Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 July 2017
Archeological interest in predation ranges from studies of the earliest evidence for human meat-eating, to attempts to understand the fossil record's ambiguity about the meaning of associated animal bones and human artifacts. A number of quantitative measures are used to find the meaningful patterns in archeological assemblages, and taphonomic research has also provided analogs and comparative standards for interpreting human behavior based on the evidence for predation. The most important methods, approaches, and interests are discussed here, using case studies to illustrate the way archeologists have thought about the record of humans as predators.