Zooarchaeology
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Transcript Zooarchaeology
Zooarchaeology
What is Zooarchaeology?
Recovery and Counting
Comparative Collections
Subsistence Strategies
Seasonality
What is Zooarchaeology?
The Study of animal bones from
archaeological sites.
Studies can focus on subsistence,
hunting strategies, environmental
change, domestication of animals,
and ceremonial use of animals.
History of Zooarchaeology
50 years ago archaeologists had bones on their sites
and they began asking zoologists to identify them.
Some people became more and more interested and
involved in these bones and began to specialize in it.
Today most zooarchaeologists, such as myself, are
trained as archaeologists and specialize in zoology.
Have taken a lot of zoology classes.
Including Malacolgy, Ichthyology, Avian Osteology,
Vertebrate Osteology.
Recovery and Counting
Recovery of bones is subjected to bias depending on
screen size and soil preservation.
Counting bones is not like counting flakes, flakes are
extremely predictable in how they break, whereas
bones are not predictable.
Several techniques can be used to count bones:
NISP-Number of Identified Specimens, counts each
bone fragment as a unit.
MNI-Minimum Number of Individuals, first defined by
T.E. White in 1953 to account for each animal as an
individual unit.
need to identify lefts and rights of bones from a given
species.
For MNI
Given an assemblage (group of bones):
How many individuals?
3 L proximal humeri (upper arm bones)
2 R proximal humeri
4 R distal femurs (upper leg bones)
2 L distal femurs
Meat Utility Indices
MNI can be used to
calculate how
much meat can be
obtained from a
given animal.
2 deer @ 100 lbs.
of meat=200 lbs.
5 rabbits @ 5 lbs.
of meat=25 lbs.
Comparative Collections
Cannot identify animal remans without having some
comparative collection.
modern skeleton for comparative purposes.
must have a series of specimens in a particular
species, representing different ages and sexes.
Zoologists generally have collections of skulls and
animal skins because they are interested in identifying
and classifying modern species.
Weights and measurements need to be recorded so
that utility indices can be estimated.
Preparation
Maceration-in water
Dermestid Beetles
Bleach-Biz
Simmering-cooking the meat off
University of TN has a skeletal
collection of over 12,000 specimens
one of the best in the country.
Subsistence Strategies
The primary focus of zooarchaeology is to discover the
subsistence techniques used by prehistoric and historic
people.
It is important to study behavior through animal remains
because most of what humans do is involved with eating.
celebrations-some foods have higher status than others.
nutritional stress-what do people eat and do when times are
lean? i.e. increase diet breadth
habitat-a lot of what people eat (primarily prehistoric) is
predicted and controlled by their environment.
Other aspect of diet reflects human behavior:
age and sex of animals
season of site occupation
cultural preferences
Strategies
Hunting and Gathering-wild animals
Pastoralism-herding domestic animals
Horticulture-wild and domestic animals
Agriculture-wild and domestic animals
How is seasonality documented?
Presence/Absence
Migratory birds
Cold-blooded Reptiles/Amphibians
Animal young
Skeletal Change
Antler Growth
Tooth Growth
Epiphyseal Fusion
Incremental Growth Structures-Fish Bones
most useful are otoliths and spines
otoliths are calcareous “ear stones” in the inner ear
associated with balance.
Mammalian teeth
cementum annuli laid down during the year.
dark band slow growth, light band fast growth.
Case Study: Oronsay Island, Scotland
Wilkinson’s study of coalfish from Mesolithic
sites on island (5300-4600 ya)
Otoliths-sectioned and season of death
documented.
Found seasonal fishing at four sites
Cnoc Sligeach-July to August
Cnoc Coig-Sept-November
Priory Midden-Winter to Early Spring
Caisteal nan Gillean-Spring to Summer
Probably movement of one group from site
to site over the course of the year.
Oronsay Island & Coalfish
Cultural Significance
Sacred Objects