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The Study of Osteological Materials in the Plains*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Theodore E. White
Theodore E. White*
Affiliation:
Dinosaur National Monument, Vernal, Utah
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Extract

Many archaeological sites in the Missouri Valley have produced large quantities of unworked animal bones. Most of these “food” bones are mammalian, with some bird, turtle, and fish. Recent studies by Lehmer (1952; 1954) and the series of studies by the author in American Antiquity (Vols. 17, 19, and 21) indicate that this material has important cultural implications which should not be overlooked. First of all, it is desirable to review briefly some of the questions which can be answered by study of the unworked bone.

1. Did the people exercise any choice in the age of the animals they killed? This question can be determined with a fair degree of probability only with the mammals. An estimate of the age can be determined from the teeth (whether they are deciduous or permanent, and by the amount of wear) and from the relation of the epiphyses to the diaphyses. Criteria for these estimates, applicable to the larger game animals, are given in standard textbooks of the anatomy of the domestic animals.

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , April 1956 , pp. 401 - 404
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1956

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Footnotes

*

Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. This paper was previously published in slightly extended form in the News Letter of the Plains Archeological Conference, 1953, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 8-15.

References

Lehmer, D. J. 1952 Animal Bone and Plains Archeology. News Letter of the Plains Archeological Conference, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 53–5. Lincoln.Google Scholar
Lehmer, D. J. 1954 Archeological Investigations in the Oahe Dam Area, South Dakota, 1950–51. Riuer Basin Survey Papers, No. 7. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 158. Washington.Google Scholar
White, T. E. 1953 A Method of Calculating the Dietary Percentage of Various Food Animals Utilized by Aboriginal Peoples. American Antiquity, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 396–8. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar