Artiodactyl skeletal part representation at middle period and Early Plateau Pithouse tradition sites on the Interior Plateau, British Columbia: a view from EdRh-31
| dc.contributor.author | Badenhorst, Shaw | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-03-13T23:07:40Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-03-13T23:07:40Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2009 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The earliest occupation of the site of EdRh-31 on the Interior Plateau of British Columbia dates to the Lochnore Phase of the early Plateau Pithouse Tradition. The faunal remains indicate that the people who occupied the site hunted artiodactyls, hunted or snared small animals such as hares, collected freshwater mussels and occasionally fished. Previous research on three sites roughly contemporaneous with EdRh-31 found that artiodactyl metapodials dominate the associated faunal assemblages, leading to the interpretation of these sites to be animal butchering camps. Analysis of the heavily fragmented EdRh-31 bone assemblage, however, suggests that the dominance of artiodactyl metapodials is not necessarily the result of cultural activity but may also reflect a suite of taphonomic processes. While not discounting the possibility that some of these sites functioned as butchering camps, this article draws attention to possible ambiguities in the interpretations of faunal assemblages. French version: L’occupation la plus ancienne du site EdRh-31, situé sur le plateau intérieur de la Colombie-Britannique, remonte à la phase Lochnore de la tradition Plateau Pithouse. Les restes fauniques indiquent que les occupants chassaient les artiodactyles, chassaient ou colletaient le petit gibier dont le lièvre, ramassaient des moules d’eau douce et pêchaient à l’occasion. Les recherches antérieures sur trois sites d’ancienneté similaire au EdRh-31 montrent que les métapodes d’artiodactyles dominent les collections fauniques, menant à l’interprétation de ces sites comme des camps de boucherie. Toutefois, l’analyse des ossements très fragmentés du site EdRh-31 ne conduit pas nécessairement à une explication culturelle pour la dominance des métapodes, qui peut aussi résulter de processus taphonomiques. Sans exclure la possibilité que certains de ces sites aient accueilli des activités de boucherie, cet article attire l’attention au potentiel d’ambiguïtés qui guette l’interprétation des collections fauniques. | |
| dc.description.reviewstatus | Reviewed | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Faculty | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Badenhorst, S. (2009). Artiodactyl skeletal part representation at middle period and Early Plateau Pithouse tradition sites on the Interior Plateau, British Columbia: A view from EdRh-31. Canadian Zooarchaeology / Zooarchéologie canadienne, 26, 25–41. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/21431 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Canadian Zooarchaeology / Zooarchéologie canadienne | |
| dc.rights | Attribution 4.0 International | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
| dc.title | Artiodactyl skeletal part representation at middle period and Early Plateau Pithouse tradition sites on the Interior Plateau, British Columbia: a view from EdRh-31 | |
| dc.type | Article |