Measurement Variability in a Collection of Modern Gazelle (Gazella gazella) Skeletons and its Archaeological Implications

Summary

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

Linear skeletal measurements have long been harnessed by zooarchaeologists to differentiate animals by taxon, breed, age, and sex, to investigate domestication and animal management strategies and the impact of factors such as climate change and anthropogenic activity. However, due to equifinality, interpreting archaeological body size data remains challenging. In this study, we investigate the degree and relative impact of different factors such as sex, age, and environmental variables (temperature and precipitation) on mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella) morphology. We explore measurement variability in five commonly preserved skeletal elements: the humerus, tibia, scapula, astragalus, and the second phalanx. Our analysis demonstrates that sex is the primary determinant of gazelle body size, and that age has minimal impact once elements have fused. For some elements, size is also impacted by temperature, while for others, the relationship is less clear. This connection may be obscured by human activities that disrupt the scheduling of resources used by gazelles, such as agriculture and landscape modification. Finally, we explore the potential of computerized procedures to improve the accuracy, precision, and repeatability of measurement data and show that 3D measuring protocols produce higher quality data than that obtained by traditional caliper methods.

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): 39994.0