Abstract:Since its definition in 1940, taphonomy has revolutionized the study and interpretation of organic deposits in paleontology, archaeology, and forensics. Its initial goal was detection and quantificati...Since its definition in 1940, taphonomy has revolutionized the study and interpretation of organic deposits in paleontology, archaeology, and forensics. Its initial goal was detection and quantification of biases derived from deposition and preservation processes in order to improve paleobiological reconstructions and estimates. It was later realized that taphonomic alteration did not just result in information losses; the taphonomic agent or process itself was relevant, and taphonomic alteration resulted in information gains regarding these processes. This becomes especially relevant when humans are one of the taphonomic agents involved. Taphonomy is a multidisciplinary discipline that draws information from fields as diverse as geomorphology, sedimentology, stratigraphy, geochemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, ecology, zoology, botany, and anthropology. Taphonomy also comprises several subfields. Necrology and biostratinomy focus on the origin of the deposit, including on mode and timing of deposition, while diagenesis studies postburial alteration. Quantitative taphonomy produces numerical estimates for community and population parameters. Taphonomy became an integral part of anthropology and archaeology as zooarchaeology, a discipline focused on subjects such as species utilization and intentional bone modification (treated as indicators of past human behavior). Forensic taphonomy is a recent application; it is used to explain human behavior at the crime scene, provide better postmortem interval (PMI) estimates, and embellish skeletal trauma analysis.Read More
Publication Year: 2018
Publication Date: 2018-10-04
Language: en
Type: other
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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