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Animal Bones from Caves to Cities: Reverse Utility Curves as Methodological Artifacts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Curtis W. Marean  and
Carol J. Frey
Curtis W. Marean
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4364
Carol J. Frey
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4364
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Abstract

Utility-based studies are attractive to zooarchaeologists because they afford the opportunity of investigating economic decisions relative to particular contexts. While a positive relationship between utility and skeletal element abundance is anticipated at residential sites, a reverse utility curve is most common. A popular mechanistic explanation argues that reverse utility curves result from density-mediated destruction of bone, suggesting that utility-based studies will rarely be successful as density-mediated destruction will overwhelm any skeletal element patterning created by differential transport. We show with archaeological and experimental/naturalistic taphonomic data that the mechanistic explanation is overstated. Fauna from Kobeh cave (a Mousterian site) and "Ain Dara (an Iron Age site) both show a reverse utility pattern when estimates of long bone abundance are based just on ends (the procedure followed at all sites that have shown a reverse utility pattern), and all bones are plotted together. When long bone abundance is estimated from the middle shaft portion, the reverse utility pattern collapses and a positive relationship arises. The ubiquity of the reverse utility curve derives in many cases from basing long bone abundance estimates on ends and scatter-plotting the abundance of long bones with non-long bones, thus restricting the analysis to the least dense most spongy bone portions. Long bone abundance estimates must include the middle shaft portion to attain accurate estimates of element abundance. Long bone abundance, when based on shaft portions, can be usefully compared to utility to investigate utility-based models of human behavior.

Los estudios zooarqueológicos basados en la utilidad de los elementos óseos brindan la oportunidad de investigar decisions económicas en contextes particulares. Aunque usualmente se anticipa una relatión positiva entre utilidad y abundancia de elementos óseos en sitios residenciales, la curva de utilidad negativa es más común. Una explication mecanistica popular sostiene que tal curva es el producto de destruction diferencial de huesos determinada por densidad más no por transporte; por lo tanto, los estudios de utilidad son raramente exitosos. Utilizando datas arqueológicos y experimentales/naturísticos tafonómicos demostramos que la explicatión mecanística es exagerada. La fauna de la cueva Kobeh (un sito musteriense) y de 'Ain Dara (un sitio de la Edad de Hierro) revela un patrón de utilidad negative cuando los cálcules de abundancia de huesos largos se basan solamente en los extremes de los huesos y vice versa. Por lo tanto, el cálculo de la abundancia de huesos largos debe incluir la portion media del hueso para obtener una aproximación acertada de abundancia de elementos. De esta manera se pueden obtener comparaciones productivas entre utliidad y abundancia para investigar modelos de conducta humana basados en utliidad.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , October 1997 , pp. 698 - 711
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1997

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