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Dear Katerina,
 
I think first of all you need to clarify why you are counting.
 
If you wish to count the Minimal Number of Individuals actually present at the site, then lefts and rights need to be considered and matched where possible.  An estimate of MNI in this sense also needs to take into account age differences, and indeed other morphologically detectable characteristics.
 
If you take the view that what is important is a number of individuals as a measure of biomass, then lefts and rights are not important: simply sum them and divide by two.  This equates more or less to Minimal Animal Units (MAU).  Binford devised it for comparing preservation among different body parts in taphonomic studies, but may be extended for quantifying whole animals.  It is appropriate for consumption sites where meat has been supplied as parts of carcases, and there is neither value nor hope in working out the actual number of contributory carcases.  
 
Where rodents are concerned, I suspect that you are looking for MNI. 
 
Of course there are probabilistic methods, based on such things as capture-recapture theory, and hypergeometric probability curves.  I may not be the best person to discuss these.
 
Best wishes,
Tony.

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Anthony J. Gouldwell  B.Sc.
Technician,
School of Archaeology and Ancient History,
University of Leicester,
University Road,
Leicester LE1 7RH.

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From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Katerina Papayiannis
Sent: 22 August 2005 10:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ZOOARCH] MNI for microfauna

Dear Everyone,
 
Is there an established method of counting MNI for rodents/insectivores according crania? Does someone have to take in mind right/left jaw numbers and divide by 2 or count according to isolated molars, or both?
Any goodreference on that?
Thanks,
Katerina


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