Avian Skeletal Part Representation at 49-KIS-050

Summary

Zooarchaeological avifauna analyses demonstrate that wing elements tend to be overrepresented in archaeological assemblages from diverse temporal and cultural contexts. There have been several explanations for this phenomenon including bone density, differential transport and more recently, Bovy’s social zooarchaeological interpretations for the overall overabundance of wing elements, as well as specifically of distal wing elements in the Watmough Bay assemblage. The avifaunal assemblage (n=5,360) from 49-KIS-050, a 2500 year old Aleut village midden site on Alaska’s Kiska Island, western Aleutian Islands, also is dominated by wing elements, in this case by proximal wing elements. A comparison of the 49-KIS-050 assemblage with the Watmough Bay site materials yields insight into cross-cultural practices in the treatment and disposal of avifauna. Analyses sensitive to Aleut traditional practices provide a culturally specific context for the avifaunal patterns present in the 49-KIS-050 assemblage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage