‘Residues of parts unchewable’: stages two and three of a multivariate taphonomic analysis of the Dunefield Midden bovid bones

Abstract

This paper presents the second and third stages of a multivariate taphonomic analysis of the bovid bone assemblage from Dunefield Midden (DFM), a Later Stone Age site on South Africa's west coast. The second stage investigates bovid skeletal element abundance and longbone fragmentation patterns at the site. The third stage integrates these data with bone modification data (Stewart 2010) to explore overall taphonomic variability between three different bovid size subgroups – small, small-medium and large. The results suggest that humans were the prime agents of assemblage formation, though carnivores are also implicated as contributors to density mediated attrition. The predominant taphonomic signatures of all bovid size classes are consistent with within-bone nutrient acquisition by the site's occupants. However, major differences are apparent between the subgroups in element representation, longbone portion abundance and fragmentation patterning. These differences are shown to reflect variation in processing/food-preparation behaviours related to carcass size. It is suggested that whereas intensive fragmentation of large bovid bones resulted from efforts to render bone grease, the small bovid bone assemblage was structured by marrow extraction. Further, small bovid elements with high marrow utility may have been preferentially targeted and treated in more standardised fashion. The small-medium bovids, most of which are domesticates (sheep), exhibit intermediate patterning between the other two, but this may be a sampling issue related to their relative scarcity at DFM.