Ch- 14 People, Plants and Animals in the Past Flashcards
Definition of Zooarchaeology
- Animal bones from an archaeological site
Definition of
Archaeobotany, paleobotany or paleoethnobotany
- Plants remains from an archaeological site
Eco Facts
"Natural objects used, not made, by humans" - Important for reconstructing how people lived and what they ate Ex. • Hunting methods, foraging methods • Animal & plant domestication • Agricultural methods • Dietary staples vs. supplements • Fuel sources • Climate and environment • Seasonality • Use in ritual
Faunal Assemblage
- Animal bones recovered from an archaeological site
- One in which humans played a role in their deposition (not natural fossils)
The Agate Basin Site
- Where and how old
Wyoming
~11,000 years old
The Agate Basin site
- Matt Hill (How did he identify all of those bones?)
Comparative Collection
- Standard zooarchaeology lab contains examples of all local, and some non-local, animals
- Labelled with information on species, age-at-death, sex, when & where collected
The Agate Basin Site
- Results
- Most bones are bison (n=11) & pronghorn antelope (n=5)
- Also bones from wolf, coyote, red fox, skunk, peccary, dog, jackrabbit, rabbit, grouse, frog, elk, camel
The Agate Basin Site
- Were the faunal remains deposited by humans?
- Some had cut marks from stone tools, some had impact fractures (from being smashed to get at marrow), some were burned (from being in a hearth)
- Did see some carnivore marks but not common – likely came along after
The Agate Basin Site
- Were there faunal remains deposited during the same period of occupation?
- Some parts still in anatomical position
- Bones showed same degree of weathering due to bone size
What / How to count
1. Number of Identified Specimens (NISP)
- Total number of bone specimens identified to a particular taxon
- Affected by degree of fragmentation
- Highly fragmented will give higher number
What / How to count
2. Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI)
- Minimum number of individuals necessary to account for all the skeletal elements of a particular species
- If preservation allows, consider sex and age
- Then determine what element is most abundant
The Agate Basin Site Results
- Bison Bones (How many, and M, F I?)
MNI?
- 1033 Bison Bones
- Concluded at least 4 males, 4 females & 3 immature bison
- MNI of bison is
The Agate Basin Site Results
- Antelope Bones (How many, and M, F I?)
- MNI?
- 297 Antelope Bones
- 4 right and 1 left humeri, left very different in size from all 4 right
• Concluded at least 5 antelope were present - MNI of antelope is 5
The Agate Basin Site
- How were these Bison and antelopes used?
- Viewed as food, bones represent meat
- Concluded not where animals were killed, rather, brought most nutritious parts back to site to be processed
The Agate Basin Site
- Why did the extract bone marrow from the animals toes?
- There isn’t much marrow in toes, and there is no meat
- Hard times?
- Maybe in late Winter / early Spring − Hardest time of year for a hunter- gatherer
The Agate Basin Site
- What season was it when the animals died?
- Looked at teeth of immature bison to estimate their age
- A late-term fetus or newborn, an 11 month-old, a 23 month-old,
- Assumed all bison born in Spring
- Therefore, these animals died in late Winter / early Spring
What are Macrobotanical remains?
“Plant parts identifiable with the naked eye”
- Corncobs, pine nuts, charcoal, seeds, acorn mush adhering to a ceramic bowl
What is Palynology?
“Analysis of ancient pollen and spores”
Pollen
- How long does it last
- Where have we found it
- How do we extract it
- Survives for 10,000 + years
- May find pollen in human burials, inside pots, in weavings, on a stone tool
- Important to ensure not contaminated by modern soil or air
- Then use chemicals to extract and look at it under a powerful microscope
Famous Neanderthal burial
- Where
- How old was he
Shanidar Cave – the “flower burial”
- Shanidar IV – 30-45 year old male
Famous Neanderthal burial
- What did a pollen analysis show?
- Vs. What do we think now
- Many species of wildflower in high concentration relative to the rest of the cave, some even clumped together
- For a long time interpreted as intentional ritual deposit
- Now thought to be due to rodents
• Graves riddled with burrows of Persian jird
• They store large numbers of flower heads, without stems, inside tunnel of their burrows
Phytoliths – ‘plants stones’
- Tiny silica deposits in plant cells – take on the shape of the cell, which differs between species
- Can last for millions of years
- Not all plants have phytoliths but many do
Stillwater Marsh
What plants did people eat?
- Bulrush seeds common
- Were the seeds collected and brought to the site for consumption or did they arrive with the entire bulrush plant for other uses (building, weaving)
Stillwater Marsh
What season was the site occupied
- Full range of seeds only available in the late summer
Coprolites of Hidden Cave
- What did they find?
- What did it tell us?
- Sex?
- Desiccated poop; rare; super informative
- Allowed us to Identify species
- 19 coprolites analyzed
- Bulrush seeds common, cattail pollen, feathers of waterfowl, bones of small fish, bird bones, insects and snails
- Can determine sex: women
Lipid - fat- Extraction?
- Useful to look for these on ceramic cooking vessels - Showed us their chemical methods to separate out fatty acid chains
- Found evidence of leafy vegetables (cabbage), milk, meat, beeswax (part of pot manufacture)
