If you look back in the archives of this list you will see some of
the issues on which zooarchaeologists disagree. I don't even want to
mention them (the Q word) but they are mainly methodological. We
disagree on theoretical approaches too, but we seem to do this in the
privacy of our own labs, so far......
Things then get slightly more complicated when you involve people who
work on other types of material, such as macroplants, pollen, pot,
soil micromorphology and, indeed, archaeological contexts, site
plans and trowels. (Realised too late the latent prejudices
inherent in the word "specialist" - I do know better, honest! :-) )
My problem was that I wanted consistency throughout the paper I was
writing with a fish / mollusca person and an archaeobotanist. I
feel strongly that it is hugely beneficial to integrate as many types
of archaeological evidence together as possible in order to find out
about the past. And if you have to faff about adding "L."'s (or is
it L.1758 :-) ) to your Latinised sheep, and other common mammals,
then I am prepared to do that.
So, I agree with Chris.
Jennifer
> Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 11:36:57 +0100
> Subject: Specialists
> From: wjh101 <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Zooarch Mailbase <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-to: wjh101 <[log in to unmask]>
> In Jennifer Thomas' message, which sparked the interesting group of
> messages on nomenclature, I noticed a humorous (?) reference to the
> possible problems of working with specialists.
>
> Has anyone any comments to make on the problems - or benefits - of
> involving specialists in the analysis of environmental data ? I am
> particularly interested in the question as it applies to bones, and
> whether mammal, bird, fish etc bones from an assemblage should be
> analysed separately by specialists, or whether you think every
> osteoarchaeologist should be able to deal with most assemblages
> adequately, sending only particularly problematical or important
> specimens off to specialists ?
>
> Apart from questions of nomenclature, are there other areas which could
> give rise to problems when integrating zooarchaeological data from
> separate workers on one assemblage ?
>
> Thanks
>
> Will Higgs
> Grad Student, Zooarchaeology
> University of York
>
Jennifer Thoms
Dept of Archaeology,
University of Edinburgh,
12 Infirmary Street,
Edinburgh,
EH1 1LT
Tel: 0131 650 2373 / 2384
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