Taphonomic Effects of a Grassland Fire on a Modern Faunal Sample and its Implications for the Archaeological Record

The main objective of this paper is to characterize the pattern of thermal alteration in a sample of modern bones collected after a natural grassland fire in the Pampas region (Argentina). A total of 917 bone remains were recovered, including a variety of different body size taxa. Results suggest th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Alvarez, María Clara, Massigoge, Agustina, Scheifler, Nahuel Alberto, Gonzalez, Mariela Edith, Kaufmann, Cristian Ariel, Gutierrez, Maria Amelia, Rafuse, Daniel Joseph
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/64231
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/64231
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Naturalistic Taphonomy
Grassland Fire
Vertebrate Bones
Thermal Alteration
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6.1
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6
Descripción
Sumario:The main objective of this paper is to characterize the pattern of thermal alteration in a sample of modern bones collected after a natural grassland fire in the Pampas region (Argentina). A total of 917 bone remains were recovered, including a variety of different body size taxa. Results suggest that natural grassland fires affect bone remains in a more severe way than previously documented. In general, a high proportion of bones with thermal alteration (70%) were recorded for the different body size categories, with calcined bones dominating the sample. Some differences in the burning damage in relation to the size classes were found, specifically a higher frequency of thermal alteration in small sized vertebrates. For this particular size class, the homogeneous distribution of the burning damage in long bones and mandibles could indicate anatural grassland fire, unlike the heterogeneous distribution produced by cooking.