Search results for "Taphonomy"
showing 10 items of 90 documents
The conformation of Mesolithic deposits in Cueva de la Cocina (Eastern Iberia): Natural vs. Anthropological agents
2018
Cocina Cave fue excavada por primera vez por Llu s Pericot durante la década de 1940 del siglo XX. Debido a la metodología arqueológica seguida en ese momento, pueden surgir algunos problemas en aras de la precisión necesaria de hoy. Los objetivos principales del equipo de la Universidad de Valencia que trabaja actualmente en el sitio no son solo proporcionar una excavación más detallada dentro del marco estratigráfico reciente, pero también para comprender mejor cómo los procesos humanos y tafonómicos se reflejan en las excavaciones antiguas. Mediante el uso de nuevas metodologías, como la reconstrucción virtual en 3D, hemos podido descubrir cómo se implementan algunos procesos naturales a…
Disentangling human from natural factors: Taphonomical value of microanatomical features on archaeological wood and charcoal assemblages
2020
International audience; Archaeobotanical charcoal and wood analyses rely on the observation of different macro and microanatomical features affecting wood structure to variable extents. These features may result from a wide range of intrinsic and extrinsic factors alluding to different stages of the wood's taphonomical history: initial growth conditions, human selection, transformation/use and discard, post-depositional processes and archaeological sampling strategies. Papers in this volume address taphonomy in this broad sense, through recent methodological work mainly based on experimentation and case studies from a variety of chrono-cultural and geographical contexts. The authors present…
Understanding the Impact of Trampling on Rodent Bones
2022
Experiments based on the premise of uniformitarism are an effective tool to establish patterns of taphonomic processes acting either before, or after, burial. One process that has been extensively investigated experimentally is the impact of trampling to large mammal bones. Since trampling marks caused by sedimentary friction strongly mimic cut marks made by humans using stone tools during butchery, distinguishing the origin of such modifications is especially relevant to the study of human evolution. In contrast, damage resulting from trampling on small mammal fossil bones has received less attention, despite the fact that it may solve interesting problems relating to site formation proces…
Observations préliminaires à l'étude des remplissages des tombes du Néolithique moyen I de Gurgy "Les Noisats" (Yonne)
2008
This paper presents results of experimental digging and filling of a pit in gravel context. That experimentation is the first step of an integrated analysis about sedimentary dynamic in neolithic burials from Gurgy « Les Noisats » (Yonne, France).
Animal Remains in Burials
2022
International audience; Archaeological analyses have the potential to reveal the role of animals in funerary practices from past societies. This aspect of the relationship between humans and animals as glimpsed from the perspective of burials, benefits from favourable taphonomic conditions due to the care taken in the deposition of the remains and their rapid burial, that protects them from the action of scavengers and weathering. However, positive taphonomic conditions are not always sufficient to provide all of the answers to the questions raised by the animal remains present in burials. Indeed, practices are very diverse across the world and through time, but can also vary between two co…
Sedimentology and vertebrate fossils of the Frasnian Ogre Formation, Gurova outcrops, eastern Latvia
2020
Combined sedimentological and palaeontological study of the siliciclastic sequence of the Ogre Formation in the easternmost area of its distribution in Latvia was aimed at the facies analysis of the deposits and at detailed observation of the taxonomical and taphonomical peculiarities of the fossil vertebrate assemblage. Two facies associations, tidally-influenced fluvial channels and lateral tidal bars, have been identified in exposures along the Gurova River. Sedimentological evidences suggest that the studied deposits were formed in the fluvial environment with strong tidal influence. The sedimentary concentrations of vertebrate remains, dominated by the antiarch Bothriolepis maxima, por…
Towards the identification of a new taphonomic agent: An analysis of bone accumulations obtained from modern Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus)…
2014
This paper presents the results of a study of bones recovered in various current Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) nests in a Mediterranean region of the Iberian Peninsula. The Egyptian vulture, a diurnal, scavenging, rupicolous bird of prey, is one of four vulture species that currently inhabit the Iberian Peninsula. An analysis of the remains found in the nests confirms that it has a heterogeneous diet that includes remains from human activities (butchery and food production) and the carcasses of dead animals, although it is possible that they also prey on small-sized taxa. The taphonomic study determines these birds' capability of transporting, accumulating and altering bone remai…
Geochemistry of phosphatic nodules as a tool for understanding depositional and taphonomical settings in a paleolithic cave site (San teodoro, Sicily)
2021
Interpreting depositional settings of cave sites is generally problematic, especially in absence of palaeontological/archaeological evidence. This is the case of some deposits at San Teodoro Cave (Sicily), a key site for the Mediterranean Palaeolithic. In a stratigraphic level interrupted by a carbonatic concretion, phosphatic nodules are present only in the part enclosed between the concretion and the cave wall. The discovery of these nodules combined with the punctual lack of fossils had initially suggested an erosion phenomenon and subsequent formation of nodules at a vadose level. Here we show the usefulness of an integrated, geochemical-palaeoecological approach in defining stratigraph…
Late Pleistocene vertebrate - bearing deposits at San Teodoro Cave (North-Eastern Sicily): Preliminary data on faunal diversification and chronology
2008
Abstract This paper deals with the chronology and the possible correlations among levels of different excavated areas in the Pleistocene vertebrate-bearing deposits at the large San Teodoro Cave (North-Eastern Sicily). Two trenches have been excavated along the eastern side of the cave, located at a distance from the entrance, respectively, of 8 m ( α trench) and 28 m ( β trench) and at different depths. Lithological features, biometrical data from small mammals and ecological data from molluscs point to similar environmental conditions for the α trench deposits and those located along the eastern wall of the cave in the eastern part of the β trench. The same evidence, and the taphonomic fe…
A well-preserved crinoid stem in a building stone (Early Carboniferous, Mississippian) at Maastricht, the Netherlands
2017
An exceptionally well-preserved and long crinoid stem is exposed on a slab of decorative Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian) limestone in front of an opticianʼs in Maastricht-Wyck, the Netherlands. The pluricolumnal is incomplete, but is c. 176.5 mm long by at least 7.0 mm wide and with a broad axial canal. The column is heteromorphic, N3231323. The specimen most likely represents a cladid or monobathrid that was preserved parallel to bedding.