Herbivorous livestock dung: formation, taphonomy, methods for identification, and archaeological significance

Herbivore livestock dung has been identified in archaeological sites around the world. Focusing on dung from the ubiquitous Old World herbivorous domesticates – sheep, goats and cattle – this review deals with the materials found within dung that have relevance to archaeology. The natural and anthropogenic/cultural taphonomic processes that affect the preservation and identification of livestock dung, and the archaeological information that can be extracted through detailed studies of the context and content of identified livestock dung in archaeological sites is modeled and discussed.