Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Archaeological survey and site discovery in the forested neotropics
- 2 The archaeology of community organization in the tropical lowlands: a case study from Puerto Rico
- 3 Archaeological methods for the study of ancient landscapes of the Llanos de Mojos in the Bolivian Amazon
- 4 Searching for environmental stress: climatic and anthropogenic influences on the landscape of Colombia
- 5 “Doing” paleoethnobotany in the tropical lowlands: adaptation and innovation in methodology
- 6 Plant microfossils and their application in the New World tropics
- 7 Differential preservation histories affecting the mammalian zooarchaeological record from the forested neotropical lowlands
- 8 Biological research with archaeologically recovered human remains from Ecuador: methodological issues
- 9 Interpreting dietary maize from bone stable isotopes in the American tropics: the state of the art
- 10 From potsherds to pots: a first step in constructing cultural context from tropical forest archaeology
- 11 Returning to Pueblo Viejo: history and archaeology of the Chachi (Ecuador)
- References
- Index
7 - Differential preservation histories affecting the mammalian zooarchaeological record from the forested neotropical lowlands
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Archaeological survey and site discovery in the forested neotropics
- 2 The archaeology of community organization in the tropical lowlands: a case study from Puerto Rico
- 3 Archaeological methods for the study of ancient landscapes of the Llanos de Mojos in the Bolivian Amazon
- 4 Searching for environmental stress: climatic and anthropogenic influences on the landscape of Colombia
- 5 “Doing” paleoethnobotany in the tropical lowlands: adaptation and innovation in methodology
- 6 Plant microfossils and their application in the New World tropics
- 7 Differential preservation histories affecting the mammalian zooarchaeological record from the forested neotropical lowlands
- 8 Biological research with archaeologically recovered human remains from Ecuador: methodological issues
- 9 Interpreting dietary maize from bone stable isotopes in the American tropics: the state of the art
- 10 From potsherds to pots: a first step in constructing cultural context from tropical forest archaeology
- 11 Returning to Pueblo Viejo: history and archaeology of the Chachi (Ecuador)
- References
- Index
Summary
Of all the complex and specialized material culture which the Tropical Forest peoples had developed to cope with their difficult environment only a few axe fragments and a vast mass of smashed pottery remain (Lathrap 1970: 63)
As one of the foremost practitioners of archaeological research in the forested neotropical lowlands, Donald Lathrap was preoccupied with preservation biases in the buried record. He inspired us to judge the effects of differential preservation on the archaeological record, view negative evidence with healthy skepticism (for example, Lathrap 1968a: 77), and avoid conferring undue emphasis on enhanced preservation in arid contexts (for example, Lathrap 1973a: 92; 1974: 115). Lathrap's intense interest in the origin and dispersal of early agricultural systems led him to champion the use of indirect evidence (for example, Lathrap 1970: 48; 1973a: 91; 1973b: 174–176; 1974: 115, 130; 1977: 740), and encourage us to make the most of rare lowland contexts in which preservation was favorable (for example, Lathrap 1973a: 91).
A basic axiom in tropical archaeology is that organic residues perish quickly in lowland environments. Archaeologists traditionally dismissed the possibility that organic remains might be recovered in significant quantities. Even where preservation is excellent and recovery intensive, archaeofaunal samples are still often small. The few surviving bones are substantially fragmented, thereby compromising identification of larger animals.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Archaeology in the Lowland American TropicsCurrent Analytical Methods and Applications, pp. 154 - 180Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995
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