Zooarchaeology
What is Zooarchaeology?
Recovery and Counting
Comparative Collections
Subsistence Strategies
Seasonality
What is Zooarchaeology?
 The Study of animal bones from
archaeological sites.
 Studies can focus on subsistence,
hunting strategies, environmental
change, domestication of animals,
and ceremonial use of animals.
History of Zooarchaeology
 50 years ago archaeologists had bones on their sites
and they began asking zoologists to identify them.
 Some people became more and more interested and
involved in these bones and began to specialize in it.
 Today most zooarchaeologists, such as myself, are
trained as archaeologists and specialize in zoology.
 Have taken a lot of zoology classes.
 Including Malacolgy, Ichthyology, Avian Osteology,
Vertebrate Osteology.
Recovery and Counting
 Recovery of bones is subjected to bias depending on
screen size and soil preservation.
 Counting bones is not like counting flakes, flakes are
extremely predictable in how they break, whereas
bones are not predictable.
 Several techniques can be used to count bones:
 NISP-Number of Identified Specimens, counts each
bone fragment as a unit.
 MNI-Minimum Number of Individuals, first defined by
T.E. White in 1953 to account for each animal as an
individual unit.
 need to identify lefts and rights of bones from a given
species.
For MNI
Given an assemblage (group of bones):
 How many individuals?
3 L proximal humeri (upper arm bones)
2 R proximal humeri
4 R distal femurs (upper leg bones)
2 L distal femurs
Meat Utility Indices
 MNI can be used to
calculate how
much meat can be
obtained from a
given animal.
 2 deer @ 100 lbs.
of meat=200 lbs.
 5 rabbits @ 5 lbs.
of meat=25 lbs.
Comparative Collections
 Cannot identify animal remans without having some
comparative collection.
 modern skeleton for comparative purposes.
 must have a series of specimens in a particular
species, representing different ages and sexes.
 Zoologists generally have collections of skulls and
animal skins because they are interested in identifying
and classifying modern species.
 Weights and measurements need to be recorded so
that utility indices can be estimated.
Preparation
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Maceration-in water
Dermestid Beetles
Bleach-Biz
Simmering-cooking the meat off
University of TN has a skeletal
collection of over 12,000 specimens
one of the best in the country.
Subsistence Strategies

The primary focus of zooarchaeology is to discover the
subsistence techniques used by prehistoric and historic
people.
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It is important to study behavior through animal remains
because most of what humans do is involved with eating.
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celebrations-some foods have higher status than others.
nutritional stress-what do people eat and do when times are
lean? i.e. increase diet breadth
habitat-a lot of what people eat (primarily prehistoric) is
predicted and controlled by their environment.
Other aspect of diet reflects human behavior:
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age and sex of animals
season of site occupation
cultural preferences
Strategies
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Hunting and Gathering-wild animals
Pastoralism-herding domestic animals
Horticulture-wild and domestic animals
Agriculture-wild and domestic animals
How is seasonality documented?
 Presence/Absence
 Migratory birds
 Cold-blooded Reptiles/Amphibians
 Animal young
 Skeletal Change
 Antler Growth
 Tooth Growth
 Epiphyseal Fusion
 Incremental Growth Structures-Fish Bones
 most useful are otoliths and spines
 otoliths are calcareous “ear stones” in the inner ear
associated with balance.
 Mammalian teeth
 cementum annuli laid down during the year.
 dark band slow growth, light band fast growth.
Case Study: Oronsay Island, Scotland
 Wilkinson’s study of coalfish from Mesolithic
sites on island (5300-4600 ya)
 Otoliths-sectioned and season of death
documented.
 Found seasonal fishing at four sites
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Cnoc Sligeach-July to August
Cnoc Coig-Sept-November
Priory Midden-Winter to Early Spring
Caisteal nan Gillean-Spring to Summer
 Probably movement of one group from site
to site over the course of the year.
Oronsay Island & Coalfish
Cultural Significance
Sacred Objects