Activity #1: Identification of Faunal remains

What is faunal analysis?

Faunal analysis is a study of the physical remains of animals intended to help present day humans reconstruct or characterise past human activities. When these remains are studied carefully they can provide us with important information about;

Bones can provide us with a lot of information. In this example the distorted tibia (lower leg bone) shows an injury which has healed.

1. the diet of an animal species.
2. the number and types of species present.*
3. seasonal use of the site.
   * Some animals can only survive in very specific ecological niches, the presence of such animals can give us clues to what the climate conditions were like.

At a site, faunal remains are gathered in level bags. Contents of such bags are then divided into different categories back at the laboratory. For example, on the Northwest coast we would likely break the samples down into the following categories:

BONE	SHELL
Land mammal Sea mammal Bird Fish	Univalves Bivalves Chitons Barnacles