Trash Rules: Intrasite Zooarchaeology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Faunal remains are an important type of trash for archaeologists interested in everything from subsistence strategies to the social negotiations of feasting to animals as symbols. Zooarchaeologists increasingly grapple with how contexts – be they residential areas, ritual spaces, or dedicated trash dumps – impact interpretations. Over the years certain ‘trash rules’ have been suggested, linked to variables such as site function, specific activities, and physical and climatic parameters. This session revisits some of these and explores a few more, looking at diverse cultural and ecological settings and applying a range of analytic methods. What is gained when zooarchaeological analyses look more closely at intrasite spatial variations? What analytic approaches are productive in recognizing how the trash gets to where we find it, and what human choices were at play?

Other Keywords
Zooarchaeology • intrasite spatial analysis • Site Structure • Storage Pits • Ethnographic Models • Intrasite Analysis • Household • Paleoindian • Prehistoric • Faunal Remains

Geographic Keywords
South America • North America - Great Basin • North America - Plains • North America - Midwest • North America-Canada

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-6 of 6)

  • Documents (6)
Documents
  • Cache and Trash: Variability in Storage Pits found at the Bridge River Site, Middle Fraser B.C. (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathryn Bobolinski. Anna Prentiss. Matthew Walsh.

    Prehistoric households living within Housepit 54 at the Bridge River winter village in south-central British Columbia participated in complex strategies of food acquisition, storage, and food waste disposal. The storage of wind-dried salmon, smoked- and dried- meat from terrestrial animals, as well as dried and preserved roots, berries, and other plant materials were all integral to over-wintering subsistence strategies. Pits dug into the interior floors and those located at the exterior of...

  • Household climate: Great Basin response to climate change reflected by intrasite zooarchaeology (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Epstein.

    Intrasite spatial analysis reveals zooarchaeological remains indicative of Great Basin hunter-gatherer household behaviors. Results indicate the presence and spatial distribution of activity types. Analytical techniques facilitated evaluation of ethnographic models to find the best match to the zooarchaeological situation. Households associated with disparate climatic regimes, while contextually equivalent, exhibit variable zooarchaeological signatures for subsistence, social, and spiritual...

  • Impacts of Behavioral Contexts on Intrasite Zooarchaeological Sampling (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jean Hudson.

    Intrasite spatial analysis is nothing new, however, its application to zooarchaeological remains continues to be relatively rare. A critical aspect of any archaeological analysis is an understanding of where our samples come from in terms of human behavioral contexts. Animal remains end up in many places – where daily meals are prepared and eaten, where trash is dumped, where tools and ornaments are made and used, where special events bring people together, where sacrifices and offerings are...

  • An Intrasite Analysis of Faunal Remains at the Bell Site (47-Wn-9) (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kevin Akemann.

    GIS is being used increasingly in archaeology today, but can also enhance the understanding-through intrasite analysis-of sites excavated before GIS became popular. The Bell site (47-Wn-9), in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, is one such site. The faunal remains collected there represent two short, distinct occupation periods and distinct cultural traditions. An analysis of the quantity, artifact associations, and provenience of faunal remains recovered can add to the established understanding of...

  • Rules for Fishy Trash? (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Roberta Boczkiewicz.

    Analysis of intrasite spatial variation can improve our understanding of the dynamics of daily living of past populations. Fish remains are a special type of trash with distinctive aspects of capture, transport, preparation, and discard when compared to other fauna. This paper focuses on the analysis of fish remains from the Chimu site of Cerro La Virgen (A.D. 1000-1470) on the north coast of Peru. Cerro La Virgen is a rural town of mixed economy, including both fishing and agriculture, linked...

  • Trarsh or Treasure? A Critical Analysis of Hell Gap Zooarchaeology (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary Lou Larson. Marcel Kornfeld.

    Over the past century archaeologists have treated faunal remains differentially:either discarding all bones as unimportant, selectively collecting the informative ones, or treasuring all for eternity and future research. Studies at the stratified Paleoindian Hell Gap site in southeastern Wyoming included several of these treatment options. Our presentation investigates the different treatment of bones at Hell Gap over more than 60 years (1960-2015) of site studies. Such treatment is argued to...