Chapter 34 - Trace Fossils in an Archaeological Context: Examples from Bison Skeletons, Texas, USA

Abstract

This chapter describes ichnofossils on late Pleistocene-aged bison bones from a Paleoindian kill site at Lipscomb, Texas, USA. It provides a useful guide to differentiate the traces and marks left on bones by different organisms and agents in an archaeological context. Insect-feeding and - pupation behavior leave traces that can be distinguished from other taphonomic signatures including weathering, root etching, gnawing, prehistoric human-food processing, and damage sustained through excavation and subsequent preservation. These trace fossils provide information on the seasonality of death and site-formation processes, including when the bison were killed, the position of the carcasses on the landscape, stages of faunal succession and decomposition within the carcasses, rate and depth of burial, and butchering techniques. Invertebrate trace fossils can be distinguished from other taphonomic features including root etching, weathering, and human trace fossils—both ancient and modern. The occurrence of trace fossils on these 11,000-year-old bones is probably an unusual event; this is one of the few Paleoindian sites where the prey animals were dispatched during the summer, an optimal time for arthropod and microbial interactions on carcasses in temperate zones. Identification of the tracemakers can also potentially provide information on the environment and climate of the southern High Plains during the terminal Pleistocene. Humans create trace fossils; however, conventional ichnology does not recognize them as tracemakers. However, in the context of understanding organism–medium interactions, it is necessary to recognize human–medium interactions as trace fossils, particularly those that are pre-Holocene in age.