A preliminary application of dental cementum incremental analysis to determine the season-of-death of equids from the Xujiayao site, China

Abstract

Seasonality study of Paleolithic archaeological faunal assemblages is important for reconstructing modes of animal death and ancient hominin strategies for prey acquisition. The dental cementum of animal teeth records the season of an individual animal in which it died, providing the necessary evidence for determining any patterns in season of death. This article presents the procedure and preliminary results of the application of cementum incremental analysis to equid teeth, which comprise the dominant component of the fauna from the Xujiayao Site—an early Late Pleistocene archaeological site in China. Results show multi-seasonal use in both the upper and lower layers of this site. Furthermore, attention is given to the method’s future application in seasonality studies at Paleolithic archaeological sites in China.