Taphonomic and methodological problems of interpreting animal bones from archaeological sites : their application on bone assemblages from Greece and England
Differential bone loss caused by various taphonomic agents introduces serious bias in archaeozoological assemblages and interferes with the estimation of species proportions, mortality profiles, sex ratios and patterns of skeletal element representation. Inherent characteristics of bones have been studied in order to assess the degree to which such factors influence bone loss in order to help archaeozoologists to differentiate between human selection and natural attrition related to the bones' resistance to destruction. Bone density is the main characteristic studied. An experiment to measure the density of bones of ox, pig and sheep has been carried out. A comparison between the density values found in this research and in published data has been carried out. It was found that methodological improvement is needed in respect of estimating bone volume and porosity, parameters that influence the accuracy of the density measurements. Species, breed, sex and age differences were also indicated as influencing differential survival of bone in an archaeological context. Large samples were considered necessary in order to establish the differences noted and improve the accuracy of the measurements. A gnawing experiment
Ioannidou, Evangelia
Taphonomic and methodological problems of interpreting animal bones from archaeological sites : their application on bone assemblages from Greece and England. Differential bone loss caused by various taphonomic agents introduces serious bias in archaeozoological assemblages and interferes with the estimation of species proportions, mortality profiles, sex ratios and patterns of skeletal element representation. Inherent characteristics of bones have been studied in order to assess the degree to which such factors influence bone loss in order to help archaeozoologists to differentiate between human selection and natural attrition related to the bones' resistance to destruction. Bone density is the main characteristic studied. An experiment to measure the density of bones of ox, pig and sheep has been carried out. A comparison between the density values found in this research and in published data has been carried out. It was found that methodological improvement is needed in respect of estimating bone volume and porosity, parameters that influence the accuracy of the density measurements. Species, breed, sex and age differences were also indicated as influencing differential survival of bone in an archaeological context. Large samples were considered necessary in order to establish the differences noted and improve the accuracy of the measurements. A gnawing experiment
taphonomic methodological_problem interpret animal_bone archaeological_site application bone assemblages greece england differential bone loss cause various taphonomic agent introduces serious bias archaeozoological assemblage interfere estimation specie proportion mortality_profile sex ratio pattern skeletal_element representation inherent characteristic bone study order_ass degree factor_influence bone loss order_help differentiate human selection natural attrition relate bone resistance destruction bone density main_characteristic study measure density bone pig sheep carry_out comparison density value find publish_data carry_out found methodological improvement need respect estimate bone volume porosity parameter influence accuracy density measurement species breed sex_age difference also_indicate influence differential survival bone archaeological_context large_sample consider necessary order_establish difference note improve accuracy measurement