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

Ruth Shahack-Gross

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.09.019

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

Ruth Shahack-Gross

Bar-Ilan University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	205-218
Number of pages	14
Journal	Journal of Archaeological Science
Volume	38
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.09.019
State	Published - Feb 2011

Keywords

Archaeology
Dung
Formation processes
Identification
Taphonomy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Archaeology
Archaeology

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10.1016/j.jas.2010.09.019

Cite this

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title = "Herbivorous livestock dung: Formation, taphonomy, methods for identification, and archaeological significance",

abstract = "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.",

keywords = "Archaeology, Dung, Formation processes, Identification, Taphonomy",

author = "Ruth Shahack-Gross",

note = "Funding Information: Some of the data presented in this review is a result of numerous studies conducted in Kenya and Israel and funded by the National Science Foundation , the Wenner-Gren Foundation , the Israel Science Foundation , and the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science , Weizmann Institute of Science , Israel. I thank Steve Weiner and Fiona Marshall for their inspiration and support, and Ofer Bar-Yosef for commenting on an earlier version of this paper. I would also like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments.",

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N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Archaeology

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KW - Formation processes

KW - Identification

KW - Taphonomy

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DO - 10.1016/j.jas.2010.09.019

M3 - Review article

SN - 0305-4403

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SP - 205

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JO - Journal of Archaeological Science

JF - Journal of Archaeological Science

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ER -

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

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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