This book was developed out of a need for a clear and concise field manual that could be used to make basic identifications of animal bones from archaeological sites in Australia. While there are many excellent manuals that cover the identification of European and North American fauna, and a few that address Australian fauna, there are none that combine common introduced animals with both Australian native species and humans.
This manual will be an asset to students of archaeology and faunal analysis, as well as law enforcement, forensic investigators, and the general public. It is an introductory field guide written primarily for Australian archaeologists working on both Indigenous and historic sites. It does not assume any prior knowledge of the mammalian skeleton and includes 16 species commonly encountered in most environments and archaeological contexts. Since it is impractical for a field manual to provide an exhaustive list of all the potential species that may appear, the aim is to provide basic knowledge needed to identify bones and species that are relevant to most Australian contexts. This manual is intended as a starting point for the non-specialist.
Identification of bone can be difficult, even for the most experienced faunal analyst, and especially when faced with smaller elements with less-obvious diagnostic features. For this reason, smaller bones, such as many of the small hand and foot bones, ribs and vertebrae, have been excluded from this manual. For those bones and for species not included, as well as additional information, we have added a suggested reading list. Given that bone from archaeological contexts is often fragmentary, making identification much more difficult, definitive identification is always best accomplished by a trained specialist and based on a good comparative collection back in the lab.
This manual begins with an introductory chapter that provides a background to the range of factors that are important to consider before starting any zooarchaeological research. These include (but are not limited to) the importance of correct anatomical terminology and some tips about initial approaches to use during the early stages of the identification process (including morphological markers characteristic of species and the significant influence taphonomy has on assemblages). A suggested reading list at the end of this manual provides a number of sources that explore each of these issues in greater detail. Chapters dedicated to each of the major bones follow, and include correct anatomical terminology, diagnostic features, the way these diagnostic features differ by species, and notes about the way each bone can generally present when recovered in an archaeological assemblage. This information is then synthesised in the decision process flowchart and illustrated by photographs designed to help you make final identifications of the element, and species if possible.
For ease of standardisation, all elements depicted on the figures are from the left side of the individual’s body. When practical, every effort was made to illustrate size differences between species. Elements of similar size are generally shown side by side, since determining the size of an individual is one of the first steps in identification. Scales accompany all images, although variation between individuals due to age and/or sex may translate into larger size differences than those shown in the examples.
The major bones of Australian native species (kangaroo, wallaby, wombat, possum, quoll, bandicoot and emu) are depicted alongside introduced species commonly found in archaeological contexts in Australia (cow, horse, sheep, pig, dingo [dog], cat, rabbit, and chicken). Major modern human bones are also included. Each of the major skeletal elements has its own chapter (e.g. mandible, femur) that includes the following sections:
After identifying a particular skeletal element, the next step is to identify the species from which it came. To help in this process, a flow chart called a decision process has been included with each skeletal element, for use alongside the individual species photographs (e.g. Figure 1.10 in Chapter 1). The decision process poses a series of questions to narrow down the list of potential species from which a bone likely came. In many cases, there is more than one species listed at the end of a branch. In this case, or even if you are confident that you have made a correct identification, it is necessary to go to the photographs and compare the bone to the list of possible species, as the more visual cues you use to identify an element to species, the better your decision. At this stage, you may also need to use relative size as a deciding factor.