Systematic Differences in Sieved and Point-Provenienced Fauna Ecofacts from PP5-6, South Africa

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Human Origins Migration and Evolution Research Consortium Poster Symposium" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In zooarchaeological analysis, there is a tendency to give point-provenienced ecofacts analytical priority over ecofacts found in sieved material. To test for the effects of this bias, we conducted a zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of faunal ecofacts (n = 841) found in the 10 mm sieved material from Pinnacle Point 5-6 (PP5-6). This is a Stone Age site on the modern south coast of South Africa that has a high-resolution record of human behavior and environmental change during the Middle Stone Age. All fauna encountered and seen by excavators in excavation are point-provenienced in situ, with no omission of small-sized or unidentifiable specimens. All sediment is subsequently sieved for any material missed in excavation. The 10 mm sieved specimens were compared to the point-provenienced faunal specimens from corresponding stratigraphic levels to test for systematic differences between provenienced and sieved faunal ecofacts. This analysis shows that ignoring fauna recovered from 10 mm sieve could lead to different zooarchaeological and taphonomic site interpretations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Human Origins Migration and Evolution Research Consortium Poster Symposium

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32830