Climate, bone density, and resource depression: What is driving variation in large and small game in Fremont archaeofaunas?

While archaeologists have long been interested in how human prey choice decisions vary both spatially and temporally, recent research has often focused on the role climate and human overhunting play in the process. Regardless of the issue receiving particular attention, these studies have also faced the dilemma of determining to what degree observed patterns are driven by underlying taphonomic processes rather than the factor of interest. Here, the faunal record from two Fremont residential sites located in Utah's Parowan Valley (southeastern Great Basin) shows patterns of taxonomic representation, age structure, element representation, and fragmentation which covary through time both with each other and with local tree-ring records. Analysis of these materials: (1) contradicts previously reported work suggesting that human overhunting alone drove prey choice decisions in the area, (2) clarifies the relationship between environmental variability and anthropogenically induced changes in the local resource base, (3) provides a possible explanation for variability apparent in long-term studies of Fremont prey choice, and (4) illustrates how climatic impacts on farming and foraging opportunities may have structured element representation through its affect on human processing decisions and the nature of the bones subsequently presented to secondary consumers. This last issue has broader zooarchaeological implications in that it attempts to address the behavioral factors affecting density-mediated attrition and how they may vary with local ecology.