South Grove Midden Butchery Summary
Nov. 18, 2012
Dessa Lightfoot
This is a preliminary summary of work that has been conducted on the South
Grove Midden faunal assemblage. As of November 2012 all laboratory analysis has been
completed, and a butchery analysis has been performed of the eighteenth-century
domestic livestock from the South Grove Midden at Mount Vernon. A complete
butchery analysis will be included in the final faunal report.
The South Grove Assemblage
This butchery study was conducted on the eighteenth-century faunal materials
from the South Grove Midden at Mount Vernon. The study focused on the domestic
livestock from Phases I, II, and III, specifically cattle, sheep/goats (which are included
together under a single species because they are generally indistinguishable skeletally),
and pigs. These species were selected because they generally contribute the most to
meats consumed throughout Anglo-American sites in the eighteenth century (Walsh,
Martin, and Bowen 1997), a pattern which is continued at Mount Vernon. For Phases IIII, domestic mammals overall contributed 285.9 kg of meat (as determine by biomass) to
the diet, while wild mammals contributed only 9.15 kg of meat. Assemblages from
Phases I and II were selected for further analysis because they had statistically significant
sample sizes (Phase I combined NISP of cattle, sheep/goat and pig n=769, Phase II
combined NISP of cattle, sheep/goat and pig n=1116). Phase III was recorded and
analyzed following the same protocol but will not be discussed in this document because
the assemblage size was too small (Phase IIII combined NISP of cattle, sheep/goat and
pig n=139) to be able to draw any conclusions. The results of the Phase III butchery
analysis will be included in the final report.
Methodology
Butchery analysis on the South Grove assemblage was performed using the
guidelines described by Gilmore (1999) and Landon (1996), and following the criteria
used at the Colonial Williamsburg Zooarchaeology Laboratory currently. Bone were
examined for fragmentation, human and non-human modification (bone chewing,
burning, weathering), and butchery marks. These features were recorded schematically
on individual bone diagrams. Butchery marks were identified based on the butchery
mark categories as established by Crader (1990). Crader identifies five categories of
butchery marks, scrapes, cuts, chops, shears, and saw marks, and these marks can
correspond to particular stages of butchery. Once butchery marks were recorded
individually, composite schematic drawings were created of both butchery and
fragmentation to examine patterning that could be potentially revealing of stages of
butchery (something Landon tentatively identified in his research in Boston, 1996), or
butchery goals (which Gilmore identified in his comparison between English and Spanish
Colonial faunal assemblages.) The goal with these schematics is to seek to reconstruct
the cuts of meat represented by the faunal materials from the South Grove Midden.
Currently, the fragmentation and butchery information has been complied and is
presented below.
Phase I-1735-1758
Phase I: 1735-1758 MNIs
Cattle (AD)
6
Cattle (IM)
1
1
Sheep/Goat (AD)
6
1
Sheep/Goat (IM)
0
2
Pig (AD)
8
2
Pig (IM)
1
1
Combines Ovis aries and Ovis aries/Capra
hircus
2
Combines Sus scrofa and cf. Sus scrofa
Phase I: 1735-1758 NISP
Cattle (AD)
178
Cattle (IM)
11
1
Sheep/Goat
184
2
Pig
381
1
Combines mature and immature Ovis aries,
Ovis aries/Capra hircus,
and cf. Ovis aries/Capra hircus
2
Combines mature and immature Sus scrofa and
cf. Sus scrofa
Phase I Butchery and Fragmentation
The schematics below and Phase II are composite drawings representing what portions of
elements were present in the faunal assemblage in yellow, hack marks in red, and knife
marks in blue. To make possible patterns more visible, all elements are depicted on the
left side of the schematic, regardless of what side of the animal the element actually came
from (siding was preformed and is recorded for each individual bone schematic, and was
used to calculate MNIs). Mature and immature elements are represented on separate
schematics, as mature and immature animals may be butchered and prepared differently.
Phase I Cattle
Phase I Sheep/Goat
Phase I Pig
Phase II: 1759-1775
Phase II: 1759-1775 MNIs
Cattle (AD)
5
Cattle (IM)
1
1
Sheep/Goat (AD)
9
1
Sheep/Goat (IM)
1
2
Pig (AD)
13
2
Pig (IM)
2
1
Combines Ovis aries and Ovis aries/Capra
hircus
2
Combines Sus scrofa and cf. Sus scrofa
Phase II: 1759-1775 NISP
Cattle (AD)
266
Cattle (IM)
6
1
Sheep/Goat
232
2
Pig
596
1
Combines mature and immature Ovis aries,
Ovis aries/Capra hircus,
and cf. Ovis aries/Capra hircus
2
Combines mature and immature Sus scrofa and
cf. Sus scrofa
Phase II Butchery and Fragmentation
As in Phase I, the schematics below are composite drawings representing what
portions of elements were present in the faunal assemblage in yellow, hack marks in red,
and knife marks in blue. To make possible patterns more visible, all elements are
depicted on the left side of the schematic, regardless of what side of the animal the
element actually came from (siding was preformed and is recorded for each individual
bone schematic, and was used to calculate MNIs). Mature and immature elements are
represented on separate schematics, as mature and immature animals may be butchered
and prepared differently.
Phase II Cattle
Phase II Sheep/Goat
Phase II Pig
Works Cited
Walsh, Lorena S., Ann Smart Martin, and Joanne Bowen
1997 Provisioning Early American Towns. The Chesapeake: A Multidisciplinary Case
Study. Final Performance Report. National Endowment for the Humanities. The
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Crader, Diana C
1990 Slave Diet at Monticello. In American Antiquity, v. 55, n.4, p. 690-717
Gilmore, Richard Grant III
1999 Putting Flesh on the Bones: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to
Butchery Analysis in Historical Archaeology. Unpublished MA Thesis. College
of William and Mary, Department of Anthropology.
Landon, David
1996 Feeding Colonial Boston: A Zooarchaeological Study. In Historical Archaeology
30, n. 1, p. 1-153.