Trash Rules: Intrasite Zooarchaeology

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?