Tool manufacture and bone breakage patterns at a Haudenosaunee site in New York

The Myers Farm site is located on a hill ten miles east of Cayuga Lake, central New York. It is a small mid-15th century Cayuga farmstead and feasting ground identified by a midden approximately ten meters in diameter. A large roasting pit, hearth features, and storage pits contained animal bone, including worked tools and food debris. This paper describes a preliminary faunal analysis of selected features. Recovered fauna include a generous range of local species, including mammals, birds, fish, and mollusks, and provide a diverse sample of elements suitable for identifying bone breakage patterns. This research focuses first on identifying bone tools, which were vital for efficient food processing and clothing manufacture; second, on patterns of bone breakage as evidence of meat processing and tool manufacture; and third, on worked bone sherds as expedient tools.