Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Technology is increasingly utilized to address long-standing questions in zooarchaeological research. In this session, participants will address the ways that the development and use of technologically-driven zooarchaeological methods produce and inform questions regarding cultural and ecological relationships between humans and animals. Papers in this session provide examples of how technology-based methods offer new perspectives on zooarchaeological questions and impact the field of zooarchaeology.Examples of a few technologies and practices to consider include: 1) Isotopic analysis of faunal materials, 2) AMS radiocarbon dating of faunal materials, 3) Zooarchaeological mass-spectrometry (ZooMS), 4) aDNA research, 5) Collections management, access, and digital curation, and 6) Data integration and FAIR data principles.

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  • Documents (14)

Documents
  • Ancient Mitogenomes from Oregon Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris): Genetic and Archaeological Contributions to the Historical Ecology of an Extirpated Population (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Hannah Wellman. Rita Austin. Nihan Kilic. Madonna Moss. Courtney Hofman.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) was nearly driven to extinction on the Pacific Coast in the 19th century due to the commercial maritime fur trade. Despite successful reintroduction efforts in North America, the Oregon sea otter population remains locally extirpated and endangered. Prior studies have used precontact and modern...

  • Beyond Counting Sheep: An Interdisciplinary Review of Faunal Assemblages in the British Pastoral Landscape (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Roxanne Guildford.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the challenges in zooarchaeological research is to advance new methods of understanding animal husbandry within the past socio-ecological context. Intensification of wool production is typically evidenced in the archaeological record by the increase of sheep remains in species abundance and adult mortality; however,...

  • A Combined Bayesian and Zooarchaeological Approach to Understanding Local Histories of Socio-Ecological Adaptation in Southwestern Florida, USA (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Isabelle Lulewicz. Victor Thompson. William Marquardt. Karen Walker.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We present current research at the Pineland Site Complex (8LL33, etc.), a large shell midden-mound site in southwestern Florida occupied by the Calusa from around AD 50 up to historic contact. This well-preserved and well-studied archaeological site provides new insights into the relationship between subsistence practices of...

  • Data, Digital Databases, and Teaching Students Zooarchaeology in the 21st Century (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Neusius. Tanya Peres. Bonnie Styles. Renee Walker.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As zooarchaeologists address digital data preservation, management, and access, and confront issues surrounding data standardization and integration, it is clear that most of our students have little understanding of the importance of digital data or of the issues surrounding its creation, preservation, and use. One outgrowth...

  • The Establishment of the First 3D Fish Bone Reference Collection in China (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Chong Yu.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Zooarchaeological researchers in China have previously focused on mammal remains, as have many places around the world. However, mammal species are only one part of the animal resources that people used in ancient times, especially in the areas by water. Young zooarchaeologists have begun to get involved in the work of...

  • "A feast of meat, a day of sociability": Examining Patterns in Turkey Management in the Cibola Region, AD 1150-1400 (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Oas. Christopher Schwartz.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent genetic and isotopic studies highlight important variations in the nature, timing, and intensity of domesticated turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) management practices across the northern U.S. Southwest. While a degree of intensification in turkey production has been associated with widespread settlement aggregation in the...

  • Ground-truthing Historic European Accounts of Great Plains Indian Dog Husbandry with Stable Isotopes (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Abigail Fisher.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Historic journals and early ethnographic accounts have the potential to inform on Native American cultural norms, including interaction with commensals, such as dogs. However, these accounts are imperfect due to biases couched in ethnocentrism and personal interests. This research seeks to test historic accounts related to dog...

  • Isotopic Evidence for an Emerging Colonial Urban Economy: Charleston, South Carolina (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Reitz. Sarah Platt. Carla Hadden. Laurie Reitsema. Martha Zierden.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable isotope analysis enables us to test the hypothesis that specialized animal economies were fundamental to the development of emerging urban centers, including colonial American cities. The distribution of meat and other animal products is a basic urban process and a barometer for the economic development of such early...

  • Mapping Faunal Data to tDAR Ontologies to Address Data Comparability and Archaic Period Use of Animals in the Interior Eastern United States (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bonnie Styles. Mona Colburn. Sarah Neusius.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With support from a National Science Foundation grant, the Eastern Archaic Faunal Working Group (EAFWG) uploaded faunal datasets for 24 Archaic Period (10,000-3,000 BP) archaeological sites in the Interior Eastern United States into the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) to address research questions about the roles of...

  • Potentials and Pitfalls for ZooMS Analysis in the Pacific: A Case Study from Ofu Island (Manu‘a Group, American Samoa) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jillian Swift. Samantha Brown. Patrick Kirch. Seth Quintus. Patrick Roberts.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Zooarchaeological analysis in the Pacific is often limited by the large proportion of small, highly fragmented, non-diagnostic remains recovered from archaeological sites. Recent advances in biomolecular methods, including collagen peptide mass fingerprinting (a.k.a. ZooMS) enable increased taxonomic identifications and refine...

  • Stable Isotope Analysis of Human and Animal Remains from Trent’s Plantation, Barbados, 17th through 19th Centuries (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Diane Wallman. Heidi Miller. Douglas Armstrong.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geochemical studies of stable isotopes on archaeological skeletal material offer information on human and animal diet, mobility and migration, exchange, and climate. Here, we apply stable isotope studies to human and animal remains recovered from archaeological excavations at Trent’s Plantation in Barbados. Trent’s Plantation...

  • Stable-Isotope Analysis and Dental Micro-Wear Texture Analysis of Domestic Dogs from the Tennessee River Valley (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Meagan Dennison.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Southeastern United States, the relationship between indigenous peoples and their domestic dogs is known to be long and complicated. Dog burials and dog skeletal remains are ubiquitous from archaeological sites in the region from as early as 7,000 years ago through the Historic Period. A previous paleopathology study of...

  • Technological and Methodological Developments in Approaches to Species Identification: Advancements in Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Buckley.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. ZooMS, or ‘Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry’, is a relatively recently developed method in the field of archaeology, with the ability to identify large numbers of fragmentary animal bone to genus or species level. Most importantly, its advantages over ancient DNA-based approaches of identification are that it can be...

  • What Ancient DNA Can Reveal about the Ubiquitous Fish of the Northwest Coast: Salmon, Herring, and Rockfish (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Madonna Moss.

    This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fisheries are of fundamental importance to Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest of North America today and in the past. This presentation summarizes what ancient DNA has revealed/is revealing about Indigenous use of salmon, herring, and rockfish from different archaeological contexts along the Northwest Coast. In the...