Dear all,
I don't think it is useful to establish a somewhat dogmatic "anti MNI
corner", as quoted by Terry, usage of MNI or other
individual-counting (better: -guessing) methods can be valuable for
the interpretation of neatly demarcated contexts like sacrificial
pits or similar assemblages - there is no doubt.
Analyzing of large-sized bulks of plain, not well stratified osseous
rubbish by means of MNI counting must be misleading, bearing in mind
the broad range of possible soil mixing and shifting activities.
Another methodical problem, able to cause severe biasses, are the
different levels of determination, reached by different analysts. As
far as I know, it is still not common practice to determine fragments
of the axial skeleton, like ribs and vertebrae up to the species
level, and even if it is done, differentiation of cervical, thoracic
and lumbar vertebrae is no common practice as well.
At a site in Ephesos I could distinguish a striking difference
between bovine remains from Flavian and Severian layers on the one
hand and from Hellenistic layers on the other, concerning
specifically the composition of skeletal elements, when Roman
findings displayed an overwhelming predominance of axial parts, in
particular lumbar vertebrae, and Hellenistic waste was composed
"normally".
Apart from the incompetence of MNI counting in order to describe this
economy-related finding, I think we really should talk about what we
are counting, or better, what we think is worth counting! (I know,
Jaqui and some others mentioned this before). As to my opinion, we
should determine (and count) as much as possible, if necessary at the
expense of sample-size. And I think it is much better to publish
results from three well stratified and scrutinously analyzed
few-thousand-fragments assemblages than summarizing commonplaces
from ten bulky and therefore rapidly overwiewed rubbish heaps.
Cheers from Vienna,
Gerhard
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Forstenpointner
Dept. Anatomy
University of Veterinary Medicine
Veterinaerplatz 1
A-1210 Vienna, AUSTRIA
ph.:0043/1/25077/2503
homepage: http://www.vu-wien.ac.at/i101/
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