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Título
Do human butchery patterns exist? A study of the interaction of randomness and channelling in the distribution of cut marks on long bones
Autor(es)
Palabras clave
Butchery
Cut marks
Taphonomy
Bone surface modification
Wavelet
Geospatial analysis
Fecha de publicación
2021
Resumen
Bone surface modifications (BSMs) in faunal assemblages are frequently used to infer past agency and actions of hominins and carnivores, with implications for the emergence of key human behaviours. Patterning of BSMs has mostly been defined as a combination of the intensity of marks per bone portion and sometimes per element. Numerous variables involved in butchery can condition cut mark anatomical distribution, so much so that these variables are widely assumed to be stochastic. Here, we present a new methodological approach using a novel geospatial tool (Ikhnos) which combines the three-dimensional spatial documentation of cut mark patterns with spatial statistics based on wavelets, applied to three experimental and ethnoarchaeological faunal assemblages. We use wavelets to identify patterning of multiple longitudinal series of cut mark distributions on bones, and to establish similarities or differences in patterning within and across different assemblages. This method demonstrates the existence of general and behaviour-specific butchery patterns. It can also be used to effectively assess the proportion of mark clustering that is due to randomness, versus that which is conditioned by the butchery process.
URI
ISSN
1742-5689
DOI
10.1098/rsif.2020.0958
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