Is it Human? Engaging in the academic and forensic applications of Zooarchaeology

UC North Ballroom

Zooarchaeology is the study and identification of animal skeletal remains and their relationship with human interaction. It is a heavily methodologically based, world-wide discipline that can be uniquely tailored to the context and research question of the archaeological site/region under review. It requires a significant amount of hands-on training in order to identify bone fragments to the most specific species level and element possible using the size, shape, and density of the remains. When expanding the analyst’s view to the other variables that can be considered, measures such as burning, cut marks, tooth marks, and fracture types can build a larger picture of human relationships with animals in the environment. While looking at faunal analysis through this lens, zooarchaeology falls into a more traditional archaeological application of using animal bones to help reconstruct past environments. By shifting to a more modern context, though, species identification is an invaluable skill used to differentiate human from non-human bones in forensic contexts. This can quickly help determine the forensic significance of a set of remains and whether further recovery is necessary. While most zooarchaeologists are capable of basic species identification, many are not trained in human osteology and require further education to better round out their available skillset when in the field as educators, consultants, and researchers.

This poster will focus on two case studies on the different applications of zooarchaeological techniques in archaeology and forensics. The archaeological case study will examine the faunal remains from site 48PA551, located in the Sunlight Basin of Northwest Wyoming, dated to the Middle Archaic period (ca. 3800-4400 radiocarbon years BP). This includes a discussion of the variables analyzed and some general conclusions about human interactions with the environment based on the faunal data. The forensic case study will review a case presented to the University of Montana Forensic Anthropology Lab (UMFAL) in 2017 involving comingled human and animal remains and the ability to provide law enforcement with a well-rounded biological profile and forensic report based on the ability to identify the faunal remains more specifically than non-human and not of forensic significance.

At a university that has one of the largest comparative collections of North American animals in the country, the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum (UMZM), and the availability of a human osteological collection, the University of Montana Forensic Collection (UMFC) housed with the anthropology department, the ability to teach and provide technical lab training for both undergraduate and graduate students alike is a real possibility. Further engagement in both the law enforcement and archaeological communities could provide students with abundant opportunities to learn widely marketable, interdisciplinary lab skills using biology, zoology, anatomy, and anthropology not available at many higher education institutions across the country.