The Analysis of Animal Bones from Archeological Sites PDF Download

Author: Richard G. Klein
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226439585
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
In growing numbers, archeologists are specializing in the analysis of excavated animal bones as clues to the environment and behavior of ancient peoples. This pathbreaking work provides a detailed discussion of the outstanding issues and methods of bone studies that will interest zooarcheologists as well as paleontologists who focus on reconstructing ecologies from bones. Because large samples of bones from archeological sites require tedious and time-consuming analysis, the authors also offer a set of computer programs that will greatly simplify the bone specialist's job. After setting forth the interpretive framework that governs their use of numbers in faunal analysis, Richard G. Klein and Kathryn Cruz-Uribe survey various measures of taxonomic abundance, review methods for estimating the sex and age composition of a fossil species sample, and then give examples to show how these measures and sex/age profiles can provide useful information about the past. In the second part of their book, the authors present the computer programs used to calculate and analyze each numerical measure or count discussed in the earlier chapters. These elegant and original programs, written in BASIC, can easily be used by anyone with a microcomputer or with access to large mainframe computers.

Author: Melanie Fillios
Publisher: Sydney University Press
ISBN: 1743324332
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Zooarchaeology has emerged as a powerful way of reconstructing the lives of past societies. Through the analysis of animal bones found on a site, zooarchaeologists can uncover important information on the economy, trade, industry, diet, and other fascinating facts about the people who lived there. Animal bones in Australian archaeology is an introductory bone identification manual written for archaeologists working in Australia. This field guide includes 16 species commonly encountered in both Indigenous and historical sites. Using diagrams and flow charts, it walks the reader step-by-step through the bone identification process. Combining practical and academic knowledge, the manual also provides an introductory insight into zooarchaeological methodology and the importance of zooarchaeological research in understanding human behaviour through time.

Author: April M. Beisaw
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 162349026X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Offering a field-tested analytic method for identifying faunal remains, along with helpful references, images, and examples of the most commonly encountered North American species, Identifying and Interpreting Animal Bones: A Manual provides an important new reference for students, avocational archaeologists, and even naturalists and wildlife enthusiasts. Using the basic principles outlined here, the bones of any vertebrate animal, including humans, can be identified and their relevance to common research questions can be better understood. Because the interpretation of archaeological sites depends heavily on the analysis of surrounding materials—soils, artifacts, and floral and faunal remains—it is important that non-human remains be correctly distinguished from human bones, that distinctions between domesticated and wild or feral animals be made correctly, and that evidence of the reasons for faunal remains in the site be recognized. But the ability to identify and analyze animal bones is a skill that is not easy to learn from a traditional textbook. In Identifying and Interpreting Animal Bones, veteran archaeologist and educator April Beisaw guides readers through the stages of identification and analysis with sample images and data, also illustrating how specialists make analytical decisions that allow for the identification of the smallest fragments of bone. Extensive additional illustrative material, from the author’s own collected assemblages and from those in the Archaeological Analytical Research Facility at Binghamton University in New York, are also available in the book’s online supplement. There, readers can view and interact with images to further understanding of the principles explained in the text.

Author: Polydora Baker
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781848025554
Category : Animal remains (Archaeology)
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
This handbook provides advice on best practice for the recovery, publication and archiving of animal bones and teeth from Holocene archaeological sites (ie from approximately the last 10,000 years). It has been written for local authority archaeology advisors, consultants, museum curators, project managers, excavators and zooarchaeologists, with the aim of ensuring that approaches are suitable and cost-effective.

Author: Sharyn Jones O'Day
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 1782979115
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 685

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Book Description
This book is the first in a series of volumes which form the published proceedings of the 9th meeting of the International Council of Archaeozoology (ICAZ), held in Durham in 2002. The 35 papers present a series of case studies from around the world. They stretch beyond the standard zooarchaeological topics of economy and ecology, and consider how zooarchaeological research can contribute to our understanding of human behaviour and social systems. The volume is divided into two parts. Part 1, Beyond Calories, focuses on the zooarchaeology of ritual and religion. Contributors discuss ways to approach questions of ritual and religion through the faunal record, and consider how material culture depicting and/or associated with animals can provides clues about ideology, religious practices and the role of animals within spiritual systems. Part 2, Equations for Inequality, looks at questions of identity, status and other forms of social differentiation in former human societies. Contributors discuss how differences in food consumption, nutrition, and food procurement strategies can be related to various forms of social differentiation among individuals and groups.

Author: Deborah Ruscillo
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 178570043X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
This volume in the ICAZ series deals with the technical advances made over the last twenty years in the field of ageing and sexing animal bones. The analysis of ancient DNA holds great possibilities for sexing certain faunal assemblages (though by no means all), which is an urgent issue in the study of hunting and animal husbandry. It can be assumed that our forebears used more subtle taxonomic criteria than we do today, and it is important therefore that we are able to recognise traits that will allow for more accurate classification in terms of calendar age or sex. The eighteen papers in this book examine the state of research for various techniques of age/sex determination and assess potential future development.

Author: Umberto Albarella
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199686475
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 865

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Book Description
Animals have played a fundamental role in shaping human history, and the study of their remains from archaeological sites - zooarchaeology - has gradually been emerging as a powerful discipline and crucible for forging an understanding of our past. This Handbook offers a cutting-edge, global compendium of zooarchaeology that seeks to provide a holistic view of the role played by animals in past human cultures. Case studies from across five continents explore ahuge range of human-animal interactions from an array of geographical, historical, and cultural contexts, and also illuminate the many approaches and methods adopted by different schools and traditions instudying these relationships.

Author: Terry O'Connor
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752495224
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Animal bones are one of the most abundant types of evidence found in archaeological sites dating from pre-historic times to the Middle Ages, and they can reveal a startling amount about the economy and way of life of people in the past. This is a fascinating introduction for anyone seeking to understand how these bones can shed light on our knowledge of the past, as well as the complex relationship between human and animals. Written by one of the most respected experts in this field, and published for the first time in paperback, this book will be essential reading for archaeologists, or indeed anyone intrigued by the recreation of long lost worlds from the most insignificant-seeming fragments of animal bones.

Author: Pam J. Crabtree
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum
ISBN: 1949057003
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description
The papers in this volume represent a range of approaches to the study of the symbolic roles of animals in human cultures. The theme that unites these papers is their use of a variety of different kinds of evidenceincluding archaeological, faunal, historical, ethnographic, artistic, and folkloric datain the reconstruction of animal symbolism.

Author: Richard W. Lang
Publisher: School for Advanced Research Press
ISBN:
Category : Animal remains (Archaeology)
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
This fifth volume presents the results of faunal analysis from the Arroyo Hondo excavations, covering the topics of prehistoric vegetation and climate; the importance of various animals in the diet; seasonal hunting patterns; methods of butchering, skinning and cooking; the prehistoric hunting territory; the raising of domesticated dogs and turkeys; and trade in animals and animal products.