FOCUS: on the use of the petrous bone for estimating cranial abundance in fossil assemblages |
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Authors: | Guy Bar-Oz Tamar Dayan |
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Affiliation: | 1. Laboratory of Archaeozoology, Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel;2. Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel |
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Abstract: | Low representation of braincase bones in zooarchaeological assemblages suggests that skulls have been intensively processed by Levantine Epipalaeolithic foragers; most cranial elements are often unidentifiable and are considered poor candidates for quantifying crania. In contrast, the petrous bone is usually found complete, and was found to be easily identifiable to body size category. Use of the petrous bone in fossil assemblages analyses leads to better estimation of the occurrence of cranial elements, and thus of skeletal part representation. We therefore suggest use of the petrous bone for detecting bone destruction and selective transport in faunal assemblages. |
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Keywords: | Braincase Cranium Petrous Skeletal part representation Taphonomy Zooarchaeology |
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