Search

Popular culture presents a deep‐rooted perception of medieval warhorses as massive and powerful mounts, but medieval textual and iconographic evidence remains highly debated. Furthermore, identifying warhorses in the zooarchaeological record is challenging due to both a paucity of horse remains relative to other domesticates, and the tendency of researchers to focus on osteological size, which makes it difficult to reconstruct in‐life usage of horses and activity related changes. This paper presents the largest zooarchaeological dataset of English horse bones (n = 1964) from 171 unique archaeological sites dating between AD 300 and 1650. Using this dataset alongside a modern comparative sample of known equids (n = 490), we examine trends in size and shape to explore how the skeletal conformation of horses changed through time and reflected their domestic, elite and military roles. In addition to evidencing the generally small stature of medieval horses relative to both earlier and later periods, we demonstrate the importance of accurately exploring the shape of skeletal elements to describe the morphological characteristics of domestic animals. Furthermore, we highlight the need to examine shape variation in the context of entheseal changes and biomechanics to address questions of functional morphology and detect possible markers of artificial selection on past horses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that our current understanding of the animal bones from causewayed enclosure sites in Britain is flawed. During the 1980–90s, a number of key interpretations, still frequently espoused, were based more upon anecdote and theory-driven assertion than on empirical evidence. An example is that evidence of bone processing (butchery and bone fracture) does not feature heavily in the faunal record from causewayed enclosures. Using data from the sites of Etton and Staines, this view must now be questioned. Both butchery and peri-mortem bone fracture are present in these assemblages in substantial quantities. These sites are compared with Ludwinowo 7, a Linearbandkeramik settlement site in Poland and there are considerable similarities between the three different sites. This suggests possibility that the broader economic utility of animal bone assemblages at causewayed enclosures has been underestimated, having been, up to now, regarded as ‘not indicative of domestic settlement’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent excavations at the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village, an Initial Middle Missouri site in Mitchell, South Dakota have revealed a large, clay-lined feature filled with fractured and fragmented bison bones. Fracture and fragmentation analysis, along with taphonomic evidence, suggests that the bones preserved within the feature represent evidence of prehistoric bone marrow and bone grease exploitation. Further, the character of the feature suggests that it served as a bone grease processing station. Bone fat exploitation is an activity that is frequently cited as a causal explanation for the nature of many fractured and fragmented bone assemblages in prehistory, and zooarchaeological assemblages have frequently been studied as evidence of bone fat exploitation. The Mitchell example provides some of the first direct, in-situ archaeological evidence of a bone grease processing feature, and this interpretation is sustained by substantial analytical evidence suggesting bone fat exploitation. This new evidence provides a clearer concept of the nature of bone fat exploitation in prehistory as well as an indication of the scale and degree to which bone grease exploitation occurred at the Mitchell site. Finally, this research demonstrates the importance of careful zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis for the interpretation of both artifactual remains as well as archaeological features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The relationship between bone mineral density and archaeological bone survivorship has played a critical role in zooarchaeological and taphonomic studies in recent decades. Numerous studies have suggested that higher-density skeletal element portions survive more frequently than lower-density element portions when archaeological assemblages are affected by some taphonomic processes. Interpretations of density mediated destruction have become commonplace in the archaeological literature, and are often used to explain the absence of certain bone elements and element parts in zooarchaeological assemblages. This study explores the effects of rockfall on bovid elements in varied environmental conditions and the differential survivorship of their element parts, and has implications for understanding the taphonomic processes through which bones are subjected to dynamic loading. Actualistic rockfall experiments conducted on twelve samples of frozen, fresh, and semi-dried bovid bones reveal that the generally low-density epiphyseal ends of bone elements resist fracture and analytical deletion with more frequency than the higher-density diaphyses. This evidence suggests that bone density does not correlate with likelihood of breakage or effective archaeological “destruction” when rockfall and other processes that result in dynamic impact are in action. While this research does not question the relationship between bone mineral density and the likelihood for archaeological survivorship as the result of some taphonomic processes, it presents one specific set of taphonomic processes that result in the differential survivorship of low density bone elements parts and the fragmentation and destruction of higher density element parts. This research presents evidence that shows that dynamic impact is a process capable of fragmenting and sometimes destroying high-density elements while low-density elements survive. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Current research themes relating to prehistoric Central Asian pastoralism are discussed, and the Neolithic to Bronze archaeological sequence in Kazakhstan is briefly outlined. The results of new faunal analyses of six later Bronze Age sites in Central and Northern Kazakhstan are presented. These studies are based upon the analysis of 63,529 bone fragments, of which 27,023 were identifiable to species and element. These assemblages are compared with 16 other sites in Central and Northern Kazakhstan, and the Trans-Ural region. The herd structures at the final Bronze Age site of Kent are discussed in detail. Analyses of absorbed lipid residues from four sites are also presented. In total, 140 pottery sherds were analysed, of which 73 provided sufficient residues for stable isotope ratio determinations. It is concluded that species proportions are highly variable regionally. Cattle are most prevalent in the forest steppe zone, whilst caprines become more common in semi-arid steppe regions. Proportions of horse are particularly variable, even within environmentally similar areas. Lipid residue results indicate the high prevalence of ruminant dairy products in pottery vessels, whilst faunal data from Kent suggests that cattle husbandry might have been particularly focussed on milk, in comparison with sheep and goats. The significance of horses within prehistoric pastoralism is discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Zooarchaeologists have often employed studies of bone fracture morphology as a means of understanding past human cultural activity, and various methodological approaches have been developed for analyzing archaeological broken bone assemblages. It is widely understood that bones degrade over time, however, few studies have attempted to define and quantify the rate at which bones degrade and fracture morphologies change. This study examines degradation in frozen bones (−20°C) and bones exposed to hot (40°C) dry conditions. These two simulated environmental conditions represent extreme real-world climates, and allow for an actualistic understanding of the rates of degradation that bones experience in nature. When frozen, bones degrade slowly but significantly, and demonstrate measurable differences in samples frozen for 1, 10, 20, 40, and 60 weeks. In hot, dry conditions, bones degrade very quickly, and demonstrate measurable differences after 1, 3, 7, 14, and 21 days. These data allow for a more detailed understanding of the relationship between the cultural and natural processes that result in bone fracture, and the time period during which bones can be expected to maintain fresh fracture characteristics. This research also has implications for understanding human subsistence and survival strategies and for interpreting the archaeological record. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Fragmented, co-mingled assemblages of human and animal bones are not uncommon in archaeological deposits, particularly in prehistoric contexts. It is suggested, firstly, that standard approaches to studying the human material do not lend themselves to the complete understanding of such contexts, secondly, that the application of some techniques more common to zooarchaeology are of particular value in understanding such human material, and, thirdly, that fully integrated, identical recording systems for both human and animal material allow for much greater understanding of the relative peri-mortem, depositional and post-depositional histories of human and animal remains in these complex deposits. Such a fully integrated method of recording, that permits direct comparison of the patterning in the human and animal assemblages, is outlined. These methods encompass issues of identification, ageing, quantification, fragmentation, bone fracture analysis, post-depositional taphonomy and evidence of human-induced butchery/trauma and other modifications. The approach is illustrated with examples drawn from the study of the bone deposits at the Middle Bronze Age ritual enclosure of Velim Skalka, Czech Republic. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]