Taphonomy

Taphonomy is the study of what forces influence a deposit before, during and after burial. Reitz and Wing (2008, p. 117) define taphonomy as “The study of the changes that influence a deposit”. Orton (2010) refers to taphonomy as “the study of all processes intervening between a live community of animals and the records in an analyst’s database”. The concept of taphonomy was first coined by the Russian palaeontologist Ivan Efremov in 1940, and translates to “laws of burial”.

Taphonomy is an important part of the excavations in order to improve the archaeological recorded from various sites. One often combine the use of zooarchaeological data with that from other sources like soil, arthropods, plants and other biological and geochemical evidences.

Environmental conditions can affect the archaeological remains.

The changes that may influence a deposit can be divided into two categories. The first one is the first-order processes, which the archaeologists have no control over, and the second one are the second-order changes, which the archaeologist and zooarchaeologist are directly responsible for having created. The first-order processes yield information about human decision-making, the history of the deposit, and former environmental conditions, all which might have affected the deposit in one way or another. The second-order changes are the decisions made during the excavation, identification process and analyses of the material. All the changes of the second-order are in one form or another, the result of choices that are made by the persons performing the excavations. These two processes are also known as Biostratinomy and Diagenesis.


In taphonomy, there are five stages in the creation of the archaeological material. The first stage is disarticulation. It occures after death and as the organism decays. It is the dismemberment of the organism when it is no longer held together by tissue, muscles or tendons. There is no longer anything to hold the piece together anymore. The second stage is dispersal. The dispersal is caused by natural events such as scavanger, floodings and similar events. The third stage is the accumulation. This is when the material, both organic and inorganic, buildsup on one location. Fossilization is when the organic material have been permated by mineral rich water and formed a fossil, and is the fourth stage. The fifth and final stage is mechanical alteration. This is when the material is physically altered through events such as transport, burial, excavation, etc. It should also be noted that these five stages does not only come succesive after each others, but they also interact and effect each other. The processes in one stage will influence the following ones.

Two aspects to taphonomy that is important to keep in min, is that taphonomy can be reconstructive or descriptive. Reconstructive means here that one controls for bias in the material, and one works back from the observed assemblage. While descriptive means that one detects and describe the events and processes that are of interests. The ratio and balance between these two aspects varies depending on what research one are doing.

The deposits are most often divided into three generalized categories, the kill or processing site residue category, the residential refuse (which includes that of which are associated with smaller camps, hamlets and also urban environments), and the intentional burials. Each of these categories represents a different part of the human’s life and sphere.

A Lightning Whelk (Busycon Sinistrum)

Gavin and McGovern (2007) discuss the usage of taphonomy in collaboration with osteology to analyse the skulls found at the Viking settlement of Hofstaðir on Iceland. Among the things they look at is how the animals were killed and the weathering and conditions of preservation of the skulls. There was different weathering on the skulls which indicated different amount of time exposed to the weather and wind, before they eventually ended up buried. This process is a part of the taphonomy. All changes and events that might effect a deposit, from the death of the animal, to its categorization in a collection, are different factors in how the remains have changed during the course of time.

Our understanding of the past and its conditions are coloured by the present, and is based on theories of uniformitarianism. Experiments and observations made today provides some insight into the disposal patterns and gives us access to possible reconstructions of the chain of events. Although the examination of archaeological remains might give us some answers about the past, it must be kept in mind that it is our modern interpretation of the past and it is possible that some of the past does not have modern analogues that are comparable.

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Further reading

Gavin, L. & McGovern, T. (2007) Bloody Slaughter: Ritual decapitation and display at the Viking settlement of Hofstadir, Iceland. European Journal of Archaeology. Volume 10 (1), pages 7-30.

Orton, D. C. (2010) Taphonomy and Interpretation: An Analytical Framework for Social Zooarchaeology. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. Volume 22 (3), pages 320-337. 

Reitz, E.J. & Wing, E.S. (2008) Zooarchaeology. Second Edition. New York, Cambridge University Press. 

An introduction to the field of Zooarchaeology

 Zooarchaeology is both a field of study on its own, and a subcategory of the vast field that Archaeology is. Zooarchaeology plays an important role in todays excavations and interpretations of the past, but what is Zooarchaeology? And why is it an important tool in Archaeology? 

Reitz and Wing (2008, p. 1) has defined Zooarchaeology as “The study of animal remains excavated from archaeological sites to understand the relationship between humans and their environment(s), especially between humans and other animal populations”.

The presence of certain species at a site
can tell us about climate, dietary habits, 
and potentially also cultural and societal 
conditions. 

Archaeology is often defined as the study of material remains from human activities to understand the past and past cultures. Zooarchaeology focuses primarily on the animal remains from human activities and other related activities to understand the past.

Why are animals also an important piece of the archaeological field? The importance of animals in archaeology lies in the fact that they provide several important key parts of societies. They give us companionship, food, raw materials for goods for personal use and trade, they can be symbols of power, play a part in the religious practices, transportations and more. The animals even helped us become more resilient to certain diseases when we domesticated them (Reitz and Wing, 2008).

The animals are an important part of the past. In order for us to fully understand the material remains from past civilizations, we need to know more about the material. That is why we use Zooarchaeology in the field of Archaeology. Zooarchaeology looks closer at the animals remains that might other ways have been put aside and overlooked. 

Some examples of the direction the approaches one can use in Zooarchaeology can have, are: focus on the diversity of the faunal assemblage and why it is so, a more osteology oriented point of view, how the human’s usage of the animals have changed over time and how the species might have changed as a result of this. 

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Further reading

Reitz, E.J. & Wing, E.S. (2008) Zooarchaeology. Second Edition. New York, Cambridge University Press.

Lieu de Memoire

Lieu de Memoire is a term that was first used by the french historian Pierre Nora and it is more commonly known as Memory Space. Nora published his thoughs and views on the concept in the three-volume collection called Les Lieux de Memoire, the parts that have been translate and reprinted in english, is known under the name Realms of Memory. 

Lieu de Memoire, is a theory and term used in connection with the concept of collective memory. The most commonly spread memory spaces are actual places, but not limited to only that. It could also be events, people or the more abstract concept of symbolism. The place of remembrance may be marked with monumental structures, buildings or statues, and is meant to remind those who came later on, about the past. A place of memory might even have different meanings to different people, all depending on what views they have on what is remembered there (if they have good or bad associations with the “memory”). 

The monuments commemorating people and places are
examples on the use of Lieux de Memoire

At the Roman Forum, the usage of the memory space played a big role in the evolution of the spatial development. The Forum Romanum is a good example on the usage of this in Rome. The Forum was a public place which contained not only public buildings, but also various monuments of different kinds. Several of the monuements was changed and swittched out over time, often due to a shift in what was the desired events or people to be honored. 

The Arch of Septimus Severus, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, is a triumphal arch in white marble. It was dedicated in 203 CE in honor of the victory in two campaigns againts the Parthians in 194-95 CE and 197-199 CE in the Parthian-Roman Wars (54 BCE - 217 CE). The campaigns honored, was lead by the Emperor Septimus Severus and his two sons, Caracalla and Geta. The arch served as a place of memory over not only the victories, but also as a rememberance of Septimus Severus and his sons. After Septimus Severus's death, his two sons served as co-Emperors untill Geta was assassinated. After Geta's death, Caracalla had all images and inscriptions referring to to Geta removed as a way to try and erase the memory of his brother. 

The Arch of Septimus Severus

At the Archaic Agora in Athens, the Stoa Poikile was constructed in the middle of the 5th century BCE. The stoa was decorated with painted wooden panels which displayed scenes from important battles where Athens had been victorious, as well as also scenes from the greek mythology. After the Battle of Pylos in 425 BCE, the bronze shields that were looted was displayes as proof of the Athenian military prowess. The Stoa served as a public place of rememberance of the battles that Athens had fought and won. The paintings displayed in the Stoa remained for more than 600 years before they were eventually removed. Generations upon generations of Athenians and visitors to Athens could visit the Stoa and see the displays of Athens former military glory. The stoa, the wooden panels and the shields displayed there, served as a reminder to the Athenians and the visitors, containing the memory of the former glory in the city's past. 

A surviving shield that were once displayed as a trophy and symbol
of the Athenian military prowess. (Agora Object: B 262)

The concept that have been coined Lieu de Memoire have been used for millenniums, even if it the concept itself was not defined untill in the more recent years. Through the changes and spatial use of ancient sites we can finde traces of the concept, and also how it changed over decades, centuries and even millenniums. The memory could be manipulated with the adding or removing of parts of the memorials containing the memory at the site. While it is common that there is a memorial in place to keep the memory, it is not always neccessary. It can be the place itself that keeps the memory. The sites of old battlefields are potential examples of that. 

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Further reading:

Legg, S. (2005) Contesting and surviving memory: space, nation, and nostalgia in Les Lieux de Mémoire.

Nora, P. (1996) Realms of Memory: Rethinking the French Past, Vol. 1 - Conflicts and Divisions. Columbia University Press.

Russell, A (2016) The Politics of Public Space in Republican Rome. Cambridge University Press. 

What is Archaeology?

Many might have heard about archaeologists like Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. But what is archaeology really?

Archaeology is the study of the humans past and activities through the recovery and analysis of the material culture left behind from human activities in the past. In other words it means that the archaeologist study and try to understand and explain events in the past through the examinations of the material remains that is left behind.

The name Archaeology is derived from the greek words αρχαίος and λόγος. Which translates to ancient/old and word/speech/study. In other words Archaeology literally means the study of the old. It is both a part of the humanities and social science, and uses several methods from the field of the natural sciences. The combination of these fields have been an important part of archaeology for the past few decades. Archaeology has been through a long process to get to where it is today, but is still today ever-changing and evolving. It is one of the most diverse diciplines with its combination of social science and natural science. This can be seen in the many sub-cathergories of the field. Some of sub-cathergories are; Marine Archaology, Zooarchaeology, Paleoarchaeology, Environmental Archaeology, Archaeobotany, Experimental Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Osteology and Ethnoarchaeology. 

As a dicipline, Archaeology started developing in the 1700s, but it did not blossom untill the late 19th and early 20th century. During the 1960s, the "New Archaeology" emerged. It combines several different fields in order to attempt to create a better understanding and interpretation of the past. The field of Archaeology is ever evolving even today.