Plow-zone Zooarchaeology: Fragmentation and Identifiability

1987/01/01 by R. Lee Lyman, Michael J. O'Brien, Michael J. O’Brien · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies

paper · doi:10.1179/jfa.1987.14.4.493

Abstract

AbstractFragments of long bones of deer (Odocoileus sp.) and deer-sized mammals recovered from a ca. 2000-year-old site in eastern Missouri were measured to the nearest 0.5 cm. Frequency distributions of fragment size-classes are similar among five subplow-zone excavation levels, but all have more large and fewer small fragments than does the plow zone. Frequency distributions of size classes for eight identifiable skeletal elements indicate a minimum identifiable fragment size exists that creates an analytical absence of skeletal elements that have in reality been collected.

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• A New Approach to Identifying Bone Marrow and Grease Exploitation: Why the “Indeterminate” Fragments should not be Ignored
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