Shechita and Kashrut: Identifying Jewish populations through zooarchaeology and taphonomy. Two examples from Medieval Catalonia (North-Eastern Spain)

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Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering

Anna K. Behrensmeyer (1978)

Bones of recent mammals in the Amboseli Basin, southern Kenya, exhibit distinctive weathering characteristics that can be related to the time since death and to the local conditions of temperature, humidity and soil chemistry. A categorization of weathering characteristics into six stages, recognizable on descriptive criteria, provides a basis for investigation of weathering rates and processes. The time necessary to achieve each successive weathering stage has been calibrated using known-age carcasses. Most bones decompose beyond recognition in 10 to 15 yr. Bones of animals under 100 kg and juveniles appear to weather more rapidly than bones of large animals or adults. Small-scale rather than widespread environmental factors seem to have greatest influence on weathering characteristics and rates. Bone weathering is potentially valuable as evidence for the period of time represented in recent or fossil bone assemblages, including those on archeological sites, and may also be an important tool in censusing populations of animals in modern ecosystems.

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Taphonomic investigations of owl pellets

Peter Dodson, Diane Wexlar (1979)

Owls are important consumers of small vertebrates, and because they regurgitate pellets rich in bone, they may be important potential contributors of the concentrated remains of small vertebrates to the fossil record. Owls of three sizes, the large great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), the medium-sized barn owl (Tyto alba), and the small screech owl (Otus asio), were fed a common diet of mice. The bony contents of the pellets were analyzed to determine the amount of bone loss by digestion, bone completeness, and sites of bone breakage. For all three species, only about half the number of bones ingested were recovered in the pellets. Mandibles and femora were most abundant, and pelves and scapulae were the least abundant. Screech owls broke 80% of the cranial and limb elements, barn owls only 30%. Skulls fared poorly in great horned and screech owl pellets, while barn owls returned 80% of the skulls intact, with only the caudal portion of the cranium damaged; barn owls also returned articulated strings of vertebrae and complete paws. These results provide a baseline for the recognition of owls as agents of accumulation of small bones in the fossil record and suggest that the actions of ancient predators may be revealed by species-specific patterns of bone destruction of an assemblage of fossil prey species.

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Assessing the reliability of criteria used to identify postcranial bones in sheep, Ovis, and goats, Capra

Melinda A Zeder, Heather Lapham (2010)

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Title: Quaternary International

Abbreviated Title: Quaternary International

Publisher: Elsevier BV

ISSN (Print): 10406182

Publication date Created: April 2014

Publication date (Print): April 2014

Volume: 330

Issue:

Pages: 109-117

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DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2013.12.035

SO-VID: bb40af83-c9ef-4c2b-87a9-629e28834490

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Shechita and Kashrut: Identifying Jewish populations through zooarchaeology and taphonomy. Two examples from Medieval Catalonia (North-Eastern Spain)

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Most cited references 7

Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering

Taphonomic investigations of owl pellets

Assessing the reliability of criteria used to identify postcranial bones in sheep, Ovis, and goats, Capra

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