Presentation
Taphonomic and taxonomic comparisons of bird and mammal remains from Tse-whit-zen
The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology
(2015)
Abstract
Birds are often relatively scarce in Northwest Coast shell middens in comparison to fish, mammal and shellfish. However, large numbers of bird bones have been recovered from Tse-whit-zen. In fact, bird bones are both more numerous and more identifiable than mammal bones at the site. In the largest house structure, 47% of the bird bones greater than ¼" in size were identified to taxon (79% of those were identified to element). In contrast, the mammal identifiability rate ranged from 7% to 16%. The differences are driven primarily by fragmentation rates, with mammal bones experiencing a high level of pre-depositional crushing, presumably for grease extraction. Despite the major differences in fragmentation, the percent of burned bones is broadly similar between birds and mammals (32-33%). The interpretation of the burning patterns, however, is different for birds vs. mammals. Mammal bones appear to have been burned as part of the grease extraction process, whereas the bird bones often reflect the effects of roasting whole birds over open flames. Murre, duck and deer dominate the Structure 1 assemblages during both chronozones 3 (1450-1000 BP) and 4 (700-350 BP), with an apparent pulse in Pinniped and pelagic bird taxa around 700 BP.
Keywords
- Shell Middens,
- Taphonomy,
- Zooarchaeology
Disciplines
Publication Date
2015
Location
San Francisco, CA
Citation Information
Taphonomic and taxonomic comparisons of bird and mammal remains from Tse-whit-zen. Kristine Bovy, Michael Etnier. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 395351)