Abstract
Animal bones discarded by people are commonly subject to disturbance by carnivores. These carnivores are present throughout the world and include wolves, coyotes, hyenas, and many others. This disturbance not only modifies and destroys bone, but also moves many of the bone fragments away from their original position of discard. Intrasite spatial analyses of bone that seek patterns meaningful to human behavior thus need to subtract the effect of carnivore disturbance. Experimental studies with spotted hyenas show that the position of a bone fragment on a limb bone, combined with bone surface modification, can be used to identify a class of bone fragments that are minimally affected by carnivores and are thus the best indicators of spatial patterning resulting from human behavior. Limb-bone ends are moved significant distances, as are shaft fragments as a general class. However, middle-shaft portions of limb bones that preserve percussion marks from hammerstone breakage retain nearly the precise spatial position as originally discarded by hominids. Thus, any spatial analysis of bone, when carnivores are implicated as contributors or consumers at an archaeological site, should focus on middle-shaft portions of limb bones with percussion marks.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 748-768 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | American Antiquity |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 1 1994 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- History
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Archaeology
- Museology
Cite this
Intrasite Spatial Analysis of Bone : Subtracting the Effect of Secondary Carnivore Consumers. / Marean, Curtis; Bertino, Leanne.
In: American Antiquity, Vol. 59, No. 4, 01.10.1994, p. 748-768.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Intrasite Spatial Analysis of Bone
T2 - Subtracting the Effect of Secondary Carnivore Consumers
AU - Marean, Curtis
AU - Bertino, Leanne
PY - 1994/10/1
Y1 - 1994/10/1
N2 - Animal bones discarded by people are commonly subject to disturbance by carnivores. These carnivores are present throughout the world and include wolves, coyotes, hyenas, and many others. This disturbance not only modifies and destroys bone, but also moves many of the bone fragments away from their original position of discard. Intrasite spatial analyses of bone that seek patterns meaningful to human behavior thus need to subtract the effect of carnivore disturbance. Experimental studies with spotted hyenas show that the position of a bone fragment on a limb bone, combined with bone surface modification, can be used to identify a class of bone fragments that are minimally affected by carnivores and are thus the best indicators of spatial patterning resulting from human behavior. Limb-bone ends are moved significant distances, as are shaft fragments as a general class. However, middle-shaft portions of limb bones that preserve percussion marks from hammerstone breakage retain nearly the precise spatial position as originally discarded by hominids. Thus, any spatial analysis of bone, when carnivores are implicated as contributors or consumers at an archaeological site, should focus on middle-shaft portions of limb bones with percussion marks.
AB - Animal bones discarded by people are commonly subject to disturbance by carnivores. These carnivores are present throughout the world and include wolves, coyotes, hyenas, and many others. This disturbance not only modifies and destroys bone, but also moves many of the bone fragments away from their original position of discard. Intrasite spatial analyses of bone that seek patterns meaningful to human behavior thus need to subtract the effect of carnivore disturbance. Experimental studies with spotted hyenas show that the position of a bone fragment on a limb bone, combined with bone surface modification, can be used to identify a class of bone fragments that are minimally affected by carnivores and are thus the best indicators of spatial patterning resulting from human behavior. Limb-bone ends are moved significant distances, as are shaft fragments as a general class. However, middle-shaft portions of limb bones that preserve percussion marks from hammerstone breakage retain nearly the precise spatial position as originally discarded by hominids. Thus, any spatial analysis of bone, when carnivores are implicated as contributors or consumers at an archaeological site, should focus on middle-shaft portions of limb bones with percussion marks.
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U2 - 10.2307/282346
DO - 10.2307/282346
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0000194453
VL - 59
SP - 748
EP - 768
JO - American Antiquity
JF - American Antiquity
SN - 0002-7316
IS - 4
ER -