Aussie animals confound archaeologists
28 MAY 2018
Identifying species from bite-mark evidence turns out to be a thankless task. Andrew Masterson reports.
A tiger quoll might be small, but its jaws are so powerful it can give a dingo a run for its money.
CRAIG RJD/GETTY IMAGES
One of the often difficult jobs faced by archaeologists is working out what’s been chewing on the finds.
Collections of animal bones in a single area, and confined to a single layer, are known as faunal assemblages. They are in many cases treasure troves of useful information, providing insight into what communities ate, how they hunted, butchered, treated bones, and disposed of remnants.
Interpreting the evidence, however, is not always straightforward, in large part because other animals – after the humans have been at work – often make a meal of what’s left.
In most parts of the world, the task of identifying marks made by the teeth and jaws of such secondary feeders (be they companion animals or visiting carrion-eaters) is relatively easy. This is because scientists have conducted experiments, giving various modern animals – dogs, coyotes, bears and raccoons, for instance – juicy bits of bone to have a go at, and then, afterwards, meticulously catalogued the indentations, punctures and scrapes made by their teeth and claws.
More:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/archaeology/aussie-animals-confound-archaeologists
