Columbian Mammoth Remains (Proboscidea, *Mammuthus columbi) from Unit UE1, Tocuila Archaeo-Paleontological Site, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Current Zooarchaeology: New and Ongoing Approaches" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

From a small excavation unit 5 × 6 m named UE1 in Tocuila, Texcoco Municipality, State of Mexico, Mexico, around 1,300 bone elements were recorded, of which we have analyzed about 80%, being outstanding the remains of Columbian mammoth (*Mammuthus columbi), constituting about 90% of the total. According to the stratigraphic distribution of the materials, there is a minimum count of nine individuals, including juveniles and adults, females and males, presence of osteopathological signs, carnivore gnawing, and several other taphonomic agents. Also, there are weathering marks as evidence of processes occurring before the first mudflow that covered the bone and filled up the paleochannel at the end of the Pleistocene. Here, some stratigraphic and horizontal patterns are shown, which could explain the sequence of deposit formation. In addition, other patterns indicate the presence of intentionally modified bone remains that could mean human activity, especially significant in layers FL-I (50%) and FL-IV (40%), separated by more than two millennia. Diagnostic characteristics for those patterns are presented.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Current Zooarchaeology: New and Ongoing Approaches

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32356