Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
7443137 | Journal of Archaeological Science | 2014 | 6 Pages |
Abstract
Conventional zooarchaeological wisdom holds that reduction of bone into small fragments, modally 2-5Â cm in maximum dimension, facilitates the extraction of bone grease. However, experiments by Church and Lyman showed no statistically significant differences in amounts of grease extracted from 1Â cm, 2Â cm, and 4Â cm bone fragments. Our research assessed whether other factors, including water and fuel inputs, could influence the degree of bone comminution for grease extraction. Experimental grease extraction from 15 cattle (Bos taurus) femora, reduced to similar maximum dimensions as in the Church and Lyman study, supports their finding that grease yield does not significantly increase in fragments <4Â cm. However, our research shows that smaller fragment sizes require less water, and hence less fuel, to produce the same grease yields. These results suggest a tradeoff between the work it takes to produce very small modal bone fragment size and broader-scale fuel, water, and human energy budgets.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Materials Science
Materials Science (General)
Authors
Anneke Janzen, Rachel E.B. Reid, Anthony Vasquez, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez,