Quantifying the energetic returns for pronghorn: a food utility index of meat and marrow

Abstract

This paper presents a FUI for pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) to provide an analytical tool for zooarchaeologists working on the Great Plains to the Great Basin. We collected and butchered three pronghorn between October 2012 and February 2013. The butchered anatomical units were weighed to determine mass and butchering process was timed to yield processing times. The mass was then converted to energy (kcal) and with the addition of the processing times, we provide the energetic return rates (kcal/h). Based on these results, we are able to rank the economic value of each anatomical unit. We then compared these economic values to three pronghorn communal kill sites. The results of this study indicate a preferential bias toward appendicular elements for marrow processing. This study contributes to the investigation of human subsistence on pronghorn and to the growing literature detailing the importance of this species to North American human prehistory.