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Megafaunal Butchering at Lubbock Lake, Texas: A Taphonomic Reanalysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lee Ann Kreutzer
Lee Ann Kreutzer*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 USA
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Abstract

Five seasons of excavation in Feature Area 2-1 of the Lubbock Lake Landmark, Texas, exposed a megafaunal bone accumulation in sands and gravels deposited by a late Pleistocene meandering stream. Many bone specimens exhibit evidence of alteration, supporting interpretation of the feature as an in situ, secondary meat-processing area; the gravels are interpreted as the point bar of a meandering stream. Faunal remains lying stratigraphically above the point bar have been considered to form a separate, noncultural feature produced by stream flooding. However, rose diagrams and analysis of adjusted residuals demonstrate that a statistically significant amount of bone in each feature is aligned along axes of preferred orientation. Further, the orientation patterns and statistical analyses of both features exhibit the same trends, suggesting that the same processes affected both. Although the evidence does not rule out a role of human behavior, it does demonstrate that stream currents significantly influenced feature structure.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , September 1988 , pp. 221 - 231
Copyright
University of Washington

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