Identifying Signatures of Bone Grease Rendering in Archaeological Contexts

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Toward the end of the Paleolithic, foragers have been inferred to render small amounts of fat from cancellous bone in a process known as bone grease rendering (BGR). As the goal is to extract additional energy from each animal, the technology possibly emerged in response to seasonal resource stress. BGR is presently associated with the Holocene; more secure identification in Paleolithic contexts could have significant implications for understanding human evolutionary processes and subsistence behavior of Neandertals and early modern humans. Standard identification methods are problematic as criteria such as the presence of highly fragmented bone and fire-cracked rocks are not individually diagnostic and do not always co-occur, and other anthropogenic/post-depositional activities can produce similar signatures.

This paper is an experimental exploration of variation in the BGR signature from an archaeozoological perspective, focusing on new criteria associated with cancellous bone fragments. The present research quantifies variation in fragment distribution and morphologies, and frequencies of crushing/tearing marks and micro-inclusions for three hammerstone types using white-tailed deer tibiae and humeri. Results suggest that micro-inclusions are useful signatures of BGR. A discussion of hammerstone micro-properties and a newly identified micro-bruising signature is followed by new recommendations for the archaeological identification of BGR.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37399.0