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This paper focuses on the study of bone alterations in fumier deposits from an experimental point of view. Fumiers are characteristic of livestock enclosures in the Mediterranean area used from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. They originate from the process of burning livestock dung piles to reduce the volume of dung accumulation and to rid these spaces of parasites. Therefore, diverse taphonomic processes take part in the formation of these types of deposits, making it difficult to interpret them, despite numerous multidisciplinary studies. This work specifically focuses on bone burning alterations. Two experiments were set up consisting of bone burning in dung piles. Sheep and goat dung was used with different matrix, texture and humidity features. The sample was made up of defleshed fresh, boiled and dry bone fragments from small and medium-sized species. As seen in previous experiments, the burning time and temperature in the two experiments varied due to these different dung features. The resulting bone sample was analyzed using taphonomic methods. Bone alterations essentially depend on the time and intensity of the dung burning. Bone condition is a secondary determining factor. The color degrees were high and coherent with the degree of dung alteration. Cortical damage was more abundant in fresh and boiled bones than in dry bones. No meaningful differences were identified with regard to bones burned in hearth combustions.

This work presents data obtained from experiments conducted on wild and captive wolves. Actualism is a very useful tool for taphonomic studies, as it allows us to understand the behavior of fauna in the past. However, not many past experimental studies have dealt with wolves as taphonomic agents. The results of the study show that wolves modify animal carcasses in advanced stages that include fracturing the bones in order to consume the marrow. By comparing captive and wild wolves, we observe that captive wolves often modify ungulate carcasses to a greater degree than do wild wolves. Moreover, factors such as the size of the ungulate and the period of availability of the carcass influence the type and degree of bone alteration. Tooth mark dimensions also allow us to compare wolves with other large carnivores and reveal that wolves differ significantly from large felids and ursids, and they have more in common with hyenids.