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Faunal remains are parts of animals that have been left in the material record, which archaeologists study. These remains are important to the record because they can show cultural practices, such as what food they were eating, based on the remains left behind. [ 11 ]
For example, if the faunal remains appear to have been butchered or sawn by hand, it is possible to link the remains to the 19th and early 20th century where this method of butchering animals for food was common. The size of the ecofact can also reveal information as to whether the food was locally grown or imported. [7]
In archaeology and paleontology a faunal assemblage is a group of animal fossils found together in a given stratum. [1] In a non-deformed deposition, fossils are organized by stratum following the laws of uniformitarianism [2] and superposition, [3] which state that the natural phenomena observable today (such as death, decay, or post-mortem transport) also apply to the paleontological record ...
Faunal remains are considered to include both fish, birds, and mammals. These remains are used to reconstruct past environments and identify how animals impacted human economies. The study of ancient animal remains is referred to as zooarchaeology. Once bones are collected, cleaned, and labeled, specialists begin to identify the type of bone ...
Animal remains were the first evidence used by 19th century archaeologists. Today, archaeologists use faunal remains as a guide to the environment. It helps archaeologists understand whether the fauna were present naturally or through activities of carnivores or people. [4] Archaeologists deal with macrofauna and microfauna. Microfauna are ...
A set of mammal bones which may be from several specimens. In various archaeological disciplines including archaeology, forensic anthropology, bioarchaeology, osteoarchaeology and zooarchaeology, the number of identified specimens (also number of individual specimens or number of individual species), or NISP, is defined as the number of identified specimens for a specific site.
Additionally, faunal analysis exists to study artifacts in the form of animal remains. Just as with lithic artifacts, faunal remains are extremely common within the field of archaeology. Faunal analysis provides insight to trade due to animals being exchanged in different markets over time and being traded over long distances.
Such botanical macrofossil data provide a valuable complement to pollen and faunal data that can be used to reconstruct the prehistoric terrestrial environment. Algal macrofossils (for instance, brown kelp , sea lettuce and large stromatolites ) are increasingly used to analyze prehistoric marine and aquatic ecosystems .