouched. If the day's yield of meat and especially fat exceeded needs, foragers stored the surplus by: (1) feasting and putting on body fat; (2) stashing reserves in or near camp; (3) transporting surpluses from camp to camp as "mobile" stores; and (4) creating off-site caches which were often not utilized until months after they were created. The paper concludes by exploring a wide range of counterintuitive archaeological implications drawn from these observations.