Anthropologists use the term subsistence pattern, or
subsistence base, to refer to sources of food
and the way it is obtained. A clear measure of success in human evolution has been the
progressive development of new food getting techniques and the inclusion of new food sources.
These measures have made it possible for humanity to increase in numbers from a few thousand
australopithecines in Africa 3 million years ago to perhaps hundreds of thousands of Homo erectus
by 1/2 million years ago. This trend of expanding and diversifying subsistence patterns continues
to the present and, in part, is responsible for our burgeoning world population of 6 billion people.
The australopithecines and early transitional humans
were primarily wild plant food collectors and
occasional scavengers of meat and eggs. By the time of Homo erectus, hunting and carcass
scavenging were apparently becoming much more common. The evidence of this change in
subsistence pattern can be seen especially at late Homo erectus sites such as Zhoukoudian.
Literally tens of thousands of fragmentary food refuse bones were found there. They came from
pigs, sheep, rhinoceros, buffalo, and especially deer. In addition, there were large numbers of
bones from small animals including birds, turtles, rabbits, rodents, and fish as well as the shells
of
oysters, limpets, and mussels. Some of these bones ended up in the cave at Zhoukoudian as a
result of large carnivorous animals rather than humans, but there is sufficient evidence to suggest
that by 400,000 years ago, some Homo erectus were exploiting virtually every animal in their
environment for food. They undoubtedly were harvesting vast amounts of wild plant foods as well.
It would be a mistake to assume that Homo erectus had become an efficient specialized big game
hunter. That development did not occur until more advanced Homo sapiens had evolved, several
hundred thousand years later.
