A Differential Recovery Checklist for Zooarchaeology in the U.S. Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Differential recovery refers to the ways that faunal assemblages are sampled from the archaeological record. Its effects can be pernicious when interpreting data from multiple assemblages. As such, the topic is a mainstay in contemporary zooarchaeological research; however, in the U.S. Southwest differential recovery has received less attention. One reason could be the excellent archaeological preservation of faunal remains in the region. Researchers may be more inclined to assume representativeness without consideration of differences in recovery among faunas. Here, we explore the interaction between recovery and other taphonomic variables from multiple large faunal assemblages recovered from the central Mesa Verde Region of southwestern Colorado and the Northern Rio Grande of north central New Mexico. We analyze faunas from five sites: Tsama’uinge (LA 908), Ponsipa’akeri (LA 297), Shields Pueblo (5MT3807), Goodman Point Pueblo (5MT604), and the Haynie site (5MT1905). These sites represent varying degrees of sampling intensity and disturbance, spanning a continuum from low- to high-quality recovery. Our goal is to propose a suite of basic analyses to assist Southwestern archaeologists in making decisions about the inclusion of individual faunal assemblages in large datasets. A standard checklist can improve data quality and strengthen interpretation in this region of extreme cultural significance.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38193.0