00:00.00 Alex And we're back with archaeo animals episode 60 We're talking about experimental zoo archaeology and we're coming to potentially the the grossest part of what experimentals or archeology can be and it's well taphonomy is very important. And just as a refresher we have talked about dephonomy before in episodes. But it's basically the processes that courage remains after death or to get even kind of more complicated with it. It's basically everything that ever happens that causes remains to kind of well. Remain and and be in part of a archaeological assemblage. 00:43.90 Cpt Granarius Okay, what gets them from a to b like where a is the animal is still alive happily grazing in the field and b you've just dug it up the ground two thousand years later 00:52.80 Alex Yeah, so it includes everything from why the environment has invited these species into this region to thrive to as far as your sampling procedure as an archeologist. Very expansive but clearly very important because it's you know it's how we get to archeology and it's also obviously because it's so expansive it kind of covers a lot of the things we've already talked about in the previous session. So you know between hunting and killing an animal. The way we process the animal for either crafting or cooking all that stuff is included so this kind of section will be more about the the naturally occurring and potentially messier parts of Taphonnomy. So like the nonhuman processes at least because there's important. 01:48.87 Cpt Granarius Yeah, like well because they're all part of how your assemblage just form whether it's from like scavenging by other animals or simply the bones left outside or at the in the surface of a feature just sort of weather over time. Um. 02:01.89 Alex Yeah, it's all the stuff that we need a bit more help in understanding because they are not human influenced. You know we can as people who have for the most part eaten animal products we can We kind of know you know. 02:04.55 Cpt Granarius 1 02:21.19 Alex If an animal was eaten. We might expect a certain type of look but we don't potentially know say how a reptile may deal with a animal or vice versa which is how other animals would deal with reptiles. Now be our first case study which is reptile thephonnomy in the nattufian period so snake and lizard remains are frequently found and plesocene natooian sites in the levant but we're not exactly sure of their role in natuffian diet. So experiments have been done to kind of exceed the impact of both predepositional and post depositional processes on snake and lizards including the european glass lizard. 03:15.98 Cpt Granarius Ceuddo Pods apous Vi Para palesttile. 03:17.20 Alex And the common Viper. So The Zo archeologists took vertebra from both species to kind of create a bone modification typology to compare with archeological bones. So again, it's kind of doing something controlled to see how. Things influence other things and then being able to kind of just match that to what we see in the archaeological record because obviously we don't actually see how things come to be in the archaeological record. So This experiment basically took bones which were digested from the Eagle Owl Yeah I know you'd like that. 03:51.94 Cpt Granarius Fu Poop but. 03:56.81 Alex And the but boo ah and these bones were used to examine predeppositional processes of consumption and digestion as well as post- depositional experiments were done. Including weathering burning sediment erosion and trampling So All these experiments were done and the zoo archeologists would look at the bones as they appeared afterwards and kind of make notes on how the bone surface was modified. Ah, the various patterns that were created and they would made them into categories and eventually made this into a typology which is great because it makes everyone else's lives a lot easier because you can just look up the typology and compare it to the the bones you have So Thank you for doing that work especially with. Such relatively small bones like reftile bones and well the results of this project when compared with archaeological bones showed that the latter had less observable evidence of digestion and. More evidence of trampling and erosion and Breakage. So This actually was actively used in this project and helped to identify patterns of consumption in domestic and non-dmestic Contexts and. 05:23.12 Alex You would be kind of surprised to see the impact of digestion on bone as something I've seen firsthand Fun fact. It gets very compressed and eroded because of all the the fun Acidy bits in your body. Yay. 05:37.17 Cpt Granarius Yeah, create so sort of like weird concreteretions explain. 05:42.65 Alex It's so weird and like the compression as well is really interesting. So yeah, um I don't know don't don't eat bone like don't swallow bone hot take. 05:53.89 Cpt Granarius Prefer yeah, um, but for an x case study is ah what happens when a jaguar swallows bones. There is Jaar to follow me in the pleistocenes. We have a very pleistocene heavy episode. Today? Um yes, so far little work had been done on understanding teenomic characteristics created and assemblages by Jaguars modern captive Jaggers Fantheranka were provided horsebones with characteristics being identified and documented. And then once um, the bones were removed from said Jaa they were used as comparison for but taphonomic marks or like ah toothmarks on bones that were allegedly inflicted by the extinct pleistocene european Jagua panthea gombaso gennines ji. 06:49.88 Alex Yeah. 06:50.14 Cpt Granarius That just unnecessary and panthea gombas sugensis now the results of this comparison showed that jaguars were able to collapse 24% of bona epiphas through intense furrowing now following for those who are not familiar with the term. Well, it's in a way like it's exactly the ice just creating forrows is when the animal bites on the bone and then drags their teeth down thus creating the furrows um toothbars also included pitting so like again that would be largely caused by the k nine so you'd have this sort of this circular sort of pits. Across the bone surface and scoring. Ah which was found on 97% of limb bones. So this study indicated that there may be the Jaggers may have been significant agents of bone modification in the past. Mean of course another big one in the pleocene would have been hyenas that absolutely chomp on bones to a bolivion and ah probably ah, the cause behind a lot of very severe fragmentation hook bone remains from the pleistocene. 07:49.10 Alex Yeah. 08:00.47 Alex But it also kind of makes sense why we have so many plesocene examples in this episode which is it is quite far into the past at that point so we are getting to the point where you know we have less and less evidence per se. To kind of work with when we're trying to understand archaeological sewis so that is where experimental archaeology and zoo archeology comes in to again, kind of fill in those gaps in a way and with zoo archaeology. Obviously we do have the the kind of ability to. Find comparable modern day species and you know see what happens. Obviously it's not going to be 100% there always will be slight differences but it's pretty I think it's you know it's pretty useful and again taphonomy in itself is such a complex huge thing. You do need to kind of figure out exactly because you know I mean like saying oh obviously Jaguars probably modified a lot of bone in the past it seems like an obvious thing to say but if you don't have the ability to kind of compare jaguar gnawing and. Kind of marks they make with the archeological material. You know can't really exactly say that do you know? I mean it's a lot of kind of I mean I think as archeology isn't it's kind of supporting and finding evidence for things that you could. 09:22.90 Cpt Granarius Um, what. 09:30.79 Alex Maybe safely assume sometimes especially with zoo archeology. 09:32.91 Cpt Granarius Like some of these theories especially especially in the case of like toothbox like I guess experimental work is the closest way to sort of prove your hypothesis because species like a different Carnivora species can leave very similar marks on the bone. So if you've got a bonus being. 09:47.90 Alex So. 09:52.63 Cpt Granarius Sitting around for 25000 years and it's got some piing I mean like too feather probably people that can work this out but you would be able to just pull it up look at the toothmark said oh yeah, that was a jagged. Oh that was a cape lion. You know comparison is absolutely the best way to learn and identify these things. 10:10.88 Alex Yeah. 10:12.54 Cpt Granarius And there've been so many predators and yeah again, Carnivora species in the Pleocene period because you would have had your Jagu You have the hyenas the lions it's looking at sort of their modern sort of counterparts especially in the case of Hyena where it's almost essentially the same animal. Ah. 10:19.10 Alex Ah. 10:30.32 Cpt Granarius You could get a much better idea of what sort of bite signature that species leaves on the bones and if you're interested in a much more light version of that you can try this yourself with your dog if you have 1 um, which I absolutely never ever have done this myself for fun. But um, if you get again a bone please don't feel like I should stress it. Not not a cooked bone a raw bone please and and you give it to your dog and you let the man fun with it for a bit and if it's safe to do so again. Not if they have any resource guarding or anything. Please. Please um, take the ah back and ah take a look at it because you will see you know the pitting and the furrows and the scoring that I've just mentioned and you'll be able to see those for yourself. 11:08.95 Alex Yeah. 11:20.58 Alex It's it's interesting because my cat has actually been doing contemporary kind of experimental zo archeology where she scratches and scratches at my rented carpet and is trying to see the taphonomy that she leaves behind. And as much as I try to stop her from doing her academic rigorous kind of research she continues to do it at 4 in the morning. It's very fascinating work and she's clearly very committed to it and I'm definitely not going to throw out the window if she keeps doing it. 11:48.78 Cpt Granarius Then one one night you're gonna wake up and you're going to see another cat there. But it's fine because he's peer reviewing. 11:57.70 Alex Well, it's fine. It's because ah, my cat hates other cats. So she headbuts my window all the time when she sees other cats outside the window. She's a very fascinating and very Alex like in some ways. Not liking other people things like that. Oh I'd say they would go together really well but they would just hate each other. 12:13.11 Cpt Granarius Mine hates other cats as well. 12:20.72 Cpt Granarius Um, but in different corners of the same room. They do just exists. 12:26.94 Alex Ah, so we have 1 final case study and I I picked the special one I picked a really interesting and and thought provoking one I really want the listeners to kind of take away with the kind of Majesty and. You know, expansiveness of the you know how we're thinking about the human condition how we're thinking about human relations with the world when we do experimental archeology and zoo archeology and of course I am talking about poop. Do you know how happy it was when I found this. This case study I was like by god this will be this will be the capper on our amazing episode. We're gonna talk about poop. It's poop is glue and then it's poop baby. 13:11.56 Cpt Granarius A Opus Magnum poop. 13:21.10 Alex The tephonomy of livestock dung something I never thought about in my entire life and boy has I have I ruined my life now. Ah, but it it is important dung is very important folks. We need it so experiments for you use to. You know, better understand the preserv preservation preservation of micro fossils in dung specifically opaline ah Phytolyphs and calcyic dung spherolites again something I have literally never thought about in my entire life. But boy we're all learning together about poop aren't we and so these things are these microfossils actually originates in the digestive tracts of animals and they can be used to indicate herbivore presence in areas as well as support research into ecological strategies in the past. Because obviously like I said as much as it's fun. No joke about poop. It's actually quite important and has a lot of uses outside of being poop. So ah, something we actually didn't really talk about that much in this episode but is actually quite useful in experimental archaeology in general is ethnography which is basically kind of is a anthropological approach. 14:48.83 Alex Although archaeoethnography is a very common kind of practice. You basically go out to places and but spend time with people and kind of learn from them their experiences with certain things. So in this case with ah this experiment. Efno eftographic fieldwork in ah, best stansor in Southern Kurdistan was combined with modern samples taken from local cattle sheep and goat to kind of get an idea of how dung was being used for farming strategies. In the area and you know, basically what? what? the? What the poop looked like ah and kind of what the micro fossilss look like ah so after the graphic field work also provide information to understand external factors that could impact dung composition because again theonomy very expansive. Never really thought about using taphonoy to understand poop. But hey my brain is small and now my worldview is so wide and galaxy brain now that I've read this paper. So. 15:58.43 Cpt Granarius Sorry I'm I'm just thinking about how sort of like approaching sort of these ah populations when to you just like go there like hello. Um, um, um, ah trying to do some research can I look at your cows poop. 16:12.30 Alex I Mean it's very important clearly and if. 16:14.21 Cpt Granarius No, it is I just wouldn't like that the the reaction of the people said like oh look that they I think that they want to look at my cows proof just by be a me first. 16:20.21 Alex Probably probably like we we should probably know each other first like you know pleasantries should be Exchanged. You know. But yeah, So there's loads of different things that actually impact the dung composition. So your environment in General. Animal Ecology grazing Patterns penning strategies. There's a lot at play here that again. Never really thought about Boy I cannot believe I've never thought about this and also you know like I said there's other ways to use dung as a fertilizer but in this case, Dung was actually. Burnt ah to simulate the use for fuel or preparing for use as a building material and then it was analyzed as part of the experimental zoo archeology so results from this work indicate that increased heating and higher temperatures impacts the durability. And preservation of microun ah fossils through deformoration which is further impacted by composition of dung based on plants ingested. So for all those lucky archaeologists who get to look at Coop and make that their speciality. This research is actually quite useful. 17:34.13 Cpt Granarius Something again like you or but I've never thought that myself. 17:39.26 Alex And yeah, I mean it's way. It's fun to joke about. But honestly I think it speaks to wildlike archeology which is there's so many ways to go about It. You can go it about it by looking at hunting you can go about it looking at just animal remains in general. And you can go about it looking at poof. 17:59.59 Cpt Granarius Yeah, because like I knew that sort of um dung like would have been used like I think it was used like in Britain as well like both as like but of building material and ah fuel. But ah yeah, the preservation of micro fossils sort of. 18:10.47 Alex Oh you know? yeah. 18:17.53 Cpt Granarius Within the yeah, that's no not cross my mind. 18:19.12 Alex Yeah, it's like the thing where as we get more technologically advanced with the way we can research Archaeology. We can actually get into this kind of nitty-gritty even more I mean even looking at like pollen archaeology and all that stuff that is just it's too much for my tiny brain. Really understand. But yeah. 18:39.33 Cpt Granarius But I think all in all, what is safe to say that ah experimental archaeology and zoo archaeology in particular is an equal parts gross and fun. But I think we've established through all of these great case studies. It is also a vital part of ah, the archaeological scientific process because he has given us the ability to prove a number of hypotheses that we would not have been able to otherwise. 19:05.47 Alex And if you want to hear us talk about more of these hypotheses in various zooareological forms. You can listen to the rest of our episodes at ah archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/animals. you can find us on Twitter at archaeoanals. 19:23.42 Alex And you can find us wherever you listen to podcasts make sure you like subscribe follow I don't know what the terminology is anymore tell your friends about us tell them that you can learn about both poop and glue in the same episode. We are that good And. Ah, than that we'll see you next time folks Bye my throat hurts. 19:43.50 Cpt Granarius Bye. 19:47.36 archpodnet That that's good. Good stuff. Yeah, sounds good.