Dear all,

The study of about 50 000 bone remains from the roman town of Paris (PhD in 
discertation phase) indicates that in this particular context maximum 
species richness (not diversity as these species are rare) is attained 
around 6 000 NISP. The number of species in this hand collected sample 
grows following a logarithmic curve with a plateau of about 30 species 
(including fish and micromammals) around 6 000 NISP. Herd management drown 
from mandibular ages was particulary informative on samples per period per 
settlement with an MNI ranging from 34 to 102 for caprines and 34 to 108 
for pigs.
Bone measurements  are better illustrated with the largest samples as we 
get a clearer idea of the fluctuation of the measurements of a given bone 
besides increasing the probability of encountering whole bones. Large 
samples of bones allowed measuring intrasamlpe diversity for a given 
period; this helps afterwards for spotting true diachronic variability in 
addition to making inferences about population heterogenity (depending on 
sex and animal format).
Of course dealing with multiple contexts and large samples doesn't always 
guarantee making things clearer as complications due to the type of 
accumulation and spatial variability may occur... (this complexity is 
undoubtedly interesting in itself and deserves developing even if this is 
pretty difficult for the time been for roman contexts as little is known 
about the functionning of the towns of this period at this scale).

All this stands for this particular roman context with samples providing 
from habitats and their immediate surroundings and which reflect 
then  domestic butchery and meat consumption for a given habitat of the 
town. Large layers of cattle butchery refuse for instance, don't deserve 
full study as they don't reflect food intake, in that case we were only 
concerned with  mandibular ages and bones measurements in addition to 
qualitative description of butchering process. One may also check the MNI 
for an estimation of the number of processed cattle within this layer even 
if this does not reflect the real number as the butchery refuse must have 
been carried out of the town or dumped straight in the river (The butchery, 
tanning and bone working seems to occur close to the river).



Tarek OUESLATI (PhD student)
Archéozoologie et Histoire des sociétés
Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle
Lab. d'Anat. Comparée
55 rue Buffon
75005 Paris