An Introduction to Zooarchaeology

Diane Gifford-Gonzalez

An Introduction to Zooarchaeology

ISBN 978-3-319-65680-9 ISBN 978-3-319-65682-3 (eBook)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65682-3

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Diane Gifford-GonzalezDepartment of AnthropologyUniversity of CaliforniaSanta Cruz, CA, USA

To the Memory of My ParentsGloria María GonzálezJohn Patric Gifford

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Acknowledgments

One gratifying aspect of a life working in a relatively new field has been the mutual support that most colleagues have sustained with one another. Like other pioneers, most of us have found it more beneficial to share and occasionally work in teams than to hole up our own private forts, protecting our ideas and data. Sometimes gunplay broke out on the frontier, but a remarkable ability to not let intellectual dif-ferences ruin personal friendships has generally prevailed. I would not be writing this book were it not for a long history of influential conversations, arguments, inspirations, and advice from colleagues and former graduate students in the field. Beyond these have been shared reprints (when those were still fashionable), data, comments, unpublished texts, bibliographic citations, jokes, and basic human kind-nesses offered by many colleagues. I want to specially acknowledge María Clara Álvarez, Kay Behrensmeyer, Juan Bautista Belardi, Lew Binford, Rob Blumenschine, Cristie Boone, Florencia Borella, Luís Borrero, Joanne Bowen, Cheryl Claassen, Dinah Crader, María Cruz, Jon Driver, Rob Gargett, Don Grayson, Bryan Scott Hockett, Vicky Horwitz, Dave Huelsbeck, Anneke Janzen, Richard Klein, Karen Lupo, Lee Lyman, Fiona Marshall, Arek Marciniak, Curtis Marean, Jorge Martínez Moreno, Bernard Mbae, Willy Mengoni Goñalons, Francisco Mena Larraín, Mariana Mondini, Sebastian Muñoz, James O’Connell, Sandra Olsen, Sebastian Payne, Anne Pike-Tay, Dave Schmitt, Mary Stiner, Charlotte Sunseri, Jun Sunseri, Paola Villa, Gao Xing, and Tim White. I deeply thank my Argentine colleagues for their hospitality and their example of persisting as scholars through times of adversity.

Early drafts of some chapters were commented on by my University of California (UC) Santa Cruz colleagues, Shelly Errington, Carolyn Martin Shaw, and Anna Tsing. Others who read manuscript chapters and whose comments improved it include Rob Gargett, Alison Galloway, Jorge Martínez Moreno, James O’Connell, and Michael Mehlman. Cristie Boone, Anneke Janzen, and Jude Todd thoroughly read and commented on drafts of the full manuscript. Lee Lyman reviewed the book’s penultimate draft with a master bibliographer’s scope, an editor’s discrimi-nation, and a sharp eye for gratuitous error. Words can never express my gratitude

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for his advice, and the final product has benefited greatly from his advice. I alone am responsible for the errors and opinions of this work.

This book took me a very long time to produce, and I owe special thanks to suc-cessive editors. Bill Woodcock was a sensible coach, and the finished product owes much to his sage advice. I thank Teresa Krauss and Hana Nagdimov of Springer for their patience and helpful feedback.

Don Harris, formerly of the UC Santa Cruz Photography Department, took many superb black-and-white photographs for this volume. I am grateful to the following colleagues granted permission to reproduce published and unpublished figures: Peter Andrews, Kenneth S. Bader, Lee Berger, the Estate of Lewis Binford, Zbigniew Bochenski, Isabel Cáceres, Thomas Caceci, Michael Campana, A. G. F. M (Saddhā) Cuijpers, Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, Oldrich Fejfar, Yolanda Fernández-Jalvo, Jack Fisher, Rob Gargett, Donald Grayson, Haskel Greenfield, Jarod Hutson, Miranda M.  E. Jans, Yin Lam, Matthew Landt, Lee Lyman, Mariana Mondini, Eugène Morin, Chris O’Brien, Sandra L. Olsen, Sebastian Payne, Anne Pike-Tay, Richard Potts, Elizabeth Reitz, Pat Shipman, Mary Stiner, Ylva Teldahl, Jessica Thompson, Jun Sunseri, Tim D. White, Marion Young, and Lauren Zephro.

Nearly all my teachers have passed into the realm of the ancestors, yet I am always mindful for their inspiration and support. With his enthusiasm for experi-mental and environmental archaeology, Desmond Clark encouraged my work with fauna and later was a discerning Africanist interlocutor. Clark Howell’s scholarly approach to human evolution and mammals was always an inspiration. Sherwood Washburn inspired me to become an anthropologist and taught me to view bones as functional elements of living animals. William A. Clemens, Jr., and J. T. Gregory introduced me to the rigors and marvels of vertebrate paleontology and were unfail-ingly supportive. My deepest debt is to my graduate advisor, Glynn Ll. Isaac, whose fine scientific intuitions and good fellowship kept me moving forward through my graduate years and early career. It grieves me that he cannot see how much this book owes to his mentorship, for he should still be among us.

Over the years, I have received research funding for laboratory and field projects that contributed to my view of zooarchaeological theory, method, and practice from a number of sources: the UC Santa Cruz Academic Senate Committee on Research, UC Santa Cruz Social Sciences Divisional Research Committee, National Science Foundation (Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, Research Opportunities for Women Programs), Fulbright Research and Specialist Programs, Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People’s Republic of China, Leakey Foundation, Henry R. Luce Foundation, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the British Institute in Eastern Africa.

My family has sustained me. My daughter Alanna María traveled with me to Africa, China, and elsewhere as a very little girl, providing humor and creativity while developing a good eye for bones and potential comparative specimens. I am deeply grateful for her unceasing love and sharp-eyed scouting for dead animals, an occupation that, as an adult, she has relinquished to me. My husband, Robert Takashi Yanagida, painstakingly checked this book’s many citations. I am deeply grateful for his generosity as well as our chance to work together.

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My late parents, the Gloria González Gifford and John Patric Gifford, supported me with their love, faith, and financial aid, even when the latter was in short supply in their own lives. In some mysterious way, their deep knowledge of and love for nature, plants, animals, history, and good home cooking have all contributed to my career choice as a zooarchaeologist. Both were accomplished cooks, and their fru-gality and creativity in the kitchen opened my eyes to the real meaning of “home economics” and to the central importance of food management in households. Their faith in my potential as an intellectual, expressed far before the emergence of mod-ern feminism, sustained me through many vicissitudes. To them this work is dedicated.

Acknowledgments

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Contents

Part I An Orientation to Zooarchaeology

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.1 The Relevance of Archaeofaunal Remains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.2 This Book’s Focus and Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.3 This Book’s Aims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1.4 Some Basic Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.5 A Caveat and a Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1.6 Organization of the Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2 The Emergence of Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2.1 Pioneers Who Built Modern Archaeofaunal Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.2 Regional Traditions in Archaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.3 Archaeofaunal Analysis in North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2.4 Beginnings of Archaeofaunal Analysis in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 2.5 Influence of Major Research Projects on Zooarchaeology

1950–1975 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.5.1 Agricultural Origins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.5.2 Peopling of the Americas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 2.5.3 Human Origins Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.6 Convergence and Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 2.7 The Emergence of Zooarchaeology in Other Regions . . . . . . . . . . . 31

2.7.1 Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.7.2 Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 2.7.3 Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 2.7.4 Argentina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 2.7.5 Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 2.7.6 China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

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3 A Perspective on Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 3.1 Uniformitarian Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

3.1.1 “Uniformitarian” vs. “Immanent” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 3.1.2 Actualism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

3.2 Reasoning by Analogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 3.2.1 Analogy Is Inevitable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3.2.2 Analogy Can Be Abused . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 3.2.3 Actualistic Research Can Refine Analogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

3.3 Actualistic Research in Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 3.4 Levels of Analogical Inference in Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

3.4.1 Causal Process, Effector, Actor, Behavioral, Social, and Ecological Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

3.5 Using Analogy at Higher Levels of Systemic Integration . . . . . . . . 63 3.6 “Signatures” and Equifinality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 3.7 A Product-Focused Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 3.8 Types of Evidence in Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

3.8.1 Primary Versus Secondary Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 3.8.2 Element Frequencies and Surface Modifications . . . . . . . . . 67

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Part II The Evidence - Vertebrate Bodies

4 Bone and Vertebrate Bodies as Uniformitarian Materials . . . . . . . . . 73 4.1 Physiological Functions of Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 4.2 Basic Constituents of Bone Tissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

4.2.1 Hydroxyapatite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 4.2.2 Collagen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 4.2.3 Stable Isotope Variations in Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

4.3 Origins and Histology of Bone Tissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 4.4 Micro-Architecture of Bone Tissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 4.5 Macroscopic Variants in Bone Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 4.6 Growth and Development of Different Bone Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 4.7 Shape-Based Classification of Skeletal Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 4.8 Tissues and Features Associated with Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 4.9 Composition and Histology of Teeth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

5 Bone’s Intrinsic Traits: Why Animals Eat Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 5.1 Nutritional Needs Met by Animal Foods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

5.1.1 Protein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 5.1.2 Fats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 5.1.3 Essential Fatty Acids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 5.1.4 Minerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 5.1.5 Vitamins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

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5.2 Demands Above the Norm: Gestation, Lactation, Early Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 5.2.1 Calcium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 5.2.2 Childhood, Protein, and Essential Fatty Acids . . . . . . . . . . . 95

5.3 Coping with Seasonality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 5.4 Problems of Meat-Rich, Carbohydrate-Poor Diets in Humans . . . . 97

5.4.1 Specific Dynamic Action (SDA) Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 5.4.2 Effects on Body Tissues and Protein-Sparing Effects

of Carbohydrates and Fats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 5.4.3 Other Effects of Dietary Fat Shortage and High

Protein Intake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 5.4.4 Tactics to Cope with Seasonally Lean Meats . . . . . . . . . . . 99

5.5 Body Segments and Nutrition: Not All Parts Are Equal . . . . . . . . . 99References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

6 Bone’s Intrinsic Traits: Inferring Species, Sex, and Age . . . . . . . . . . . 103 6.1 Taxonomic Determination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

6.1.1 Illustrations Versus Comparative Specimens . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 6.1.2 Bone Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 6.1.3 Osteological Guides to Wild and Domestic Animals . . . . . . 108

6.2 Body Size Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 6.2.1 Diagnosing Domestication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 6.2.2 Size Differences Over Time and the 

Historical Ecology of Human Prey Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 6.2.3 Bone Size as an Estimator of Body Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

6.3 Sex Determination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 6.4 Estimating Age at Death from Osteological Markers . . . . . . . . . . . 113 6.5 Osteological Estimations of Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

6.5.1 Cranial Suture Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 6.5.2 Endochondral Bone Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 6.5.3 Bone Durability and Missing Age Classes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 6.5.4 Osteohistological Age Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

7 Bone’s Intrinsic Traits: Age Estimation from Mammalian Dentition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 7.1 Age Estimates Using Growth Structures:

Tooth Eruption and Wear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 7.2 Age Estimates Using Growth Structures:

Dental Cementum Annuli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 7.3 Age Estimates Using Growth Structures:

Dental Root Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 7.4 Dental Attrition-Based Age Estimation

Methods: Scoring Occlusal Wear Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 7.5 Dental Attrition-Based Age Estimation Methods:

Crown Height Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

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7.5.1 Taphonomy Again: Carnivores and Missing Dental Age Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

7.5.2 Age Estimates: Precision, Accuracy, Intrinsic Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

7.5.3 Finer Age Classes: Greater Precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 7.5.4 Accuracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 7.5.5 Broader Age Categories: Greater Accuracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 7.5.6 Statistical Realism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Part III Basic Practical Approaches

8 Field Recovery, Lab Methods, Data Records, Curation . . . . . . . . . . . 149 8.1 Research Design and Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 8.2 Field to Lab: Primary Recovery and Curation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

8.2.1 Sedimentary and Spatial Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 8.2.2 Influence of Recovery Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 8.2.3 Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 8.2.4 Preservation and Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 8.2.5 Provenience Information Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 8.2.6 Labeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

8.3 Specimens into Data: Analytic Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 8.3.1 Element and Taxonomic Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

8.4 Data to Database: Recording Information from Specimens . . . . . . 160 8.4.1 Data and Specimen: A Necessary Relationship . . . . . . . . . . 161

8.5 Lab to Archive: Curation Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

9 Identification: Sorting Decisions and Analytic Consequences . . . . . . 169 9.1 Levels of Identifiability: A Multidimensional Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

9.1.1 Factors Influencing Identifiability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

10 Zooarchaeology’s Basic Counting Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 10.1 Basic Zooarchaeological Counting Units:

NISP, NSP, MNE, MNI, MAU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 10.1.1 NISP (Number of Identifiable Specimens) . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 10.1.2 NSP (Number of Specimens) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 10.1.3 Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 10.1.4 Minimum Number of Elements (MNE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 10.1.5 “Overlap” Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 10.1.6 Minimum Animal Units: MAU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

10.2 The Relation of Counting Units to Research Questions . . . . . . . . 197References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

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Part IV Identifying Causal Process, Effector, Actor

11 Human, Animal, Geological Causes of Bone Breakage . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 11.1 Bone Fracture and Hominins: A Brief History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

11.1.1 Actualistic Research on Bone Breakage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 11.2 Biomechanics of Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

11.2.1 Bone as a Material Under Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 11.2.2 Stress and Strain in Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 11.2.3 Types of Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

11.3 Bone Breakage Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 11.3.1 Long Bone Break Classification Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 11.3.2 Break Shape Descriptive Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 11.3.3 Effects of Bone Condition on Break Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 11.3.4 Bone Condition and Fracture Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 11.3.5 Bone Condition and Break Surface Texture. . . . . . . . . . . . 219 11.3.6 Effects of Loading Levels on Breakage Morphology . . . . 220

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

12 Mammalian and Reptilian Carnivore Effects on Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 12.1 Carnivore Effects on Prey Bodies and Bones:

An Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 12.1.1 Environment, Ecology, and Behavior:

Relation to Carnivore Bone Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 12.1.2 Relation of Consumer Size to Size

of Affected Carcass or Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 12.1.3 Carnivore “Ravaging:” A Plea

for a More Objective Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 12.2 Carcass Consumption Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

12.2.1 Bone Reduction by Canids and Hyenids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 12.3 Carnivore Effects on Skeletal Elements and Segments . . . . . . . . . 230

12.3.1 Skull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 12.3.2 Vertebrae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 12.3.3 Ribs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 12.3.4 Shoulder and Pelvic Girdle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 12.3.5 Long Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 12.3.6 Carpals, Tarsals, Metapodials, and Phalanges . . . . . . . . . . 233

12.4 Characteristic Marks of Carnivore Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 12.4.1 Tooth Marks and Other Carnivore Modifications . . . . . . . 233

12.5 Differing Effects of Carnivore Taxa: Surface Modifications and Bone Destruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

12.5.1 Canids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 12.5.2 Felids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 12.5.3 Hyenids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 12.5.4 Ursids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 12.5.5 Australian Marsupial Carnivores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 12.5.6 Human Gnawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

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12.6 Crocodylian Effects on Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 12.7 Can Tooth Marks Distinguish Carnivore Taxa or Size? . . . . . . . . . 248 12.8 Carnivore Carcass Dismemberment and Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . 249References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

13 Avian Carnivore, Ungulate, and Effects on Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 13.1 Avian Effects on Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

13.1.1 Consumption-Related Bone Breakage and Destruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

13.1.2 Effects of Beaks and Talons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 13.1.3 Raptor Stomach Acid Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 13.1.4 Patterns of Raptorial Bone Accumulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 13.1.5 Raptors and Environmental Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

13.2 Ungulate Effects on Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 13.2.1 Ruminant Osteophagia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 13.2.2 Suid Gnawing of Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 13.2.3 Ungulate Trampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 13.2.4 Trample Marks: Natural Mimics

of the Stone Tool Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 13.2.5 Damage to Skeletal Elements During Life . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

13.3 Rodents as Bone Accumulators and Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 13.3.1 Rodent Gnawing Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

14 Primary Human Effects: Cutting Edge and Percussion Effects on Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 14.1 Marks Made by Cutting Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

14.1.1 Flaked Stone Tool Cut Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 14.1.2 Metal Cut Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 14.1.3 Scrape Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 14.1.4 Chop Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 14.1.5 Saw Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

14.2 Products of Percussion: Hammerstone Notches, Pits, Anvil Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

14.2.1 Hammerstone Impact Notches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 14.2.2 Percussion Flakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 14.2.3 Anvil Counterblow Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 14.2.4 Percussion Scratches and Pits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 14.2.5 Clubbing by Bone or Antler Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 14.2.6 Fracture Outlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

14.3 Problems of “Equifinality” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

15 Culinary Processing and Preservational Effects on Bone . . . . . . . . . . 305 15.1 Culinary Processing in Evolutionary Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 15.2 Gaps in Zooarchaeological Studies of Bone Modification . . . . . . 307 15.3 Vertebrate Bodies, Behavioral Chains, Chaîne Opératoires . . . . . 309

15.3.1 Functional Inferences from Cut Mark Placement . . . . . . . 311

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15.4 Nutrient Gains Through Culinary and Preservational Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

15.4.1 Marrow Cooking Before Extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 15.4.2 Bone Pounding and Consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

15.5 Preservational Processing and Storage of Animal Products . . . . . 318 15.6 Diagnostic Traces of Culinary and Preservational Processing. . . . 319

15.6.1 Cut Mark Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 15.6.2 Thermal Alteration: Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 15.6.3 Thermal Alteration: Bone Surface Changes . . . . . . . . . . . 324 15.6.4 Thermal Alteration: Bone Fracture Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . 324 15.6.5 Bone as Fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 15.6.6 Evidence of Pot Boiling: Pot Sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 15.6.7 Evidence of Pot Boiling: Pot Polish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 15.6.8 Bone Grease Extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

15.7 Can Household Culinary Refuse Be Discerned Archaeologically? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

15.7.1 An Ethnoarchaeological Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 15.7.2 Does It Work Archaeologically? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

16 Invertebrate, Plant, and Geological Effects on Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 16.1 Invertebrate Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

16.1.1 Mechanical and Chemical Effects of Insects . . . . . . . . . . . 340 16.1.2 Microbial Bioerosion: Surface and Deep

Tissue Modifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 16.2 Dendritic Erosion (Root Etching) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344 16.3 Weathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 16.4 Abrasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

16.4.1 Particle Impact vs. Sliding Abrasive Processes . . . . . . . . . 352 16.4.2 Tool Use Vs. Sedimentary Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 16.4.3 Trampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354 16.4.4 Other Processes of Abrasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 16.4.5 Sorting out Abrasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

16.5 Geological Processes of Transport and Burial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 16.6 Diagenesis: Not Just for the Deeply Buried . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

16.6.1 Effects in and on the Soil Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Part V Studying Behavioral, Social, Ecological Contexts

17 Analyzing Multi-Agent Assemblages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 17.1 Working to Identify Actors and Contexts:

Some Pleistocene Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 17.1.1 What Created the Assemblage? Disentangling

some African Early Stone Age Palimpsests . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 17.1.2 What Created the Assemblage? Die Kelders 1

and the Middle Stone Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

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17.1.3 Actualistic Notes on Human Habitations as Scavenger Magnets: Overprinting Likely . . . . . . . . . . . 375

17.1.4 What Created the Assemblage: Yarimburgaz Cave, Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

17.1.5 What Created the Assemblage: Late Pleistocene and Early South American Caves . . . . . . . . . . 378

17.2 Methods: Taking Effects of Prior Probabilities into Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

18 Reasoning with Zooarchaeological Counting Units and Statistics . . . 385 18.1 Commonly Used Statistical Tests in Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . . 385

18.1.1 Populations, Normal Distributions, and Samples . . . . . . . 386 18.1.2 Discrete vs. Continuous Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 18.1.3 Types of Variable Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 18.1.4 Parametric and Nonparametric Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389 18.1.5 Correlation Coefficient Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390 18.1.6 Regression (Coefficient of Determination) Analysis . . . . . 392 18.1.7 Simple Linear Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 18.1.8 Spearman’s Rho and Kendall’s Tau,

Nonparametric Correlation Coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394 18.1.9 The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

18.2 Problems with NISP, MNI, MNE, and MAU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 18.2.1 Problems with NISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 18.2.2 Problems with MNI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

18.3 Problems with MAU and MNE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404 18.4 What Do You Want to Do, What Tools Do You Need? . . . . . . . . . 408

18.4.1 Units of Measure and Research Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

19 Skeletal Disarticulation, Dispersal, Dismemberment, Selective Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413 19.1 Initial Definitions and a Conceptual Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 19.2 The Baseline: Vertebrate Body Structure and Disarticulation . . . . 415

19.2.1 Natural Ungulate Disarticulation and  Dispersal Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

19.3 Carnivores and Carcass Dismemberment, Dispersal, and Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

19.4 Butchery: Tool-Mediated Carcass Dismemberment, Dispersal, and Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

19.5 Butchery and Transport Studies in Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . . . 423 19.5.1 First Wave Ethnoarchaeology of Butchery

and Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423 19.5.2 Binford, Bones, and the Hunting-Scavenging Debate . . . . 424 19.5.3 Actualistic Research on Determinants of Butchery,

and Transport Decisions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

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19.5.4 Hadza Research on Transport Decisions: Evolution of Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

19.5.5 Skeletal Versus Total Fat Values: Further Accounting for Transport Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

19.5.6 Are Transport Decisions Always Based on Field Conditions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

20 Calibrating Nutritionally Driven Selective Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 20.1 Making Sense of Element Frequencies: Nutritional

Utility Analyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 20.1.1 Constructing Relative Nutritional Values

for Archaeofaunal Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 20.1.2 “Utility Curves” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

20.2 Early Applications of the Utility Index Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 20.3 Problems with Calculating and Using Utility

Indices and Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440 20.3.1 Alternate Approaches to Calculating Utilities . . . . . . . . . . 441 20.3.2 Other Studies Calibrating Nutritional Utility . . . . . . . . . . . 443 20.3.3 Drying Utility: Another Significant Index

in Mass-Kill or Distant Transport Situations . . . . . . . . . . . 444 20.4 Statistical Problems with Utility Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

20.4.1 Are Utility Curves Actually Useful? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446 20.4.2 Nutritional Utility or Return Rate? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 20.4.3 Questions about the Primacy of Human Selectivity

in Structuring Archaeofaunas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

21 Calibrating Bone Durability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 21.1 Fundamental Questions in Durability-Related

Survival of Skeletal Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454 21.1.1 Do Skeletal Elements Differ in Their Amounts

of Bone Tissue per Unit Volume? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455 21.1.2 Can this Variability be Measured with a Degree

of Replicability? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455 21.1.3 Does a Negative Correlation Exist Between

Nutritional Utility and Bone Durability? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465 21.1.4 What Causes Destruction of More Fragile

Elements or Portions of Elements? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 21.1.5 How Can Knowledge of Bone Durability

be Employed in Archaeofaunal Analysis? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468 21.2 Why Use Only Element Frequencies? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

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22 Zooarchaeology and Ecology: Mortality Profiles, Species Abundance, Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475 22.1 Proxies and Ecological Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476 22.2 Prey Mortality Profiles as Proxies for Livestock

Management and Predation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 22.2.1 Cohorts, Life Tables, Death Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478 22.2.2 Applications in Population Biology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478 22.2.3 Population Dynamics in Paleontology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 22.2.4 Human Paleodemography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 22.2.5 Mortality Profiles Based Studies

of Herding Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 22.2.6 Mortality Profiles and Hunting Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481 22.2.7 Mortality Profiles and Hunting Versus Scavenging . . . . . . 482 22.2.8 Stiner’s Revision of Profile Definitions

and Age Structure Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482 22.2.9 Is the Sample from a Stable Population? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 22.2.10 Complicating Factors in Mortality Profile

Analysis: Transport and Taphonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 22.3 Measures of Community Structure: Taxonomic Richness,

Diversity, Evenness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487 22.3.1 Taxonomic Richness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 22.3.2 Species Abundance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 22.3.3 Taxonomic Diversity Indices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489 22.3.4 Taxonomic Evenness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

22.4 Coping with Sample Size Effects: Species Area Curves in Ecology and Archaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

22.4.1 Regression Method Explorations of Sample Size Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

22.4.2 Rarefaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493 22.4.3 Sampling to Redundancy (STR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

23 New Ecological Directions: Isotopes, Genetics, Historical Ecology, Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503 23.1 Bone Stable Isotopes, Diet, Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

23.1.1 Carbon Isotope Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505 23.1.2 Nitrogen Isotope Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506 23.1.3 Oxygen Isotope Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507 23.1.4 Isotope Analysis and Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

23.2 Genomics, Domestication, Biogeography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511 23.2.1 Terms, Processes, and Analyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512 23.2.2 Animal Domestication Research in Zooarchaeology . . . . 515 23.2.3 Applications of DNA Analysis to Wild Species . . . . . . . . 517

23.3 Zooarchaeology and Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

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23.3.1 Requisites for Effective Applied Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . 519 23.3.2 Defining the Target Baseline: A Collaborative

Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520 23.3.3 Conversations About Conservation: Exercises

in Cross- Cultural Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

24 Behavioral Ecology and Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 24.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532 24.2 The Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533 24.3 Currencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534 24.4 Dollars in the Lot: A Hypothetical Example

of Foraging Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535 24.4.1 Prey Choice: Ranking and Encounter Rates . . . . . . . . . . . 535 24.4.2 Costs of the Benefits: Return Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536 24.4.3 Resource Depression and Patch Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537 24.4.4 Trade-Offs and Opportunity Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537 24.4.5 Central Place Foraging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

24.5 Varieties of Resource Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540 24.6 Beyond Rate Maximization: State Modeling Approaches . . . . . . . 540 24.7 Proxies Yet Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

24.7.1 Nature of the Proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544 24.7.2 Assumptions About Causes of the Proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

24.8 Behavioral Ecology and Social Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546 24.9 The Importance of Actualistic Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547 24.10 What Kinds of Models Make Trustworthy Predictions? . . . . . . . . 548 24.11 Behavioral Ecological Predictions are Not Uniformitarian

Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

25 Social Relations Through Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553 25.1 Archaeofaunal Remains as Evidence for Social Relations . . . . . . 554

25.1.1 Methods for the Toolkit: Familiar Means Applied to Novel Ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556

25.2 Social Inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557 25.2.1 Social Zooarchaeology Among Foragers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557 25.2.2 Historic Archaeofaunas and Socioeconomic

Difference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561 25.2.3 Institutionalized Inequality in Slave-Holding

American Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562 25.3 Trade and Exchange Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

25.3.1 Ascertaining Whether Specialized Producers Exist . . . . . . 564 25.3.2 Identifying Locations of Producers and Consumers . . . . . 564 25.3.3 Animal Foods Available to Consumers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565 25.3.4 Determining How Animal Foods Were Distributed

to Consumers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

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25.4 Ethnic Distinctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566 25.5 Conceptual Tools for the Toolkit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

25.5.1 Conceptual Tool: The Household. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568 25.5.2 Conceptual Tool: Chaîne opératoire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569 25.5.3 Conceptual Tool: Task-Differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569 25.5.4 Conceptual Tool: Political Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570 25.5.5 Conceptual Tool: Practice Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572 25.5.6 Practice Theory and Middle Range Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . 574

25.6 Summing up the Toolkit for a Social Zooarchaeology . . . . . . . . . 577References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577

26 Doing Zooarchaeology Today and Tomorrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 26.1 Ongoing Issues in Zooarchaeological Inference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 26.2 New Methods, Practical Continuities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587 26.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

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About the Author

Diane Gifford-Gonzalez is among the first cohort of archaeologists trained in fau-nal analysis and has authored numerous publications, including some cited as major formulations of zooarchaeological theory and method. She takes an international perspective, having researched in Africa and western North America and offered advanced seminars and workshops in the USA, Argentina, China, Kenya, Norway, and Spain. She is an elected member of the Committee of Honor, International Council Conference for Archaeozoology (ICAZ).