Butchery and Natural Disarticulation: An Investigatory Technique

Abstract

The relative frequencies of intact skeletal joints in accumulations of mammalian remains can be used to produce models of the ways skeletons break apart in different circumstances. Information concerning disarticulation in the natural environment permits the detection in archaeological situations of features that may be due to prehistoric human butchery practices. The sequence of disarticulation of excavated Bison occidentalis butchered by North American Paleoindians is compared with that derived from natural assemblages of modern African Topi, Damaliscus korrigum.