Cottontail Procurement

Flint and Neusius’ (1987) examination of the assemblage of cottontail remains from the Dolores Anasazi faunal record is an especially good example of synthetic research contributions to DAP research. Their study utilized the subset of the DAP faunal assemblage contained within the BUNNY10 dataset (Flint and Neusius 1987:257). Since the two species of cottontail utilized by the Dolores Anasazi have distinct habitat preferences, their relative abundances provided an opportunity to track patterns of land use and resource procurement. Differentiation between the two species was based on three measurements taken from the mandible. Variables for the cottontail procurement dataset have been described by Wilshusen et al. (1999); see especially the section entitled "The DAP Faunal Data" by Daniel T. Falt in Chapter 3. In most cases, his descriptions are suitable for use as metadata and have been repeated almost verbatim here. Selected resources from the collection of published and unpublished DAP reports may have been used for clarification in some cases and will be appropriately referenced.