Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T04:43:45.105Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Skeletal Fat, Processing Intensity, and the Late Holocene Bison from Baker Cave, Southern Idaho

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ryan P. Breslawski  and
David A. Byers
Ryan P. Breslawski
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, 3225 Daniel Avenue, Dallas, TX 75205-1437 (rbreslawski@mail.smu.edu)
David A. Byers
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology, 0730 Old Main Hill, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-0730
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although Idaho’s Snake River Plain contains a trans-Holocene record of bison exploitation, archaeologists have rarely investigated carcass butchery strategies in the region. We fill this knowledge gap with a study of bison remains from Baker Cave, a late Holocene processing site on the eastern Snake River Plain. We hypothesize that these remains resulted from fat-seeking behavior in response to winter fat scarcity. We explore this hypothesis with a series of variables designed to measure processing intensity: Impacts per Element, Percent Complete, and Number of Identified Specimens/Minimum Number of Elements. All three variables generate similarly strong correlations with skeletal fat utility, suggesting that Baker Cave’s inhabitants organized processing efforts around winter fat scarcity.

Aunque la llanura del Snake River de Idaho contiene un registro trans-Holoceno de explotación de bisontes, arqueólogos han raramente investigado las estrategias de procesamiento carnicero de carcasas en la región. Zanjamos esta brecha de conocimiento con una investigación de restos de bisontes de Baker Cave, un sitio Holoceno tardío de procesamiento de bisontes en la llanura oriental del Snake River. Llegamos a la hipótesis de que estos restos resultan de comportamiento de búsqueda de grasa en respuesta a escasez invernal de grasa. Exploramos esta hipótesis con una serie de variables diseñadas para medir la intensidad de procesamiento: impactos por elemento, porcentaje completo, y Número de Ejemplares Identificados/Número Mínimo de los Huesos. Las tres variables generan correlaciones con utilidad de grasa esquelética de fuerza similar, sugiriendo que los habitantes de Baker Cave organizaron los esfuerzos de procesamiento alrededor de la escasez invernal de grasa.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 184 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by the Society for American Archaeology.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Bartram, Laurence E. Jr. 1993 Perspectives on Skeletal Part Profiles and Utility Curves from Eastern Kalahari Ethnoarchaeology. In From Bones to Behavior: Ethnoarchaeological and Experimental Contributions to the Interpretation of Faunal Remains, edited by Jean Hudson, pp. 115–137. Occasional Paper No. 21. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Bartram, Laurence E. Jr., and Marean, Curtis W. 1999 Explaining the “Klasies Pattern”: Kua Ethnoarchaeology, the Die Kelders Middle Stone Age Archaeofauna, Long Bone Fragmentation and Carnivore Ravaging. Journal of Archaeological Science 26:9–29.Google Scholar
Bettinger, Robert L. 2009 Hunter-Gatherer Foraging. Eliot Werner, Clinton Corners, New York.Google Scholar
Binford, Lewis R. 1978 Nunamiut Ethnoarchaeology. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Binford, Lewis R. 1981 Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Blumenschine, Robert J., and Marean, Curtis W. 1993 A Carnivore’s View of Archaeological Bone Assemblages. In From Bones to Behavior, edited by Jean Hudson, pp. 273–300. Occasional Paper No. 21. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Breslawski, Ryan P. 2014 The Baker Cave Bison Remains: Bison Diminution and Late Holocene Subsistence on the Snake River Plain, Southern Idaho. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology, Utah State University, Logan.Google Scholar
Brink, Jack W. 1997 Fat Content in Leg Bones of Bison bison, and Applications to Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:259–274.Google Scholar
Bunn, Henry T., Bartram, Laurence E., and Kroll, Ellen M. 1988 Variability in Bone Assemblage Formation from Hadza Hunting, Scavenging, and Carcass Processing. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 7:412–457.Google Scholar
Butler, B. Robert 1978 Bison Hunting in the Desert West before 1800: The Paleo-Ecological Potential and the Archaeological Reality. Plains Anthropologist 23:106–112.Google Scholar
Byers, David A. 2002 Paleoindian Fat-Seeking Behavior: Evidence from the Hell Gap Site, Locality II Agate Basin Faunal Assemblage. Plains Anthropologist 47:359–377.Google Scholar
Emerson, Alice M. 1990 Archaeological Implications of Variability in the Economic Anatomy of Bison bison. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman.Google Scholar
Gould, Russell T., and Plew, Mark G. 1996 Prehistoric Salmon Fishing in the Northern Great Basin: Ecological Dynamics, Trade-Offs, and Foraging Strategies. In Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Fishing Strategies, edited by Mark G. Plew, pp. 64–83. Boise State University, Boise, Idaho.Google Scholar
Haynes, Gary 1980 Evidence of Carnivore Gnawing on Pleistocene and Recent Mammalian Bones. Paleobiology 6:341–351.Google Scholar
Haynes, Gary 1983 A Guide for Differentiating Mammalian Carnivore Taxa Responsible for Gnaw Damage to Herbivore Limb Bones. Paleobiology 9:164–172.Google Scholar
Henrikson, L. Suzann 1996 Prehistoric Cold Storage on the Snake River Plain: Archaeological Investigations at Bobcat Cave. Monographs in Idaho Archaeology and Ethnology No. 1. Idaho State Historical Society, Boise.Google Scholar
Henrikson, L. Suzann 2002 Ponds, Rivers and Bison Freezers: Evaluating a Behavioral Ecological Model of Hunter-Gatherer Mobility on Idaho’s Snake River Plain. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene.Google Scholar
Henrikson, L. Suzann 2003 Bison Freezers and Hunter-Gatherer Mobility: Archaeological Analysis of Cold Lava Tube Caves on Idaho’s Snake River Plain. Plains Anthropologist 48:263–285.Google Scholar
Henrikson, L. Suzann 2004 Frozen Bison and Fur Trapper’s Journals: Building a Prey Choice Model for Idaho’s Snake River Plain. Journal of Archaeological Science 31:903–916.Google Scholar
Henrikson, L. Suzann 2005 Bison Heights: A Late Holocene Bison Kill Site on Idaho’s Snake River Plain. North American Archaeologist 26:333–355.Google Scholar
Hill, Matthew G., May, David W., Rapson, David J., Boehm, Andrew R., and Castillo, Erik Otarola 2008 Faunal Exploitation by Early Holocene Hunter/Gatherers on the Great Plains of North America: Evidence from the Clary Ranch Sites. Quaternary International 191:115–130.Google Scholar
Kreutzer, Lee A. 1992 Bison and Deer Bone Mineral Densities: Comparisons and Implications for the Interpretation of Archaeological Faunas. Journal of Archaeological Science 19:271–294.Google Scholar
Kuntz, Mel A., Spiker, Elliott C., Rubin, Meyer, Champion, Duane E., and Lefebvre, Richard 1986 Radiocarbon Studies of Latest Pleistocene and Holocene Lava Flows of the Snake River Plain, Idaho: Data, Lessons, and Interpretations. Quaternary Research 25:163–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Patrick J., Buchanan, Briggs, and Johnson, Eileen 2005 Sexing Bison Metapodials Using Principal Component Analysis. Plains Anthropologist 50:159–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupo, Karen D. 2006 What Explains the Carcass Field Processing and Transport Decisions of Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers? Measures of Economic Anatomy and Zooarchaeological Part Representation. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 13:19–66.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. Lee 1994 Vertebrate Taphonomy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.Google Scholar
McNab, Brain K. 2002 The Physiological Ecology of Vertebrates: A View from Energetics. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London.Google Scholar
Marean, Curtis W., and Cleghorn, Naomi 2003 Large Mammal Skeletal Element Transport: Applying Foraging Theory in a Complex Taphonomic System. Journal of Taphonomy 1:15–42.Google Scholar
Marean, Curtis W., and Frey, Carol J. 1997 Animal Bones from Caves to Cities: Reverse Utility Curves as Methodological Artifacts. American Antiquity 62:698–711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Susanne J. 1987 The Fauna of Baker Caves. In Archaeological Investigations at Baker Caves I and III: A Late Archaic Component on the Eastern Snake River Plain, edited by Mark G. Plew, Max G. Pavesic, and Mary A. Davis, pp. 25–42. Archaeological Reports No.5. Boise State University, Boise, Idaho.Google Scholar
Miller, Susanne J. 1990 Faunal Analysis. In Cultural Resource Investigations of the Bonneville Power Administration’s Goshen-Drummond No. 1 Transmission Line, Southeastern Idaho, edited by Stan Gough, pp. 67–73. Reports in Archaeology and History No. 100–68. Eastern Washington University, Cheney.Google Scholar
O’Connell, James F., Hawkes, Kristen, and Blurton Jones, Nicholas G. 1988 Hadza Hunting, Butchering, and Bone Transport and Their Archaeological Implications. Journal of Anthropological Research 44:113–161.Google Scholar
O’Connell, James F., Hawkes, Kristen, and Blurton Jones, Nicholas G. 1992 Patterns in the Distribution, Site Structure and Assemblage Composition of Hadza Kill-Butchering Sites. Journal of Archaeological Science 19:319–345.Google Scholar
Plew, Mark G. 1990 Modelling Alternative Subsistence Strategies for the Middle Snake River. North American Archaeologist 11:1–15.Google Scholar
Plew, Mark G. 2003 Archaeological Evidence of Storage on the Snake River Plain. North American Archaeologist 24:271–280.Google Scholar
Plew, Mark G. 2005 Comments on Bison Freezers and Hunter-Gatherer Mobility: Archaeological Analysis of Cold Lava Tube Caves on Idaho’s Snake River Plain. Idaho Archaeologist 28(2):23–26.Google Scholar
Plew, Mark G. 2009 Archaic Hunter-Gatherer Diet Breadth and Prey Choice on the Snake River Plain. Journal of Northwest Anthropology 43:27–56.Google Scholar
Plew, Mark G., Pavesic, Max G., and Davis, Mary A. 1987 Archaeological Investigations at Baker Caves I and III: A Late Archaic Component on the Eastern Snake River Plain. Archaeological Reports No.5. Boise State University, Boise, Idaho.Google Scholar
Plew, Mark G., and Sundell, Taya 2000 The Archaeological Occurrence of Bison on the Snake River Plain. North American Archaeologist 21:119–137.Google Scholar
Speth, John D., and Spielmann, Katherine A. 1983 Energy Source, Protein Metabolism, and Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence Strategies. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2:1–31.Google Scholar
Todd, Lawrence C. 1983 The Horner Site: Taphonomy of an Early Holocene Bison Bonebed. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Wolverton, Steve 2002 NISP/MNE and %Whole in Analysis of Prehistoric Carcass Exploitation. North American Archaeologist 23:85–100.Google Scholar