Mammals in a Colonial Context

Summary

The archeozoological studies about secondary contexts (dumps and construction fills) are important as they explain the customs of the people in a particular time. These studies, normally, are excluded from the archeological studies as funerary offerings, burials, activity areas, and so on, are the aim study of the archeology. Moreover, the secondary contexts, as they are not related to systemic contexts, are considered informatively poor. We studied the faunal remains of a Mexican colonial dump and we performed a taphonomic analysis in order to rebuild the life history of the faunal remains. So far, 10 species of mammals were identified from 4564 studied bone remains. Most bone fragments belong to ribs, followed by humerus and femur. According to the results, people during the Colonial age ate meat of big mammals like sheep and cow, which were brought by Spaniards, and local animals like deer, hare, and rabbit. The taphonomic analysis showed the animals were stewed and boiled.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Animals and the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan: Biology, Archaeology, History, and Conservation

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16952