I am teaching a week-long seminar entitled "Excavation and Analysis of
Animal Bone" at the Arkansas Archeological Society's annual field school next
month. The field school is geared toward training amateurs in order to have a
base of well-trained volunteers to call upon when needed. I have been
putting together my syllabus and lecture notes, and planning the lab and field
excercises that I plan to include. The class meets for five days in four-hour
blocks. My class includes interested amateurs and college students, some of whom
are archaeology majors. These seminars are very intensive (I've taken a few!) My
goals are to present as much useful information as possible in the time allotted
without either overwhelming or boring my students. I would be interested to know
what topics the members of this list consider important for such a group to be
familiar with. The topics on my tentative list so far include:
What can be learned from animal bone?
The vertebrate skeleton: anatomy and terminology
The deer (I include this as an example of vertebrate anatomy and it is the
animal they are most likely to encounter at any archaeological site in the
region from any time period)
Systematics
Mammals
Birds
Fish, Reptiles, and Amphibians
Invertebrates
Data Recording and Quantification
Excavation Techniques and Lab Processing
Taphonomy
Bone modification
Faunal material at historic sites
An overview of zooarchaeological research in Arkansas
I'd be interested in any suggestions anyone has to offer.
Dawn Novak
Doctoral Student
Environmental Dynamics
Program
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas
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