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Michael. B. Schiffer. Formation processes of the archaeological record. xxiv +

428 pages, 70 illustrations, 7 tables. 1987. Albuquerque: University of New
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 REVIEWS
gated. Another would be a study of the changing
environment that must have occurred with the drying
of the Fayum basin and correlation with the represen-
tations of water birds in the different periods.
The scholarship and excellent production of the
two books, The birds of ancient Egypt and Die
Tierwelt des alten Agypten, should help to provide a
platform for these and many other investigations into
palaeoecology and biogeography, as well as increas-
ing our understanding of the profound relationships
which exist between humans and animals.
JULIET CLUTTON-BROCKaltered by understanding of these effects. In the
Department of Zoology
British Museum (Notural History), London
Reference
LORTET,L. & C. GAILLAKD. 1903-9. La f a u n e mornifit‘e de And it is no help that there are several supposed
I’oncienne Egypte. Lyons: Henri George.
Michael. B. Schiffer. Formation processes of the
archaeological record. xxiv + 428 pages, 70 illustra-
tions, 7 tables. 1987. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press; ISBN 0-8263-00963-1 hardback $39.95;
ISBN 0-8263-0964-X paperback $1 9.95.
When this book arrived in October, two of my
graduate students pounced on it eagerly. One soon
dismissed it; there is little in it for the specialist in
taphonomy of bones. The other was scornful of her
dismissal: ‘How could any archaeologist not find
something of interest?’ It is that sort of book -
something for everyone, but little for the specialist.
A book of this scale - the lifetime annotated
bibliography of a leading scholar of site formation
processes - should not be assessed for its judgements
on the individual works which inform it, but rather
on the theoretical position which links it together.
Schiffer’s enduring contribution has been to make us
all aware of how artefacts and ecofacts move from
their systemic context to an archaeological context,
suffering cultural and non-cul turaI transformations
as they move. The stuff of archaeological analysis is
primary, secondary or de facto refuse which can
suffer a variety of changes due to cultural processes
such as conservatory use, lateral cycling, recycling or
secondary use, and a variety of environmental pro-
cesses. As Schieer points out (p. 98) this book represents
the results of 15 years of ethnoarchaeological research
and model building to provide insights into these
variables and processes and their interactions.
The scope is rather narrowly focussed on the
United States, with occasional forays as far as Europe
but not much further, and the chronological range is
similarly erratic. This is well illustrated b y two
paragraphs (p. 69) which extend the ‘Schlepp effect’ -
a dubious concept when first proposed in an unsub-
stantiated way for Neolithic Anatolian butchery and
transport - from modern !Kung cooking to pottery-
kiln waste products in southeastern USA.
387
The danger is that unless the ethnoarchaeological
demonstration that there are formation processes is
tied to specific archaeological examples, the catalo-
gue is dull and dangerous. Thus there is an excellent
section (pp. 114-20) on the effects of collecting and
pot-hunting which concludes with an argument that
prehistoric collecting might be a better explanation
for some materials in the American southwest than
prehistoric trade. By contrast, the important subject
of trampling (pp. 1 2 6 9 ) does not have specific
instances in which archaeological interpretation is
absence of such examples, for many processes, the
uncritical might choose arguments from the catalogue
of selected instances, in a shotgun approach similar to
the worst abuses of selective ethnographic parallels.
principles (Flannery’s Mickey Mouse Laws?) with
names in Schiffer’s inimitable (please!) style, of
which my favourite is: ‘The tendency of trash to
attract more trash is known as the Arlo Guthrie
trash-magnet effect’ (p. 62). Only one of these, the
Clarke Effect (which ‘describes the statistical ten-
dency for the variety of discarded artefacts to increase
with a settlement’s occupation span’ (p. 55)), is
actually put to any use in the book. Far from Schiffer’s
contention that ‘the label merely facilitates commu-
nication among archaeologists’ (p. loo), I would
argue that such naming only distracts and obfuscates.
In the chapter on disturbance processes, Schiffer
returns to the position which led to him being
criticized for believing the ’Pompeii premise’
[Binford 1981). ‘Disturbance processes’ damage ear-
lier archaeological evidence, but, particularly in
Schiffer’s view that archaeology embraces modern
technology, they create their own record. Archaeo-
logists are routinely selective about what they regard
as the archaeological record, and in Environmental
Impact Statements and their equivalents assess the
impact of the creation of a modern archaeological
record on a n older one. At some stage we have to make
a choice about what i t is we are studying. Fly ash
deposition from coal-fired generating stations both
creates (p. 69) and destroys (p. 1 3 5 ) the archaeological
record, but we are not all equally interested in both
processes.
Chapters on environmental formation processes
are uneven. Schiffer is excellent on wood, poor on
bone and skimpy o n seeds. On processes affecting
regions, students will find better texts, but some of
these are acknowledged.
Schiffer is at his best on worked examples, ofwhich
there are two chapters (one using Schiffer’s
knowledge of wood) with a recycled case each. This is
a disappointment, because in the end I do not believe
that Schiffer has developed a theory of formation
processes, though he understands them we11 enough
himself. He could now produce a history and prehis-
tory of formation processes and the evolution of
388 REVIEWS
human behaviour, since there is abundant evidence
that these change through time. And thus a theory of
rubbish in human behaviour. This might lead us
towards a better understanding of how the story that
we tell is generally determined by those processes
which Schiffer has shown as of particular impor-
tance. The last chapter discusses the impact of
archaeologists i n determining what is seen as the
archaeological record- interesting, but not, I think, as
important as the grander project which this book
could have been but is not. IAIN DAVInWN
Department of Archaeology
University of New Englond (NSW)
A.J. Legge & P.A. Rowley-Conwy. Star Carr revisited:
a re-analysis of the large mammals. viii + 145 puges,
42 figures, 13 tables. 1988. London: Centre for Extra-
Mural Studies, Birkbeck College, University of
London; ISBN 0-7187-0876-8 paperback €9.50 (UK) b
€10 (overseas) postage inclusive (from Archaeologi-
cal Laboratory, Centre for Extm-Muraf Studies, 26
Russell Squore, London wcl B SOQ; cheques payable
to ‘Astragalus Publications’).
Star Carr revisited is the results of a re-examination of
the faunal material from the locus classicus of the
British Mesolithic. In the introduction Legge &
Rowley-Conwy state that no other site of its type has
been discussed, reviewed and re-interpreted as much
as Star Carr, and in the final lines add, ‘the very fact
that Star Carr can be put through such reconsider-
ations and can continue to yield new information, is
surely the greatest testimony to the quality of the
original investigation.’
The merits of Legge & Rowley-Conwy lie not so
much in the application of new epoch-making
methods, but rather in realizing that the time had
come for a new, thorough examination of the entirc
faunal material -bone by bone.
Unfortunately they concentrate on 1 he large mam-
mals and leave the smaller mammals and the birds to
others (orto a later study?).Quantitatively the bones of
the large mammals predominate, but qualitatively
those of smaller mammals and birds are of equal
importance, for Star Carr also plays a major r61e in our
endeavours to write the faunal history of Britain and
northern Europe. Precisely because the fauna of the
pre-boreal chronozone is poorly documented, so it
would have been worth while examiningall the bones.
The analysis of the large mammals comprises the
five main food animals, aurochs, elk, red deer, roe deer
and wild boar; i t includes all the bones kept in the
BM(NH), in Cambridge and in Scarborough. The
identifications change, with a few bones, previously
identified as beaver and wild boar, changed to those of
roe deer and of bear, but the most marked change is the
transformation of the smaller Star Carr ‘aurochs’ into
elks, which makes the size range of the remaining true
aurochs comparable to the rest of the European stock.
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Age structure and sex ratios - especially of red and
roe deer - are determined by reference to large,
modern populations. The study concentrates on tooth
eruption, tooth wear and selected bone-
measurements, and the results are combined with the
known ecology and behaviour of the species. Finally
is presented an analysis of the body part represen-
tation among the Star Carr red deer, inspired by- and
compared with - Binford’s work on Nunamiut
Eskimo sites i n Alaska (caribou bones!).
The authors conclude that Star Carr was a hunting
camp to which many short visits were made mainly in
the early summer, the season when the hunt was easy,
especially on unexperienced one-year-old roe deer
and three-year-old red deer (for reasons connected
with the behaviour of these species).
An almost even sex ratio found in postcranial
elements of the red deer shows that most of the
numerous antlers (259 fragments] were brought from
elsewhere, so the seasonal and sexual evidence of the
antlers are ignored. The importance of red deer
antlers as raw material is supported by the fact that
63% were worked and by the very large number of
antler points found in the lake off the site. None of the
63 unshed roe deer antlers were worked or
Star Can: Revisited:
a Re-analysis of the Large Mammals
By:
A. J. Legge and P. A. Rawley-Conwy
A complete re-analysis has been made of the large mammals and
new interpretations of the site are presented. The representation of
themain species is revisedandthe seasonof occupation ismodified
on the basis of tooth eruption and dental crown height studies. A
consideration of the age structure of the cull in two deer species and
the body parts represented suggest that the site was not a base camp.
The identified bones, tooth eruption-wear patterns and measure-
ments are tabulated for both the archaeological and modem com-
parative specimens.
Order from: Archaeological Laboratory, Centre for Extra-Mural
Studies, Birkbeck College, 26 Russell Square, London WClB
5DQ. Payment orders to ASTRAGALUS PUBLICATIONS
please.