Animals at Spiro Mounds: Patterns from Faunal Specimens and Engraved Shells

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper discusses results from examination of faunal remains and iconography from Spiro Mounds, Oklahoma. By combining multiple analyses, this research yielded data useful to recognizing animal use patterns at the site that may suggest how ideological structures affected food choice at the site. In particular, this paper highlights some examples that may clarify why certain animals are depicted in iconography, even when absent from identified faunal remains at the site. I consider these patterns alongside faunal data from sites in the region. Informed by ethnohistoric and ethnographic accounts, I propose that these patterns may clarify our interpretations of social relationships between animals and humans in the past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24739