Abel Beth Maacah Zooarchaeological data

Supplements and raw data files for the seasons --2017.

We used a bone-tallying method based on diagnostic zones (Albarella and Davis 1986; Davis 1992; Marom & Bar-Oz 2008) to control for a possible skew in frequencies due to taxon- or context-specific changes in the intensity of fragmentation (Morin 2017). Stringent control over the chronological ascription of the studied context, the morphological identification of specimens to biological taxa, and use of diagnostic zones to prevent pseudo-replication of bone counts have resulted in a sample of 1,054 datapoints. Each of these datapoints represents one and one only skeletal element of a known taxa from a secure context.

Age-at-death data were estimated using tooth eruption and wear stages (Payne 1973), pooled to young (TWS A to C), juvenile (D-E), and adult (F+) ; observations on bone epiphyseal fusion were also collected (Silver 1969; Supplement A). Eight taphonomic variables that index anthropogenic (butchery and burning marks), biogenic (gnawing marks), diagenetic (breakage intensity of mandibles, proportion of dry fractures, weathering), and recovery (proportions of first to third phalanges of cattle and caprines) biases were collected and compared between the assemblages (Supplements B and C). There is good agreement in the values of these variables across the assemblage, suggesting the comparability of different sub-samples (periods) from the site.