Bone Grease Research Articles

A peculiar exploitation of ungulates at Grotta di Santa Croce: bone grease rendering and nutritional patterns among Neanderthals in southern Italy

ABSTRACT Evidence acquired in the past years highlighted the high complexity of Neanderthal subsistence strategies in terms of the spectrum of exploited species (mammals, birds, aquatic resources). However, in many sites diet was mainly focused on the acquisition and processing of large and medium-sized ungulates. In these cases, the evaluation of killing profiles and skeletal frequencies has allowed to highlight behavioural variability among Mousterian populations living in different geographical areas. In the frame of these studies, zooarchaeology and taphonomy of the Middle Palaeolithic phases (MIS 4/MIS 3) from the external deposit of Grotta di Santa Croce (Apulia, southern Italy) are presented in this paper. Faunal assemblage is almost exclusively composed of horse and aurochs remains. The sample, which is not altered by carnivore activities, mainly consists of intensively fractured limb bone shafts and isolated teeth. Epiphyses, tarsal/carpal bones, and phalanges are quite rare, as well as unidentified spongy bone fragments. Analysis of tooth eruption and wear points to the exploitation of adult individuals, rather than juveniles and sub-adults. Body part profiles, as well as mortality ones point to a specific hunting behaviour that may reflect particular nutritional needs. The hypothesis of an intense exploitation of fats is discussed.

Natural disasters and interregional interactions: La Longue Durée in Northern Plains historical developments

Some 6730 radiocarbon years ago, the Plinian eruption of Mount Mazama prompted dispersed bison hunting groups to temporarily abandon their traditional homelands and seek refuge among their distant relatives in the east. During their stay, they established new social ties and learned new technologies such as stone boiling. Returning to their homeland, they adapted this technology to extract bone grease and produce pemmican. This reliable, storable, portable, and nutritious foodstuff provided security for the Northern Plains groups and gave them a valuable trade good to exchange with their eastern neighbors. This natural disaster thus initiated a series of practices to maintain and expand their social safety net through interregional interactions with groups over a very long time. From the exchange of goods and information to the development of extensive trade centers, the bison hunters and their neighbors established an ever-expanding trade network where regional economic, social, ritual and historical practices evolved in tandem with local developments.

Rethinking the emergence of bone grease procurement

The extraction of grease from deliberately comminuted cancellous bone is a low-return activity that has important evolutionary ramifications because it potentially constitutes an early form of resource intensification. From an archaeological standpoint, bone grease extraction is also of significance because it can substantially modify anatomical profiles. Whether this practice is a relatively recent phenomenon or has deep roots reaching back into the Paleolithic, however, remains controversial. The goal of this paper is to cast broader light on the emergence of bone grease procurement by briefly revisiting three French Middle Paleolithic sites (Roc de Marsal, les Pradelles and Grotte du Noisetier) that have been interpreted as potentially early evidence for human processing of cancellous bone for food. To determine whether the published patterns are consistent with this practice, faunal trends at these sites are compared here with recently acquired experimental and ethnographic data on bone comminution activities.The results presented in this paper emphasize the importance of considering human consumption of bone meal as a viable alternative when evaluating competing hypotheses to account for the frequent lack of articular ends in European Paleolithic sites, including many assemblages that show little evidence of carnivore intervention and density-mediated attrition. The analysis also highlights the significance of other activities such as soup making, the use of bone as fuel, ritual disposal of fragments, site cleaning and feeding dogs with pounded bones, which are possible sources of variation when interpreting highly fragmented faunal assemblages. These observations are integrated into a general model focused on the interpretation of bone processing in the archaeological record.

Revisiting Bone Grease Rendering in Highly Fragmented Assemblages

Bone grease rendering is a low-return activity well described in the ethnohistorical and ethnographic literature. However, identifying this activity in archaeological contexts is complex because diagnostic criteria are few. The goals of this article are twofold: (1) to provide new experimental data on bone grease manufacture for assemblages associated with severe fragmentation, and (2) to assess how these data can be used to make stronger inferences about skeletal fat processing in the archaeological record. The results presented here show that, despite some variation, several forms of damage appear to be diagnostic of bone grease manufacture, regardless of the degree of fragmentation. The results indicate that extensive pounding produces many fragments that can be identified as deriving from articular ends, which conflicts with the oft-cited notion that articular ends are destroyed “beyond recognition” during this activity. Consequently, assemblages with few epiphyseal remains are not consistent with bone grease rendering, assuming that the comminuted fragments were not burned or discarded off-site after boiling. Because bone grease manufacture produces many small fragments, a close analysis of the indeterminate remains is strongly recommended, as is the use of fine mesh screens (2 mm or smaller) in excavations.

Using bone fragmentation records to investigate coastal human ecodynamics: A case study from Čḯxwicən (Washington State, USA)

Coastal shell middens are known for their generally excellent preservation and abundant identifiable faunal remains, including delicate fish and bird bones that are often rare or poorly preserved at non-shell midden sites. Thus, when we began our human ecodynamics research project focused on the fauna from Čḯxwicən (45CA523, pronounced ch-WHEET-son), a large ancestral village of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, located on the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Port Angeles, Washington (USA), we anticipated generally high levels of bone identifiability. We quickly realized that the mammal bones were more fragmented and less identifiable than we had expected, though this was not the case with the bird and fish bone or invertebrate remains. To better understand why this fragmentation occurred at Čḯxwicən, we evaluate numerous hypotheses, including both post-depositional and behavioral explanations. We conclude that multiple factors intersected (to varying degrees) to produce the extreme bone fragmentation and low identifiability of mammal bones at the site, including bone fuel use, marrow extraction, grease rendering, tool production, and post-depositional breakdown. Using a human ecodynamics framework, we further consider how both social factors and external environmental forces may mediate human choices, such as the economic decision to use bone for fuel or render bone grease. We place our findings from Čḯxwicən in a regional context and discuss the potential of the approach for other coastal archaeological sites worldwide.

Animal carcass processing, cooking and consumption at Early Neolithic Revenia-Korinou, northern Greece

The open-air settlement of Revenia-Korinou has yielded the largest Early Neolithic (7th millennium BC) faunal assemblage to date from Greece. The assemblage, recovered from numerous pits, is heavily dominated by domestic sheep, goats, pigs and cattle. Here we focus on the evidence for butchery and consumption of animals, to explore how carcass products were cooked (in the absence of cooking pots) and what if any role they played in commensal politics. Evidence for dismembering and filleting is sparse, implying butchery of domestic animal carcasses into large segments (including more or less complete limbs) for cooking, apparently in ovens or pits rather than on open fires. Subsequently limb bones were intensively smashed to extract marrow and probably grease, perhaps by boiling in organic containers. Dismembering, filleting and marrow extraction were most intensive for cattle, but bone grease was more systematically exploited in the case of sheep/goats, implying differences between taxa in contexts of consumption. Significant differences between pits in taxonomic composition and the incidence of gnawing and burning suggest that each represents short-term and/or localized discard, perhaps by a small residential group. Within individual pits, matching unfused diaphyses and epiphyses and joins between fragments broken in antiquity confirm rapid burial, but bones separated by dismembering seem to have been dispersed across the settlement before discard. The distribution of carcass products, both cooked and uncooked, played a role in shaping relationships between small residential units and the wider community at Early Neolithic Revenia-Korinou.

Reduced intensity of bone fat exploitation correlates with increased potential access to dairy fats in early Neolithic Europe

Important nutritional resources can be acquired by breaking bone shafts to access marrow, whereas heavy comminution and boiling of cancellous bone is required to extract bone grease. Since labour and fuel costs of these processes differ considerably, the relative intensities of these activities provide a possible proxy for nutritional stress or elevated fat requirements in the context of an overall subsistence strategy. We investigated faunal material from eleven early Neolithic sites in central Europe for bone fracture and fragmentation patterns to ascertain the intensity of bone marrow and grease exploitation. These data indicate that bone grease processing was practised rarely if at all during the early Neolithic, likely made unnecessary by ample access to crop carbohydrates. Bone marrow was exploited at all sites, but with varying intensity that exhibited a significant negative correlation with the proportion of milk-producing domestic ruminants. This observation is consistent with the hypothesis that fats obtained from dairy products reduced requirements for intensive marrow exploitation.

Dietary Stress and Animal Resource Use at the Postclassic Maya city, Mayapán (Mexico)

ABSTRACTEnvironmental changes resulting in drought and reductions in the availability of animal resources during the Late Classic Maya have been linked with the Maya ‘collapse’. Decreases in availability of dietary staples such as artiodactyls, and particularly white-tailed deer, during the Late Classic period would have placed food stress on populations during later periods. To test this hypothesis, here bone breakage patterns are examined at the Postclassic Maya city, Mayapán, to assess whether artiodactyl bones were being intensively processed for bone fats (marrow and grease). Fragmentation morphology, size and surface markings, along with skeletal part representation and distribution of large mammal bones were recorded for bone assemblages from several houselots. Evidence suggests the Maya were likely utilising bone marrow from artiodactyls but not intensively and they were not extracting bone grease. These results indicate that decreased accessibility to artiodactyls during the Postclassic was not causing high levels of dietary stress for the Maya at Mayapán, which is consistent with recent evidence demonstrating dietary consistency during the Postclassic in northern Yucatan.

NEW CRITERIA FOR THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION OF BONE GREASE PROCESSING

Bone grease processing is frequently used in archaeology to investigate human diet breadth because it constitutes a costly mode of lipid procurement. However, problems of equifinality often complicate the identification of this activity. This paper develops new criteria focused on morphology, the presence of micro-inclusions, and forms of damage that were derived from a bone grease rendering experiment that involved red deer(Cervus elaphus)long bones. Because they are poorly represented in a distinct experiment focused exclusively on marrow extraction, the criteria presented here appear to provide robust signatures of bone grease processing. A survey of the actualistic literature shows that certain bone processing activities, such as stewing and soup making, mostly involve coarse spongy fragments. Because these fragments are too large to be ingested, grease can be extracted from them only through heating or boiling. In contrast, bones ingested in bone meal or as flour necessitate pulverization. A high percentage of coarse fragments may therefore provide a proxy for cooking technology or, minimally, the use of fire, if other patterns are consistent with grease extraction. Given the evolutionary significance of these innovations, the criteria presented here may help to strengthen arguments about dietary shifts during the Paleolithic and later periods.

A new approach to profiling taphonomic history through bone fracture analysis, with an example application to the Linearbandkeramik site of Ludwinowo 7

This paper presents a new method of assessing and displaying taphonomic history through detailed bone fracture analysis. Bone is a particularly useful indicator of taphonomic processes as it is sensitive to when it is broken based on degradation over time. Our proposed ‘fracture history profiles’ show the sequences of fracture and fragmentation that have affected assemblages of bone specimens from the death of the animal to recovery by archaeologists. The method provides an assessment of the carcass processing traditions of past people, relating specifically to bone marrow and bone grease extraction. In addition, by analysing post-deposition fracture and bone modifications caused by burning, gnawing and other taphonomic agents, it is possible to reconstruct a comprehensive taphonomic history for each archaeological context. This has implications for understanding effects on other artefacts that have no equivalent diagnostic features for determining timing of breakage, and also for establishing the nature of events such as secondary disturbance of deposits. This method will be demonstrated using a case study from the Neolithic Linearbandkeramik culture.

Climate-mediated shifts in Neandertal subsistence behaviors at Pech de l'Azé IV and Roc de Marsal (Dordogne Valley, France)

Neandertals disappeared from Europe just after 40,000 years ago. Some hypotheses ascribe this to numerous population crashes associated with glacial cycles in the late Pleistocene. The goal of this paper is to test the hypothesis that glacial periods stressed Neandertal populations. If cold climates stressed Neandertals, their subsistence behaviors may have changed—requiring intensified use of prey through more extensive nutrient extraction from faunal carcasses. To test this, an analysis of Neandertal butchering was conducted on medium sized bovid/cervid remains composed of predominately red deer (Cervus elaphus), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), and roe deer (Capreolus caprelous) deposited during global warm and cold phases from two French sites: Pech de l'Azé IV (Pech IV, Bordes' excavation) and Roc de Marsal (RDM). Analysis of surface modification on high survival long bones and proximal and middle phalanges demonstrates that skeletal elements excavated from the cold levels (RDM Level 4, Pech IV Level I2) at each cave have more cut marks and percussion marks than elements from the warm levels (RDM Level 9, Pech IV Level Y-Z) after controlling for fragment size. At both sites, epiphyseal fragments are rare, and although this pattern can result from carnivore consumption, carnivore tooth marks are almost nonexistent (<0.1%). Alternatively, processing epiphyseal ends for bone grease may have been a Neandertal survival strategy, and epiphyses were more intensively percussed in cold levels than in warm levels at both RDM and Pech IV. The exploitation of low marrow yield elements such as phalanges does not show a consistent pattern relating to climate, but may have been a general Neandertal behavioral characteristic, suggesting that these hominids were regularly on the edge of sufficient nutrient availability even during interglacials. Overall, the faunal assemblages from Roc de Marsal and Pech IV provide some support for the hypothesis that Neandertals were processing faunal remains more heavily during glacial periods, suggesting a response to increased nutritional stress during colder time periods.

Neandertal subsistence strategies during the Quina Mousterian at Roc de Marsal (France)

Recent excavations at the cave site of Roc de Marsal (in the Dordogne region of SW France) have yielded several Mousterian assemblages rich in well-preserved faunal remains. The Layer 4 faunal assemblage, associated with a rich Quina Mousterian occupation, provides an opportunity to investigate Neandertal prey selection, transport decisions and reindeer carcass processing strategies. One of the most striking characteristics of the Roc de Marsal Layer 4 faunal assemblage is an apparent lack of spongy parts that cannot be explained by taphonomic processes or carnivore activities. Limb elements were selectively transported to the site, where they underwent considerable further processing, resulting in a notably high degree of fragmentation of almost all elements. Comparison of reindeer carcass processing strategies employed by Neandertals during the Quina Mousterian with those identified for the later periods of the Upper Palaeolithic gives rise to some unexpected interpretations of Neandertal consumption behaviours. We show that this kind of intensive fragmentation is associated with bone grease rendering in ethnographic and Upper Palaeolithic contexts, in most such cases with the aid of fire. However, evidence of fire is remarkably scarce in Roc de Marsal Layer 4. Layer 4 could reflect a systematic Neandertal practice of sucking and chewing on the spongy portions of bones in order to extract as much of the highly nutritious bone grease as possible. Additionally, Roc de Marsal Layer 4 shows examples of use of animal resources for non-alimentary purposes by Neandertals. The abundance of cutmarks on the anterior surfaces of reindeer metapodials seems to indicate the acquisition of tendons, and bones were frequently used as retouchers.

Patrones de consumo final de cérvidos en el Paraná medio: el caso del sitio Cerro Aguará

Los cérvidos fueron amplia y regularmente explotados por los cazadores-recolectores que habitaron la macroregión del Paraná-Plata durante el Holoceno tardío. En la cuenca media del Paraná, sin embargo, muy pocos estudios han enfocado sobre las estrategias empleadas para su obtención, procesamiento y consumo. El objetivo de este trabajo es explorar dichos aspectos a partir del análisis de los conjuntos de cérvidos provenientes del sitio arqueológico Cerro Aguará, localizado en el departamento General Obligado (provincia de Santa Fe). La perspectiva seleccionada propone al consumo como factor preponderante en la configuración del registro zooarqueológico dentro del continuum de actividades que componen la explotación faunística. Desde este marco de referencia, y tomando en consideración que las carcasas de los cérvidos proveen distintos tipos de recursos alimenticios con diferentes costos de extracción (carne, médula y grasa ósea), se evalúan diferentes indicadores para establecer si existió diferente intensidad en su procesamiento. Los resultados indican que las dos especies de cérvidos identificadas en el sitio, Blastocerus dichotomus y Ozotoceros bezoarticus, ocuparon un rol preponderante en la dieta, aunque las carcasas del primero fueron empleadas más intensivamente probablemente en correlación con su mayor disponibilidad de nutrientes internos.

Brewster site zooarchaeology reinterpreted: understanding levels of animal exploitation and bone fat production at the Initial Middle Missouri type site

Zooarchaeological analyses of Middle Missouri Plains village sites have traditionally relied on species lists and counts of individuals and specimens as a means of interpreting the prehistoric past. The published literature from some of these sites suggests that the fractured and fragmented nature of large mammal bones at Middle Missouri sites serves as evidence of bone marrow and bone grease exploitation. Quantitative approaches to identifying bone fat exploitation and characterising bone fracture patterns allow for more nuanced interpretations of the complex Middle Missouri period village sites of South Dakota and Northwest Iowa. The application of new methods to study the archaeofauna of the Brewster site allows for a reinterpretation of the site's animal economies. New data reveal a consistent pattern of bone fat exploitation at the Brewster site over time, suggest that bone fat exploitation was practiced as an occasional or small-scale activity at the site, and demonstrate the potential of these methods as a means of reinterpreting complex zooarchaeological assemblages. This study also discusses some of the methodological and sampling issues that are critical to achieving accurate, evidence-based results when assessing complex zooarchaeological deposits.Statement of significance The Brewster site is a Native American village in Northwest Iowa that was likely occupied between AD 1100 and AD 1200. The villagers at the Brewster site hunted large mammals from the landscape surrounding their village, and practiced some of the earliest agriculture in the region. As a result, large numbers of bison bones are preserved archaeologically at the site. ~140 kg of bone, excavated in 1970, has been analyzed and reported in this article. When fractured and fragmented bones are found in the archaeological record, they are often associated with the exploitation of bone marrow and bone grease, two highly nutritious substances. This article reports on the relative importance of the bones and bone fragments at the Brewster site with regard to their use and utility as sources of bone fats. While there is some evidence to suggest that the bones were intentionally fractured and fragmented, the evidence suggests that the Brewster villagers frequently ignored the dietary potential of bone fats.Data availability The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. All relevant data are contained within the paper.

A bone grease processing station at the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village: Archaeological evidence for the exploitation of bone fats

Recent excavations at the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village, an Initial Middle Missouri site in Mitchell, South Dakota have revealed a large, clay-lined feature filled with fractured and fragmented bison bones. Fracture and fragmentation analysis, along with taphonomic evidence, suggests that the bones preserved within the feature represent evidence of prehistoric bone marrow and bone grease exploitation. Further, the character of the feature suggests that it served as a bone grease processing station. Bone fat exploitation is an activity that is frequently cited as a causal explanation for the nature of many fractured and fragmented bone assemblages in prehistory, and zooarchaeological assemblages have frequently been studied as evidence of bone fat exploitation. The Mitchell example provides some of the first direct, in-situ archaeological evidence of a bone grease processing feature, and this interpretation is sustained by substantial analytical evidence suggesting bone fat exploitation. This new evidence provides a clearer concept of the nature of bone fat exploitation in prehistory as well as an indication of the scale and degree to which bone grease exploitation occurred at the Mitchell site. Finally, this research demonstrates the importance of careful zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis for the interpretation of both artifactual remains as well as archaeological features.

Evidence of cultural responses to the impact of the Mazama ash fall from deeply stratified archaeological sites in southern Alberta, Canada

In a series of papers, we adopted a regional perspective to explore the short and long-term impacts of the Mount Mazama eruption on the plant and animal communities of the northwestern Plains and later developed a model to explain human responses to this natural disaster. The model assumed the convergence of natural disasters which forced the local bison hunters to abandon the impacted zone and to seek refuge among their distant relatives living beyond the eastern limits of their homeland. Together, the refugees and their hosts intensified their subsistence strategies and adapted or developed new methods of food preparation to accommodate the increased pressure on the local resource base. Throughout their stay, the groups continued to monitor the rebirth of their traditional homeland and eventually returned to the places occupied by their ancestors. Upon their return, the groups continued to hunt bison but adapted the stone boiling technology to produce bone grease and pemmican. This nutritious, storable and transportable food source alleviated the concerns about long-term shortages and became an important product in the regional exchange networks. The primary objective of this paper is to test this model using sedimentary, pedological and archaeological data recovered from two deeply stratified sites with evidence of human occupations before and after the eruption of Mount Mazama.

Smaller fragment size facilitates energy-efficient bone grease production

Conventional zooarchaeological wisdom holds that reduction of bone into small fragments, modally 2–5 cm in maximum dimension, facilitates the extraction of bone grease. However, experiments by Church and Lyman showed no statistically significant differences in amounts of grease extracted from 1 cm, 2 cm, and 4 cm bone fragments. Our research assessed whether other factors, including water and fuel inputs, could influence the degree of bone comminution for grease extraction. Experimental grease extraction from 15 cattle (Bos taurus) femora, reduced to similar maximum dimensions as in the Church and Lyman study, supports their finding that grease yield does not significantly increase in fragments <4 cm. However, our research shows that smaller fragment sizes require less water, and hence less fuel, to produce the same grease yields. These results suggest a tradeoff between the work it takes to produce very small modal bone fragment size and broader-scale fuel, water, and human energy budgets.

Early Upper Paleolithic bone processing and insights into small-scale storage of fats at Vale Boi, southern Iberia

The Upper Paleolithic site of Vale Boi in coastal, southwestern Portugal currently represents one of the earliest known cases of grease-rendering in Eurasia, with initial occupation of the site occurring during the early Gravettian at ∼28,000 BP. Already by this time, Vale Boi foragers were intensively processing ungulate carcasses by rendering grease from their bones. Zooarchaeological evidence of grease rendering includes extensive fragmentation of red deer and equine remains, abundant evidence of impact features on specimens and a lower proportion of preserved grease-rich skeletal portions. Comparisons of red deer and horse bone portions with density assays and utility indices suggest that ungulates at Vale Boi were systematically processed for their marrow and bone grease. The early onset of grease-rendering at Vale Boi, in addition to heavy rabbit exploitation may have been spurred by ungulate communities unable to support human consumer-demand on their own. However, the continued practice of grease-rendering at Vale Boi over the course of the Upper Paleolithic may also be closely related to the significance of bone fats for mobile hunter–gatherers – as a highly valued, storable and easily-transportable resource.

Intensive subsistence practices at Vale Boi, an Upper Paleolithic site in southwestern Portugal

The coastal site of Vale Boi is unique in southern Portugal for its well-preserved and lengthy Upper Paleolithic cultural record. The archaeological context of Vale Boi suggests that the site was treated as a seasonal residential camp. Long-term exploitation of marine resources is indicated by marine shellfish remains and tentative evidence of fishing. High-level exploitation of rabbits (Oryctolagus) began with the initial use of Vale Boi (c. 28,000 BP) and continued throughout the duration of site occupation. Intensive grease-rendering of ungulate bones is demonstrated by the presence of impact features, reduced presence of skeletal portions associated with increased quantities of bone grease and a significant correlation between the fragmentation of red deer (Cervus elaphus) remains and the quantities of marrow and bone grease within these portions. Although grease rendering at Vale Boi pre-dates other known sites in Eurasia by several thousand years, faunal assemblages in Mediterranean Spain suggest that resource diversification connected with intensification may have appeared there coevally with Vale Boi. The application of models of diet breadth and patch-choice suggests that southern Iberia may not have had the large and medium game to easily support human consumer demand. Instead, foragers may have had to turn to novel approaches of resource harvesting to maintain their needs. This set of circumstances may have arisen from a patchy landscape, where resources were either spatially and/or seasonally restricted.

Evaluating Intensity in the Processing of Guanaco (Lama Guanicoe) at the Lower Basin of the Colorado River (Argentina): Fragmentation Levels and Fracture Patterns Analysis

This article explores the levels of fragmentation and fracture patterns in archaeofaunal assemblages from the lower basin of the Colorado River (Argentina) following Outram's methodology. Remains of ungulates (guanaco) have suffered, in these assemblages, a high degree of fragmentation probably caused during the processing of the carcasses. The presence of helical debris and shaft fragments indicates that fragmentation would respond to processing tasks for the consumption of marrow and possibly bone grease. The results of the application of this methodology that were obtained from the analysis of three late Holocene sites (La Primavera, Loma Ruiz 1 and El Tigre) are presented. These results provide new evidence not only for patterns of marrow and bone grease consumption but also for dealing with the subsistence model proposed for the study area. In this sense, the intensification processes already proposed during the final late Holocene (1000–250 bp) are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.