Archaeological skeletal part profiles and differential transport: An ethnoarchaeological example from Hadza bone assemblages

Skeletal profiles of medium-sized prey (> 40 kg) are often used by archaeol ogists as one line of evidence to infer prehistoric body-part transport pat terns. However, recent theoretical and ethnoarchaeological research is divi ded over the types of bone assemblages that have the best potential for acc urately reflecting transport and discard patterns. This paper quantitativel y evaluates the usefulness of skeletal part profiles as evidence of differe ntial transport from ethnoarchaeological Hadza bone assemblages. Skeletal p art abundances from different types of Hadza sites (butchering sites, a hun ting blind, and a residential base) are compared to previously reported obs ervations of body part transport/discard decisions (O'Connell et al. 1988, 1990). Analysis of these assemblages suggests that observed Hadza transport /discard decisions are more accurately reflected by small-scale, single-eve nt butchering stands. Larger-sized bone assemblages representing amalgamati ons of many butchering events poorly reflect observed transport and discard patterns. The results of this analysis show that under circumstances where prey are singly acquired, small sites may reveal a far more accurate pictu re of prehistoric body-part transport patterns than large and highly visibl e archaeological sites. (C) 2001 Academic Press.