Updating and Reevaluating Faunal Datasets from Quina Mousterian Levels at Jonzac and Pech de l'Azé IV by Incorporating Screened Materials

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.

Logistical challenges of managing large zooarchaeological projects mean that researchers must often conduct faunal analyses in phases and implement sampling strategies, including studying subsamples that do not fully incorporate screened materials. However, screened portions may contain specimens that can provide depth to studies of species abundance and prey selection and transport but are underrepresented in the plotted portion due to size cut-offs: small foot bones, bones from small animals, fetal bones, and deciduous teeth. We present data generated from the screened portions (5–25 mm) of the Jonzac Level 22 and Pech de l'Azé IV Level 4a Quina Mousterian-associated, highly reindeer-dominated faunal assemblages to supplement Niven et al.'s (2012) and Niven and Martin's (2018) original datasets, which they generated using only the piece-plotted (>25 mm) portions of the assemblages. To address questions about incorporating screened materials in studied faunal samples, we examined the differences between the plotted and screened datasets and between the plotted only (original) and combined plotted and screened (updated) datasets. We then reevaluated Niven et al.'s (2012) and Niven and Martin's (2018) conclusions of these assemblages regarding species representation, sample preservation, prey selection, and carcass transport and processing.

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): 33225