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.

Cite this Record

Data Quality and Zooarchaeological Interpretation: Investigating Stability in the Human-Animal Relationship at Pottery Mound Pueblo (LA 416). Abigail Judkins, Caitlin Ainsworth, Emily Jones. Presented at The 88th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2023 ( tDAR id: 474337)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -123.97; min lat: 25.958 ; max long: -92.549; max lat: 37.996 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37703.0