Data Quality and Zooarchaeological Interpretation: Investigating Stability in the Human-Animal Relationship at Pottery Mound Pueblo (LA 416)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Stability and Resilience in Zooarchaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The use of existing collections respects the finite nature of the archaeological record while allowing us to address important concepts such as resilience and stability. However, variables such as analyst skill, access to comparative collections, and recovery methods can impact analytical results. How does variability in data quality impact the research questions that zooarchaeologists ask? In this poster, we compare faunal samples recovered from different archaeological projects at Pottery Mound Pueblo to examine several specific aspects of data quality and explore how these differences impact other zooarchaeological measures such as richness and evenness. Our results highlight the importance of considering differences in data quality when conducting comparative analyses. Additionally, this poster provides a useful roadmap for future research by highlighting specific zooarchaeological measures useful for data quality assessment and suggesting areas of inquiry that should be avoided when data quality is poor.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Stability and Resilience in Zooarchaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37703.0