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Aboriginal overkill in the intermountain west of North America

Zooarchaeological tests and implications

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Abstract

Zooarchaeological evidence has often been called on to help researchers determine prehistoric relative abundances of elk (Cervus elaphus) in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Some interpret that evidence as indicating elk were abundant; others interpret it as indicating elk were rare. Wildlife biologist Charles Kay argues that prehistoric faunal remains recovered from archaeological sites support his contention that aboriginal hunters depleted elk populations throughout the Intermountain West, including the Yellowstone area. To support his contention Kay cites differences between modern and prehistoric relative abundances of artiodactyls, age and sex demographics of ungulates in the prehistoric record indicating selective predation of prime-age females, and a high degree of fragmentation of artiodactyl bones indicating humans were under nutritional stress. Kay’s data on taxonomic abundances are time and space averaged and thus mask much variation in elk abundances. When these data are not lumped they suggest that elk were at some times, in some places, as abundant as they are today. Data on the age-sex demography of artiodactyl prey are ambiguous or contradict Kay’s predictions. Bone fragmentation data are variously nonexistent or ambiguous. The zooarchaeological implications of Kay’s aboriginal overkill hypothesis have not yet undergone rigorous testing.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, 107 Swallow Hall, 65211, Columbia, MO, USA

    R. Lee Lyman

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Correspondence to R. Lee Lyman.

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Insightful comments of two anonymous reviewers helped improve this paper.

Lyman earned his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Washington in 1982. His research interests include the cultural and natural history of the Pacific northwestern United States. He is presently a professor in, and chair of, the Department of Anthropology at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

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Lyman, R.L. Aboriginal overkill in the intermountain west of North America. Hum Nat 15, 169–208 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-004-1019-3

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