Construction of chrono-stratigraphic samples (CSS) as a support for taxa quantification in zooarchaeology: an example of the use of this new unit of analysis in the Languedoc region (southern France) from Late Antiquity to the High Middle Ages (3–12th c. AD)

Abstract

The quantification of taxa is a major exercise in zooarchaeology. Specialists have multiplied the methods of counting animal remains, but the choice of the stratigraphic unit for these analyses (stratigraphic unit, sector of an archaeological site, occupation phase of a settlement…) constitutes an equally important, but less debated problem. In this study, we have constructed a new analysis unit that allows us to adapt the quantification of species on an archaeological site according to the volume of animal bones found there. Each chrono-stratigraphic sample (CSS) contains a sufficient number of remains for statistical analysis and preserves as much information as possible about the activities that generated the animal remains composing it. This method was then applied to a dataset of approximately 70,000 animal remains from 34 archaeological sites located in Languedoc (southern France). Their cluster analysis allowed to identify six main patterns of animal remains samples according to their taxa frequencies. Three are linked to the food sphere and the other three include remains of non-consumed species. The analysis of CSS spatial distribution on a few archaeological sites allowed to identify a recurrent sectorization of wastes according to the taxa that compose them. Finally, a diachronic analysis of the frequencies of caprines, cattle, and suids has been performed for the whole region, with the CSS and the occupancy stages as analysis units. The former allows us to identify many more trends, but above all, much finer than the latter.