Mortality Profile and Taphonomy : A Look at Huron Deer Procurement

Abstract

Faunal assemblages that preserve in the archaeological record and reach the desk of zooarchaeologists are not always representative of past subsistence practices and diet. Taphonomic factors affect bone accumulation, deposition and preservation at archaeological sites and these need to be filtered out before conclusions are drawn about human behaviour and the exploitation of faunal resources. In this study, ethnohistoric references to Huron subsistence are confronted with faunal data from a late prehistoric site. The analysis reveals that taphonomic processes have altered bone deposition and preservation of the faunal assemblage, in general, and of the collection white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) remains, in particular. The mortality profile constructed with the use of NISP counts reveals low relative percentage of young deer in the assemblage. Taphonomic processes, rather than game procurement strategies are invoked as the main causal factor behind such distribution.