Author:
Breslawski Ryan P.,Byers David A.
Abstract
AbstractAlthough 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.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Museology,Archeology,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous),History
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