1 Provenience. From a much larger series, a total of 263 pieces of bone were selected for in-depth study (Table A1.1, site 3). These fragments make up 3.0% of our grand total from all sites. Assuming that the stratigraphic level designations for different excavation years each belong to the same stratum, then our sample breaks down to being 0.8% Level 4, 44.5% Level 5, 9.9% Level 6, and 44.9% Level 7.
2 Species. Working with small fragments of bone, species identification was as difficult as we have found in most other Siberian sites studied to date. Only one fragment out of 263 could be identified (reindeer), whereas nearly 90% were unidentifiable (Table A1.2, site 3). We might have done a little better had co-author Ovodov been with us. However, even with his many years of experience, Ovodov usually has strong reservations about making identifications when few anatomical landmarks are present. Identifying species from bone splinters and flakes, which make up 85% of the Bolshoi Yakor sample, has almost never been attempted by Ovodov. Ineshin and Tetenkin (1995) list the following forms as having been present: polar fox, fox, elk, reindeer, roe deer, white partridge, perch, and pike. They do not list any extinct species.
3 Skeletal elements. Cranial fragments, however small, are generally easy to identify, even if the species to which they belong are not. Hence, the very low frequency (4.9%) of cranial elements, including antler, listed in Table A1.3 (site 3) indicates that these elements are actually missing from our sample. Equally apparent is the low frequency of vertebrae (1.1%) and the absence of pelvic fragments. Pieces of long bones are abundant, and without exception in this sample of263 pieces, all were broken open. Ribs are well represented, and to some extent this likely results fTom their easy recognition. Foot bones are also easy to identify, even more so since most are largely undamaged, containing as they do but little nutrient and even less usefulness for bone tool fabrica-tional purposes. Given the overall severe damage, coupled with the missing cranial elements, no reliable MNI (minimal number of individuals), or other such characterizations can be provided. NISP values (number of identified specimens) are, however, possible to generate and are provided in Table A1.2 (site 3). Compared with our pooled assemblage averages, the main exceptional difference is that Bolshoi Yakor has more long bone pieces. It also has more unknown pieces.
4 Age. Sub-adulthood was identified on the basis of incomplete epiphysial closure or tooth eruption. Although the age ofhalf ofthe 263 pieces could not be assessed (Table A1.4, site 3), it would appear that sub-adults were not common. Of the 127 pieces for which relative age could be determined, only two (1.6%) were sub-adult. There were no fragments suggesting fetal, neonatal, or very aged individuals. Compared with our pooled assemblage average for sub-adults, there is definitely a deficiency in the frequency of Bolshoi Yakor sub-adults. This suggests possible seasonality, perhaps late fall or winter hunting.
5 Completeness. Of262 pieces, there were no whole bones in the Bolshoi Yakor sample (Table A1.5, site 3). More than 90% of all skeletal elements lacked both anatomical ends, indicating very intensive processing, coupled with the fact that no very large mammal such as mammoth, rhinoceros, or bison is represented in the assemblage. Very large mammal bones are much more difficult to break up than those of smaller mammals such as reindeer. Compared with our pooled assemblage average, Bolshoi Yakor has significantly more pieces lacking both ends.
6 Maximum dimensions. Since all bones in this sample had been broken into two or more fragments, the size statistics (Table A1.6, site 3) are indicative of the extent of reduction. In our sample selection procedure we used only specimens whose maximum dimension was greater than 2.5 cm. The mean of 6.0 cm is only slightly greater than two times the minimum selection size. Similarly, the standard deviation (4.0 cm) is small, and taken together with the mean clearly shows a considerable amount of bone fragmentation and reduction. Presumably this severe fragmentation indicates bone boiling to extract the calorie-rich fatty tissue (marrow) from the interior of skeletal elements, especially the long bones. Fragmentation of bones without much marrow probably represents the desire to boil off the small amounts of edible tissue still attached to bones after butchering. When Bolshoi Yakor is compared with the values for our pooled assemblage, the latter has a larger mean, standard deviation, range, and standard error. Looking at undamaged long bone lengths provided by Vera Gromova (1950, table 27), the Bolshoi Yakor I upper range limit of 50.5 cm matches the upper range limit of three out of five elk bones, and is larger than any of the long bones of reindeer or roe deer.
7 Damage shape. Despite the numerous descriptive categories of damage types possible for the 263 Bolshoi Yakor pieces (Table A1.7, site 3), the vast majority (91.0%) are flakes, fragments, and splinters. Combining these three damage forms in our pooled assemblage adds up to a considerably smaller value. Again, this clearly reflects the intensive butchering and perimortem processing this assemblage received.
8 Color. More than 75% of the 262 Bolshoi Yakor pieces are ivory colored, the condition that accompanies good preservation (Table A1.8, site 3). All of the black and white pieces represent burned bone, as does one ivory colored piece. Two of the brown pieces were probably also burned. Altogether, burning can be identified in 4.6% of this sample. This amount of burning is several times greater than our pooled assemblage average. There were additional burned and calcined Bolshoi Yakor fragments, but they were not scored because their size was smaller than the minimal study size of 2.5 cm.
9 Preservation. A hard ivory quality, in contrast with a soft chalky condition, occurs in 90.1% of the 263 Bolshoi Yakor pieces (Table A1.9, site 3). As with color, this hardness indicates good preservation conditions. Most of the pieces were not exposed to weathering (cracking, exfoliation, bleaching, and denaturing) that occurs during an extended period of time on or just beneath the ground surface. Most must have been rather quickly embedded into the cold protective soil of the site. This embedding could have been readily caused by human trampling due to heavy or repeated use of the site area. Some of the soft chalky pieces are calcined as a result of intense burning. The pooled assemblage has a generally poorer quality.
10 Perimortem breakage. One piece (0.4%) of the 263 in this Bolshoi Yakor sample lacked perimortem breakage (Table A1.10, site 3). This is an exceptionally large amount of processing, which correlates well with the assemblage’s small average fragment size (mean: 6.0 cm). Compared with our pooled assemblage’s perimortem breakage average, Bolshoi Yakor has significantly more (99.6%). The extreme amount of perimortem bone breakage, following carcass processing (slaughtering and dressing out the meat), documents the Bolshoi Yakorians’ desire for the calorie-rich marrow and bone grease. Perhaps a small amount of the breakage might have been caused by scavengers after the departure(s) of the hunters and their families.
11 Postmortem breakage. This type of damage occurs at a much later time after death, a time when bone has become sufficiently denatured so that when broken, the fracture surfaces lack the curved and smooth appearance of perimortem breakage. Most postmortem breakage is the result of exposure to trampling, redeposition, decomposition, and archaeological recovery methods. Only seven of the 263 Bolshoi Yakor pieces (2.7%) exhibit postmortem breakage (Table A1.11, site 3). Compared with the pooled assemblage average, Bolshoi Yakor has much less postmortem breakage.
12 End-hollowing. One of the diagnostic perimortem taphonomic features of prolonged carnivore chewing is end-hollowing, which is rare in archaeological sites, but common in carnivore sites such as the Razboinich’ya hyena cave (Turner et al. 2001b). Only one (0.4%) of 263 Bolshoi Yakor fragments shows end-hollowing (Table A1.12, site 3). This suggests that scavengers did not stay long at Bolshoi Yakor after human departure, or at least there was but little activity by scavengers within the area of the site excavated so far. Compared with the pooled assemblage average, end-hollowing occurred less often.
13 Notching. The edge of a fracture may show one or more semicircular puncture-like notches caused by carnivore teeth or human bone smashing. Human-caused notching sometimes also shows some manner of indentation rarely seen in carnivore notching. One can further distinguish between the two agencies by accompanying tooth scratches or tooth dints. Out of 263 pieces, Bolshoi Yakor has 6.5% with notches (Table A1.13, site 3). Six of the 17 Bolshoi Yakor notched pieces also have tooth scratches or tooth dints (tooth cusp marks); 11 do not. Although some tooth damage may in fact have been caused by stone tools or bone mallets used by humans to break up whole bones, it is very doubtful that all six of the notched and scratch-dinted pieces resulted from human butchering. Hence, carnivores such as dogs must have been in the camp at the time the humans were present, or other carnivores scavenged the bone refuse after the humans left or even as they slept. (In the senior author’s archaeological fieldwork in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, he frequently had foxes come into camp in the evening to dig in the trash pit for anything edible.) As fragments with notching, tooth scratches, and/or dints were found in differing levels (Levels 5-7), joint human-carnivore activity would appear to have occurred repeatedly, perhaps during or following each time Bolshoi Yakor was occupied by its human inhabitants. Compared with our pooled assemblage average, Bolshoi Yakor has fewer examples of notching.
14 Tooth scratches. Carnivore tooth scratches occur most often on the outer cortex of a bone fragment. At Bolshoi Yakor tooth scratches are short and shallow, suggesting they were left by relatively small carnivores such as dogs or foxes. Out of263 pieces, there are only five with tooth scratches, amounting to only 1.9% of the total sample (Table A1.14, site 3). One of the five pieces has 30 scratches. This possibly might have been caused by human mimicry of carnivore damage. However, it is the largest piece in the sample, being a 50.5 cm fragment of reindeer antler, and it does have the carnivore indicators of end-hollowing and tooth dinting. A large piece of chewable bone or antler would probably be the target of carnivore activity rather than most of the much smaller pieces that make up this sample. Compared with the pooled assemblage average, Bolshoi Yakor has fewer tooth scratches.
15 Tooth dints. Out of 263 Bolshoi Yakor pieces, 8.0% have two or more tooth dints (Table A1.15, site 3). The number of dints per piece ranges fTom two to more than seven. Ofthe21 pieces with dinting, 19.0% have associated tooth scratches. Given that there are only five pieces with scratches, the dint-scratch association is substantial. Compared with the pooled assemblage, Bolshoi has fewer pieces with tooth dints, suggesting a limited carnivore presence during or after humans occupied the site.
16 Pseudo-cuts. There are three Bolshoi Yakor pieces out of 263 with damage considered to be pseudo-cuts (Table A1.16, site 3). Each of the three has a single pseudo-cut. This is a damage type that by itself cannot be readily distinguished from stone tool cut marks. However, each Bolshoi Yakor pseudo-cut is associated with carnivore damage done at the same time, hence the pseudo-cut designation. One of these fragments, a 12.6 cm splinter, also has five tooth dints. The second, a 10.0 cm splinter, has eight tooth dints and polishing in the middle of the fragment. The third, a 4.4 cm flake, has four tooth dints and polishing on both an end and the middle. Polishing of the middle portion of a fragment is more likely to have been done by carnivores than polishing on the ends, which could have resulted fTom some form of boiling and stirring of fragments to obtain bone grease. Cooking of this sort could have been done in a water-filled leather bag brought to a near-boiling temperature with cobbles heated in a campfire. Compared with the pooled assemblage average, Bolshoi Yakor has fewer pseudo-cuts, supportive of our view that the bone assemblage signals only a minor carnivore presence.
17 Abrasions. This form of multiple and parallel striation damage is experimentally known to occur when a struck bone slips on an anvil stone, or from a glancing impact from a rough hammer stone. There are only three (1.1%) Bolshoi Yakor examples with abrasion damage out of 263 (Table A1.17, site 3). The number of abrasion striations ranges fTom 10 to 45. It would appear that most of the bone breakage was done with a non-abrasive tool, such as a long bone billet or antler mallet, and whatever anvil was used to help crack bones open, it was smooth, like bone or wood, not abrasive and granular like most types of stone. Compared with the pooled assemblage average, Bolshoi Yakor abrasion frequency is nearly identical.
18 Polishing. As mentioned above, polishing at or near the middle of a fragment is thought to represent carnivore activity, whereas fragment end-polishing could be produced by human or carnivore activity. As Table A1.18, site 3, shows, 12.1% of257 Bolshoi Yakor pieces have polishing. Two of the 31 pieces have only mid-piece polishing. This is assumed to be due to carnivore chewing. Allowing for the possibility that some ofthis mid-fragment polishing resulted from non-carnivore activity, such as trampling, there is, nevertheless, a fairly strong suggestion of carnivore activity that matches rather well the amount suggested by tooth dinting, scratching, and end-hollowing. However, the polishing is not heavy like that characteristic of bone fragments from the Razboinich’ya hyena cave, so, again, the carnivores are presumed to be relatively small dog - or fox-sized animals.
19 Embedded fragments. This damage feature was initially identified in the Razboinich’ya assemblage in large and deep tooth dints and in notched fracture surfaces. Subsequently, it has been observed in archaeological sites as well. Thus, it occurs in both carnivore - and human-derived bone assemblages. Of 263 Bolshoi Yakor pieces, 3.1% of the sample have one or more embedded fragments (Table A1.19, site 3). No embedded fragments are associated with tooth dinting, scratching, end-hollowing, and mid-piece polishing. Two are associated with notching and two are associated with cutting or abrasions. Four have no other association besides perimortem breakage. Thus, pieces with embedding at Bolshoi Yakor are more likely the result of bone breakage by humans than by carnivores. Compared with the pooled assemblage average, Bolshoi Yakor has nearly the same frequency of embedding.
20 Tooth wear. There are only two tooth-bearing pieces in the Bolshoi Yakor assemblage (Table A1.20, site 3). Both have fox-sized tooth crowns that are moderately worn into the dentine (grade 1); however, the crowns are not worn off completely (grade 2). This degree of wear likely represents middle age.
21 Acid erosion. Surface erosion is common in bone fragments from the Razboinich’ya hyena cave, and some are as large as 7.0 cm in diameter. Only one of the 263 Bolshoi
Yakor pieces greater than the minimum study size has stomach acid erosion (Table A1.21, site 3). It is a 3.6 cm, irregularly shaped foot bone fragment belonging to an unknown species. There were two other acid-eroded fragments, but both were smaller than the minimal 2.5 cm diameter and so were not counted. Each of these small pieces was presumably swallowed accidentally by a relatively small carnivore, such as a dog or fox. They were found in Level 5 (1989), in which were also found burned fragments and fragments with stone tool cut marks. Since we currently lack experimental evidence on the possibility that the human digestive system can also produce acid erosion, these eroded pieces should be regarded as having been swallowed by carnivores.
22-24 Rodent gnawing, insect damage, human bone. There are no pieces in this sample of263 Bolshoi Yakor pieces that has either of these markings, nor is there any human bone.
25 Cut marks. Cut marks are generally distinguishable by their straightness, V-shaped cross-section, and one end of the cut usually being deeper than the other. Tooth marks are characteristically U-shaped in cross-section, and rarely straight. Plant root marks are semicircular in cross-section, if old, and almost always exhibit a random somewhat dendritic wandering pattern with one end commonly deeper than the other. A substantial 12.2% (32/263) of the Bolshoi Yakor assemblage has cut marks (Table A1.25, site 3). The number of cuts per cut piece ranges from 1 to 21, with the average being 5.1 incisions. Cut marks were present on pieces of long bones, vertebrae, metapodials, mandibles, ribs, one scapula, and on several unidentifiable pieces. Butchering dismemberment can be recognized in three pieces by cut marks near a joint of each one. Compared with the pooled assemblage average, Bolshoi Yakor has more cut marks and ranks in the upper third for the number of cut pieces. This amount of cutting goes along with our view that the Bolshoi Yakor site represents one having had intensive carcass processing.
26 Chop marks. Chop marks differ from cuts in being larger, deeper, often circular, and often with ragged edges. They are presumably produced by a large stone tool and delivered forcefully as impact blows rather than the slicing motion that produces cut marks. Only 2.2% (6 / 263) of the Bolshoi Yakor sample has chop marks (Table A1.26, site 3). Of the six chopped pieces there are 1-5 chops per piece. Altogether, there are 17 chop marks, making the average 2.8 chops per chopped piece. Chop marks occur on pieces of long bones, one rib, and one metapodial. Compared with the pooled assemblage average, Bolshoi Yakor has fewer chop marks.
World History
