Vertebrate Taphonomy.

Vertebrate Taphonomy. Vertebrate taphonomy ta��phon��o��my?n.1. The study of the conditions and processes by which organisms become fossilized.2. The conditions and processes of fossilization. is published in the Cambridge Manuals inArchaeology series, and it fails at the heavyweight end of these in allsenses. With 465 pages of text, nearly 1000 references in thebibliography and a 15-page glossary, it cannot be regarded as a lightread, and its appeal will be to the archaeozoologist rather than to amore general audience. The book charts the extraordinary growth oftaphonomic investigations in the last few decades. Those who work onbones will have cause to feel grateful for Lyman's effort inproviding this up-to-date review of the subject, even though few mightagree that taphonomy is the most fascinating part of faunal studies.This book seeks to illustrate the rather technical processes thatcondition the bone samples that we excavate from a wide range ofactualistic and experimental work.The short introduction sets out the nature and purpose of taphonomicstudies, identifying the subject as '...a major challenge facingarchaeozoological research' - and who would disagree with Verb 1. disagree with - not be very easily digestible; "Spicy food disagrees with some people"hurt - give trouble or pain to; "This exercise will hurt your back" that?Chapter 2 continues With a brief discussion of the history of taphonomy,from Buckland's precocious experiments in feeding bones to anOxford hyaena through to the more systematic observations of recenttimes. The rise of taphonomy is aptly illustrated by figure 2.4 whichplots the number of taphonomic publications in 10-year periods up to1980, when in that last decade no less than 530 taphonomic publicationsappeared - and rising steeply.Chapter 3 considers taphonomy in practice, with a few rather narrowexamples of interpretations derived by taphonomic studies on some boneassemblages, and continues with the underlying theory of taphonomy. Theindebtedness of taphonomic studies to research in palaeontology isevident here and elsewhere in the book.Chapter 4 reviews the structure of the vertebrate skeleton, thestructure of bone and bone growth but says little about the bone fusionprocess, though this perhaps more than any other factor bears sostrongly on the survival of the epiphyseal epiphyseal/epi��phys��e��al/ (ep?i-fiz��e-al) pertaining to or of the nature of an epiphysis. epiphysealemanating from or pertaining to the epiphysis. region of the bone. Thelatter part of the chapter discusses quantification by means of NISP NISP National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (UK)NISP National Industrial Security ProgramNISP Neutron Instrument Simulation PackageNISP National Individual Security ProgramNISP Nutrition Services Incentive Program ,MNE, MNI See Merom New Instructions. and the other alphabetic acronyms of archaeozoology.In chapter 5 considers attritional and catastrophic mortalityprofiles and the determination of mortality pattern in bone samples.This of course relies heavily on the age profile shown by theassemblage, but not much is said about how this can be established.Catastrophic mortality will usually reflect the age distribution withinthe living population, with all age classes present and a highproportion of young. Attritional mortality is less easy to identify ashunting behaviours are so different depending upon both the speciesbeing hunted and that doing the hunting. Either way, there are likely tobe a significant proportion of juveniles and sub-adults in the bonesample - and hence lots of unfused bones. The latter part of thischapter follows the process of skeletonization and disarticulation disarticulation/dis��ar��tic��u��la��tion/ (dis?ahr-tik?u-la��shun) exarticulation; amputation or separation at a joint. dis��ar��tic��u��la��tionn. undervarious agencies of decay and dispersal, and includes a review of workwhere there has been the successful refitting of fragmented bone onliving surfaces.This theme continues into chapter 6, which considers the manyagencies by which bones can be dispersed, accumulated, burned, gnawedand comminuted comminuted/com��mi��nut��ed/ (kom��in-ldbomact?id) broken or crushed into small pieces, as a comminuted fracture. com��mi��nut��edadj.Broken into fragments. Used of a fractured bone. . The dense horse bone accumulations at Solutre arediscussed under 'dispersal', which seems a bit odd, and thevarious bone samples from that site are explained as the result ofcatastrophic mortality by means of herd interception. The deficit ofimmature individuals is attributed to the low density of young bone(that problem again!); the case for the human accumulation of the bonesis indicated by seven bones with butchering marks among a sample of2484. This is not altogether surprising as a modern horse skeleton in myown collection, defleshed by a skilled operator, has but a single cutmark left during this process. In terms of butchery it is probable thathorse bone presents a special case. Its extreme hardness and highdensity ensures an exceptionally high level of survival, and myexperience drawn from sites widely spread in space and time suggeststhat horse bones were less often broken for fat or marrow extractionthan the bones of other mammal species. The fluvial flu��vi��al?adj.1. Of, relating to, or inhabiting a river or stream.2. Produced by the action of a river or stream.[Middle English, from Latin dispersal of bonesreceives detailed discussion, as does the fluvial accumulation of bones,reminding us that the agencies that disperse bones may also accumulatethem in another place. Birds, rodents and even ants will also collectbones. This chapter ends with a discussion of 'ravagedassemblages'. Much stimulus was given to taphonomic research in the1960s and '70s by the investigation of carnivore carnivore(kär`nəvôr'), term commonly applied to any animal whose diet consists wholly or largely of animal matter. In animal systematics it refers to members of the mammalian order Carnivora (see Chordata). bone destructionand all bone workers are now familiar with the crenellated tubes andscored and punctured epiphyses, as with bones corroded by caniddigestion.Chapter 7 addresses one of the main issues (perhaps the main issue)of taphonomy; the interpretation of skeletal part frequencies. Whichbones did people accumulate and for what reason? In the 1950s Whiteproposed that bones with high meat values would travel from kill sites,and those with low meat values would not. While this may be true in ageneral way, refinement of the hypothesis began with the work ofBinford, who underscored the value of bones as a source of fats as wellas meat value, producing bone-by-bone indices of utility. Other workerssince have produced other indices of food utility and this approach hasbeen widely used in the interpretation of bone presence and absence atarchaeological sites. However, as Lyman notes, the measurement of foodutility has usually been based on the dissection of rather fewindividual carcasses, and takes little account of variation innutritional value by season of death, sex, age or nutritional state. Thedirect observation of bone transportation is also an establishedapproach in taphonomic research. The work of O'Connell and othersfollowed the actualistic approach, in observing which bones weretransported from kill sites by hunters; the Hadza of Tanzania chose totransport bones with a high demand for processing time as well as thoseof higher meat value.There is a useful discussion of the density measurement of bones byvarious workers. These, even where the same method of measurement wasused, have often produced quite widely different values for the samespecies. Is there a seasonal or environmental influence at work here, oris this simply observer variation? I strongly suspect that there is aprofound environmental influence on bone density. For example, attemptsto replicate tools made of red deer Red Deer, city, CanadaRed Deer,city (1991 pop. 58,134), S central Alta., Canada, on the Red Deer River. It developed as a trade and service center for a region of dairying and mixed farming. bones (Cervus elaphus) soon showedme that Scottish deer (from an environment rather deficient in calcium)have much softer bones than those from areas of England which arecalcium rich. This further touches on the problem noted at variouspoints above. Brain showed in 1969 that the process of epiphyseal fusionhad a profound influence on bone survival, and that many unfusedepiphyses were soft and were often consumed completely, even by humans.Add to this the likely variation in bone density from nutrition,seasonal changes in physical condition and calcium intake, and thenumber of measurements needed to define the limits of bone density for aspecies may be very large. Between different observers the measureddensity values for the same bone tend to differ, though when the resultsare compared the same bones fall in the same relative order ofincreasing density; as Lyman suggests it seems probable that thebone-density scale, like that for bone transportation, is at bestordinal (mathematics) ordinal - An isomorphism class of well-ordered sets. . More recently bone-mineral density has been measured by meansof photon densitometry densitometry/den��si��tom��e��try/ (den?si-tom��i-tre) determination of variations in density by comparison with that of another material or with a certain standard. , which gives a more controlled and probably morerepeatable system of measurement.Chapter 7 moves on to consider differential transport versusdifferential attrition as the significant factor in determining bonerepresentation. Here the reader feels close to the holy grail oftaphonomic research. As with most quests, the answer is rather moreobvious than may seem at first sight - we cannot invoke differentialtransportation until differential destruction is eliminated as aprobable cause Apparent facts discovered through logical inquiry that would lead a reasonably intelligent and prudent person to believe that an accused person has committed a crime, thereby warranting his or her prosecution, or that a Cause of Action has accrued, justifying a civil lawsuit. for unequal bone representation.The reader was reminded on p. 235 that '...the probability thata skeletal part will survive the rigours of various taphonomic processesis at least partially a function of that part's structuraldensity...'. This cannot be said to overstate the problem, but itis possible that this can be approached from another angle. Much of thetaphonomic research discussed in Lyman's book is based uponinvestigations into sites where the bone accumulations were the productof hunting or scavenging. There may be a fruitful field of research inlooking more at bone survival in sites where bone accumulations werederived from the killing of domestic mammals. At most early farmingsites it is unlikely that there was significant bone transportation awayfrom the site. Both large and small domestic mammals were killed at thefocus of occupation and it is probable that most bones were discardedthere. The activities of the resident dogs provide a good measure ofdensity-related bone destruction. Mortality patterns are, in most cases,well established from the good survival of the mandibles.I have attempted an approach with an assemblage of cattle bones inwhich the slaughter pattern (survivorship survivorshipn. the right to receive full title or ownership due to having survived another person. Survivorship is particularly applied to persons owning real property or other assets, such as bank accounts or stocks, in "joint tenancy. curve if you prefer) is usedto predict the MIND in each age class and hence the proportions of eachbone that would have been discarded either in the unfused and fusedstate (Legge 1992). While this approach is far from being fullydeveloped, the resulting patterns do suggest a more uniform bonerepresentation among the fused bones when these are viewed separatelyfrom the more juvenile specimens. The fused epiphyses of high densityare consistently represented at 35-40% of the predicted MIND, while thebones that were discarded unfused are represented by 5-15% of thepredicted MIND. The pattern of bone survival is thus related to the agestructure of the death assemblage. It is difficult to see how anypattern of bone survival can have much meaning if the age at death andhence the degree of bone fusion in the discarded bones is not taken intoaccount in this manner.Chapter 8 discusses butchery, butchery practices and the fracturingof bone. This leads us into contentious areas as to the precise meaningof the placing of cut marks and their frequency. Lyman calls for moresystematic research; again, it would be hard to disagree. However, asvarious authors have cautioned, the absence of cut marks need notindicate absence of meat use. Why is it so commonly assumed that meatwas stripped from bones before cooking? The fragmentation of bones isfurther shown to be an area of special study in taphonomic research.Considering that most bones in most bone assemblages are more or lessshattered to fragments, this is not before time.Chapter 9 reviews the many investigations into the weathering of boneand its attrition by agencies such as root etching, trampling and byburning. There is much room here for experiment at faculty barbecues.Charles Darwin, when in the Falkland Islands Falkland Islands(fôk`lənd), Span. Islas Malvinas, officially Colony of the Falkland Islands, group of islands (2005 est. pop. 3,000), 4,618 sq mi (11,961 sq km), S Atlantic, c.300 mi (480 km) E of the Strait of Magellan. , recorded how he ate afillet steak grilled over a fire of made from the bones of the sameferal feraluntamed; often used in the sense of having escaped from domesticity and run wild. bull that provided the meat. In chapters 10 and 11 the burialprocess and the diagenesis diagenesisSum of all processes, chiefly chemical, that produce changes in a sediment after its deposition but before its final lithification. Usually, not all the minerals in a sediment are in chemical equilibrium, so changes in interstitial water composition or in of bones when buried are described. Lymanunderstandably professes amazement at the lack of study of the burialprocess. Most people are happy to accept that the bones are therebecause the accumulation of sediment made it so, but there is much moreto know about this process. Diagenesis too impinges on all who studybones. Under the worst burial conditions no bones survive for us tostudy, while other samples appear almost as fresh and elastic as recentbone where burial conditions have been ideal. Between these extremes arethe more variable conditions that we usually encounter. Some surfaceerosion of bones may be evident and some of the more vulnerable boneswill have been lost altogether. However, the effect of even medium-termburial is difficult to test experimentally, pressures to publish beingwhat they are. Finally chapter 12 is a brief but useful review of thetaphonomy of non-mammalian vertebrates.The concluding chapter, for a book of this length, is rather slender.It focuses on future potential developments in expressing the results oftaphonomic research in a more comprehensible manner; as Lyman says,'Modern taphonomic analysis is (sometimes excrutiatingly [sic])detailed...'. The method suggested by Behrensmeyer allows the manyvariables from a bone investigation to be expressed in a graphical formand is one way to express the complexity in visual form. The bookconcludes with a brief statement of Lyman's view on a generaltheory of taphonomy, or perhaps rather more on the absence of suchgeneral theory, in modern studies. The future, it seems, lies in thestudy of recycling; not of tin cans tin cansput on car of newlyweds leaving ceremony. [Am. Cult.: Misc.]See : Marriage and wine bottles, but of thenutrients contained in bone back into the environment to that pointwhere the bone is longer regarded by carnivores as potential dinner.Vertebrate taphonomy is primarily about research on taphonomicprocess rather than the application of such research to the solution ofarchaeological problems. The reader will gain much knowledge of recenttechniques of study, but rather less about the highlights of appliedtaphonomic studies to archaeology. Even so, Lyman has performed avaluable service to archaeozoology in bringing together so much currentresearch. There is certainly a long way to go before the subject isfully understood, though I suspect that some of the investigationsdescribed will prove, in time, to be of lesser interest. But thisaffects all of our faunal work, and taphonomy is certainly a field aboutwhich all bone workers need to be well informed. This book will helpsignificantly to that end. As would be expected, the book is produced tohigh quality with good illustrations. The index seems a little sparse;for a book of this length and scope this could be more than 7 pages. Forexample, look up 'bone' and you get only a choice of'grain', 'shape' and 'tissue'.A final note of concern. Is the very scope and diversity of'actualistic' taphonomic investigations such that we may betempted to simply choose the best fit for our bone data, rather likebuying a ready made suit? Choose from our wide range of models, andnever mind the quality - feel the width!A.J. LEGGE Centre for Extra-Mural Studies Birkbeck College,University of London For most practical purposes, ranging from admission of students to negotiating funding from the government, the 19 constituent colleges are treated as individual universities. Within the university federation they are known as Recognised Bodies ReferencesBRAIN, C.K. 1967. The contribution of the Namib desert Namib DesertDesert region, extending 1,200 mi (1,900 km) from Namibe, Angola, along the entire coast of Namibia to the Olifants River in South Africa. It is an almost rainless area, 50–80 mi (80–130 km) wide over most of its length, traversed by rail lines Hottentots toan understanding of australopithecine aus��tra��lo��pith��e��cine?n.Any of several extinct humanlike primates of the genus Australopithecus, known chiefly from Pleistocene fossil remains found in southern and eastern Africa.adj. bone accumulations, ScientificPapers of the Namib Desert Research Station 39: 13-22.LEGGE, A.J. 1992. Excavations at Grimes Groves, Norfolk: animals,environment and economy. London: British Museum British Museum,the national repository in London for treasures in science and art. Located in the Bloomsbury section of the city, it has departments of antiquities, prints and drawings, coins and medals, and ethnography. Press.