Vertebrate Taphonomy

Taphonomy is the science of the laws of embedding or burial, and the study of the transition of organics from the biosphere into the lithosphere or geological record. It is of particular importance to zooarchaeologists and paleoethnobotanists studying the organic remains that make up the archaeological record. This encyclopaedic reference volume covers the history of taphonomic research and reviews, with appropriate examples, the wide range of analytical techniques used to solve particular zooarchaeological problems. Subjects covered include the structure and quantification of vertebrate skeletons
skeletonisation, disarticulation and scattering
accumulation and dispertion of remains
frequencies of skeletal parts
butchering, bone fracturing and bone tools
burial as a taphonomic process
and diagenesis.