Dear zooarch,

I’m looking for information about bone grease content in quantitative terms, I mean, experimental studies which provide the amount of grease in weight or volume per anatomical part that can be obtained from fresh bone by boiling procedures. As you know, when Binford (1978) developed his grease index, he used total bone volume as an indicator of the potential grease that can be obtained. He also extracted bone grease by boiling then in a chemical solution and gave dry bone weights, but no information about exact grease weight are provided.

Brink (1997) used experimental data of bison long bones to analyze the relationship between grease weight and bone volume or bone density, finding that Binford’s emphasis in grease quality was not so justified. He provided some information in quantitative terms but only related with long bones and I would like to characterize the whole skeleton.

I have also seen this reference:

Lupo, K. D., and Schmitt, D. N. 997 Experiments in bone boiling: nutritional returns and archaeological reflections. Anthropozoologica 25-26:137-144.

Unfortunately I don’t have access to this article (Could anyone please send me a pdf?)

I don’ know if there are more papers concerning this issue. Unlike meat and bone marrow, it seems that bone grease has been less studied. I would appreciate any help with this.

Best wishes,

Ana