Archaeozoological studies: new database and method based on alphanumeric codes

Abstract

The database is an important tool to collect all the necessary information by any archaeozoologist. However, the specialists do not use a recurring methodology to describe the bone remains, and that complicates the possibility to compare the results from different sites. For these reasons, first, it is necessary to provide a complete and versatile database structure and secondly, employ a fast and objective methodology. In this case, we propose simplified method based on alphanumeric codes.We have designed four databases in FileMaker©, all of them interrelated and focused on a part of an archaeozoological study: 1) site data, taxonomy; 2) taphonomy modifications; 3) osteometry; 4) teeth analysis. Besides, for taphonomic modifications we have created a compilation of alphanumeric codes that simplified and sum up the description of bone morphology, the origin and morphotypes of fractures and the localization of the taphonomic modifications. This new methodology has been applied to different samples. Some of them have an anthropic origin, others are natural accumulations, and even mixed ones. In all cases we have aimed to contrast the results in an objective way, leaving the interpretation to the final step of the analysis. In order to achieve this objective, we should use the same methodology, one that facilitates the way we compile the data and the way we can share the information and compare it within different sites.