Dear all,

Having worked on fish bones from Cabeço da Amoreira, a Portuguese Shellmidden, for my PhD, what I can tell you is that only the Meagre (Argyrosomus regius) otoliths, although there were other species present. In fact, mullets were the most abundant. That may be consequence of their size robustness and very likely is. My colleagues and I have written a paper on seasonality that deals with taphonomy to a degree: Dias, R., Estrella-Martínez, J., Butler, P., Nederbragt, A., Hall, I. R., Barrulas, P., ... & Bicho, N. (2018). Mesolithic human occupation and seasonality: sclerochronology, δ 18 O isotope geochemistry, and diagenesis verification by Raman and LA-ICP-MS analysis of Argyrosomus regius (meagre) sagittae otoliths from layer 1 of Cabeço da Amoreira Mesolithic shell midden (Muge, Portugal). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 1-24.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0569-3.

If you don't have access, please email me and I will gladly send a copy your way. I would send you my thesis but it is written in portuguese, so I don't think it would be very useful.

All the best,

Rita

Daniella Bar-Yosef <[log in to unmask]> escreveu no dia segunda, 7/01/2019 à(s) 11:03:

You are right, Fiona, I do get the occasional otholith among shells.

Daniella Bar-Yosef

From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of fiona beglane <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 7, 2019 12:22:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] Otoliths

I wonder as well whether otoliths always get bagged with the bones. They don't 'look' like bones and in among all the shells of a midden I wonder if they often get discarded with the shells. Most shell midden excavations seem to sample the shells rather than having a specialist work through all of them - there could literally be tonnes and particularly in e.g. development-led archaeology this is more likely. Obviously all this depends on who is excavating and what their experience is in terms of zooarchaeology/malacology and whether there is an on-site specialist or whether the assemblage is packed up and sent to the specialist/s after the dig.

Just a thought.

Fiona

Fiona Beglane PhD MIAI

Animal Bone Specialist
Licensed Archaeologist
Donegal, Ireland
074 97 21937
087 686 3914 (M)
Alternate email address: [log in to unmask]
Institute of Technology, Sligo
http://itsligo.academia.edu/fionabeglane

On Sunday, January 6, 2019, 3:42:03 AM GMT, Matthew Campbell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Dear colleagues

Ngā Mihi o te Tau Hou / Happy New Year

Do any of you know anything about the taphonomy of otoliths? I have observed that they survive very well in some sites and not at all in others, but I can’t see any reason for this.

If anyone can shine any light on this topic or point me to any references I would be grateful (searches on Google Scholar and ResearchGate didn’t help)

Mat

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Matthew Campbell
CFG Heritage Ltd
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