On relative quantification of faunal remains from archaeological sites
Abstract
In analysing a bone material from a site there are often fragments which just can be identified as belonging to a group of species, or higher taxa, such as sheep/goat, bovids/cervids, without possibility to identify the actual species. Such fragments may in some connections be numerous and are generally disregarded in connection with the interpretation of the material, or more inconclusively with respect to the different species involved, treated as a unit. In connection with analysing a bone material from the Middle Neolithic Age in Sweden, the author has shown that a simple statistical argument may be applied in order to allocate the main part of fragments identified to groups of species as belonging to specified species. The application and the limitations of this principle is discussed.
