{ '

A2 cf1.D.e ometry )
1
16( 2 ): 238 - 243. (1974 )
R t'sl:'o r ,_·h 1,u/es an d ui1 n .'ica;fr•11 r ep (tr!S

ON THE NUM l3E R AND SIZE S OF ANI MAL S

IN ARC HAE OLO GIC AL FA U NAL ASS EMB LAG
ES
R. W. ASTE EL
Departm ent of Anthmp n!ogy, 1Jni1•ersi 1y of Washinr;ton,
S,·v!f!e 98 195, U.S.A .

A salient charac teristic of fauoal studies in ,;rchae ology

is th a t many o f the variou s tech-
niques availab le for charac terizin g D. fauna! assemb lage
have not been tested in a rigoro us,
objecti ve fashion in order to see just bow well the y succee
d in imitati ng tbl': actual situati ons.
It is imposs ibie to do this io 3 fieiJ situati on for here we
iack the contro l over our variab les
(Ashby 1970, p. 41) which is so necessa ry ifwe wish to uncters
t.:rnd what variati on is inhere nt
in our matt"ri a ls as distinc t from that induce d or rn :{sk::-ci
by ou r mcth c,dol ogy. The requ ire-
ment, the n, is for a labora tory si tu:. ti on in wh:ch cn nt rol
ovn the variabl es res ts in the hands
of the experi menter . Toe actual im plemen ta ti o n o f s uch
a co ntrolle d situati on, especia lly
when applied to the study of tl1e remain s of la rge terrest
rial ma mmals , is seve rely hampe red
by consid eration s of time, space, and fundin g (Chapl in
1965). Howev er, many of the smalle r
vatebr ates do offer us the opport unity of such t>xperi
mentat ion. Althou gh remain s of this
type of animal have bee n rarely dea lt with in New W o
rld a rchaeo logy, the results may be
applic able to other animal s and of interes t genera lly.
What is propos ed is the analysi s of an assemb lage of bones.
all belong ing to one species of
fish, Archoplites interruptus (Sacra mento Perch). It will
r•• be assum ed that the ~e bones (96
examp les in all) are all the materi al from a single spa tial
't,, that the remain s consist ex::lu sive iy of" verteb rJ I ce ntra
centra in this examp le is that they are gei1era lly the :nost
and tempo ral unit . It may be noted
. Thi': reason for selecti ng verteb rJ!
comm only encoun tered remain s of
,.
fishes irr most archae ologic al si im, tions. ';'be sa n!e mdho
J s appiy equally as well to other
bones, otolitb s, and scal~s (C:1steel l 972, 197·1) . Two questio
ns will be c: , ked of this materi al:
(I) how many animal s are represe nted by thi s asse mblage
; and (2) what were the total live
weight s (in grams) o: these a uim ais? The accu racy with wh ich thi s metho d imitate
s the true
situati on will then be exa mined.
First, it has been establi shed that there is a higL correla
tion betwee n the lateral width of
the verteb ral centru m and th e tota l li ve weight o f the inJi
viduai in this species (Cas teel l 972 ,
1974). These fonnul ae are reprod uced here in table I. The
vertebr al ceutra may be measu red
and the results cast in the form of a bar graph (figure I).
This, in itself, is not too enli ghteni ng.
All that are obtain ed are some vertebr:.il sizes. ft is unfort
uuate that a~ roughl y this stage in
the analys is many investiga tors stop and use the verte bral
sizes in order to ma ke generi c or
even specifi c identif ication s (Ryder 1956, 1957, 1958, 1970
; Tainte r 1971) , one seeing state-
ments such as 'sa lmo n sized ve rt:! b rne ', etc. S ul:h a metho
d is not a vai iJ approa ch to the
identif ication of fi sh remain s and should not be relied
upon .
After proper id e:1t ificatio n the ver tebrae of each species
or other group may be furthe r
identif ied as to type within the vert~b ral col umn irseli (Caste
el 1972) (pbte I) . Havin g dor.e
this, one may recast the d:1ta in the form of har r:1 ph s
6 superp osed vertica lly s uc h tn:H they
s hare a comm on origin along the x axi s. Th e x axis is taken
to indica te verteb nl width :rnd

. \ ' ~

l:
".

lL

Ji1cing page ]38

 R.,·.s1.'a rch nul es and (lfJfl /i ca1 i o11 rcporls 2Jl)

T,1bk I Varl!bra/ typrs uf Archoplices interruptus alvng with fv rmulae fo r

predicti11x to/al lil'e h·e,g ht ,,f Ji,h ( Y) fro111 t't' rtehra/ h'tdth in 111111 (X),
a,:t.i cone!utio,r of each for .~r,tla (r).

Skeletal R,•gr oshm uf lice

eleme111 w.:,jht 011 l!it!men/ s i::e Correla1 io n N

Proatlas Log Y = O. ?SOS+ 2.35 22 (Log X) 0 .99546 9

A tlas Lo g Y = 0.66 13 +2.587:'. (Log X) 0. 98-14 7 9
Thoracic Log Y = 0. -11 52 + 2.3307 ( Log Xl 0 .9~65 2 19
Precaudal Log Y = 0.7363 +2 .3613 (Log X ) 0.98 ~5 5 89
Ca udal L og Y = (Ln :,; ,'( )
0 .':io5 7 +:U37-l 0 .97294 1-W
Penultimat e Log Y = tl og X)
l . 1073+ 2 . .54.13 0. 99-W2 9
Ultimate Log Y = i. JO-l5+2.64 !6 ( Lo g X) 0 .99551 3

they ax is to represen t frequency (figure 2). If, :is no tNl above, \e rtebral width is directly
correlateJ with total li ve we i~hl . tl1t> n iL would '.ippc·ar ;is if th ose ind ivid u:.i:; represented by
the proatlas, :1tlas, Lhorac ic, anJ prec<1 uda I ve rLe brae were somewha t large r rhan the
individuals represen ted hy the c;:i uda l, pe nultimate , and ultimate ver tebrae . However, by
examin a tion (table I) it can be seen tha t while th e sizes oi" :.ill the ve rtebral types are related
in a positive manner to tot:i l live wei~ht they each h;:ive a different se t of regression constants
(values of et. and {J). Thu s, they arc: 1 ebtcd to weight in differen t ways an d o ne must correct
for this in order to interpret figure 2 on a uni fo rm sca le.
Applying the formulae from tabl e I to the data for eac h vertebr:11 type respec tively, the
data are corrected and all vertebral types are brought to a common sca le. This result is
prese nted ir. figure 3 where the on ly change is tha t the x axis now indic:1tes the estimated
total live weigh t. By compa ri so n of tigures 2 :i. nd 3 it ca n be see n that the maj or function of

10

>-
~
w
:::> 5
Cl
w
n:::
LL.

2 3 5 6

VERTEBRAL ~·/ IDTH IN 1'-AM

F::;ure I Fr equency distr f!)llf fo n of l'errebmi a'idr hs in mm f,ir samplt! o/ 96 ct!rtebrn / ccn rra
il/ r\rchoplires
interru'.'tus.
 Reseurch 11u/c's and upp!t l'1llio11 r,'por/s 241

0
,._
~
.§
c:
.,:
::
~
",._
. '-,

?
g
2
t
t
"...,
":::
0
<.:
...,-,
II ~
~

D5 -
J u..
u..
0
..,_
I-
t
~
;.,

Cl ~
;::
w ~
3:
-::
~ 1
:J
:~,._
~
t-
~
~::
0

8t-
'-"
:£
t- !:'.:
(/)
w "'.~
~
"
~
., "§
~
I ~
~
::::
i ,::
-::
'i:;
I "
~
0 t:
,...;
-~
I I 1 "":':
~

~ J, ~/)
~ .::;,.,
t·
6 ::i ~
:::- 1
[ I ~ "-. ~
"
· '-
§
,...,
;; -.,2
L__J '-----'--- 0
0 ._') 0 :..1 0

.~> ~
Cl. -i5
 Research nu/ ('S ond opplica tiun f('purts
bringing the vertebra l types to a co mmon scak and thus correcti n g
for the effec ts of di lfa-
ences in allornetr y ha~ been to align the caudal, pen ultimate , and ultimate
vertebra e with the
other vertebr:i l types.
At this r0int io rbe analysis it might be wel l to :isk what a more traditi
ona l form of MNI
assessm ent might provide . One may choose to :ipply \Vhite's ( 1953) method.
As presente d in
table 2 there ::ire certaiu observe d frequenc ies (0) of each vertebra l type
in the sa mple. Like-
wise, empirica l data are availabl e (Castee l, unpubli shed data) that show
the frequenc ies with

5 ~
PROATlAS
0 - - - - ---·
--- • - - - - - - - - - - -
r ATlAS
5

o L ________ ___ _________ L ____ J __ __ _J _ ___ ·- ·- - -- - -- -

: [ MRACIC _ __ _ ___ ___ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___L ______l._l _ _ _ L _ _ _ l._ ~ ---

>-
f,5
a
PRECAUDAL
_______JL__~_~J.~,,1-
EE 'T
:L:_A_L___
5 [
PENULT l i''ATE
0 .___ _ __ _ _ _ _ ___ _ L _ _ _ _ l _ _ _ . ~ - - - ·
- -------------

5 [
ULTil"ATE
0 1---- --.---- - - r - - - - l _ _ ~ ~ - - . - - - - - - - . - - - - - - . -
- ----,
0

VERTEBRAL WID1H IN t11

Figure 2 Frequf'n,y dis trih utior. of !;ertehr, 1/ 1,iJ1hs in rr. m f,,, 11;1r.pi,, of
')6 :Trlcbrol rm:r:1 vf Archoplit es
interruptu s partitione d in tams vf vertebral rrpes.

which each element could normall y be expected to occur in a n average

individu al of this
species (E) . By dividing the observe d by the expecred value (O i E) one
may arrive at the MNI
represen ted by each vertebr:1! type separate ly, di srep::1r d ing diffe rences
iu absolute size. One
may also compute the MNl for the sample as a whole, s till ignoring differenc
es in sizes of the
individu als represen ted, by di viding the total of the i~dividu al \1N l 's
(L 0 .'E) by the number
of ver tebral types being consider ed (N). Tn this exa rr:p ie it appe:irs that
:.di me:isure s indicate
three indi viduals in the assembl age a,
a minimum .
 Research notes and application reports
TJ.bk 2 Lst1.11wtiun ofrnini1n1un ,u,.,nber of i11dicid11als rt.'presented
by sample of ')6 cer tebral ee11tra of Archoplitcs interruptus
ig noring possible dithrences in , i:e of individuals and considering
only frer1u1:rwies q{ occurn.·nct' o/ uerlebral types

Sk eletal Obs<'rt'<'d samp !1: Expected fr1:qut'11ry

t'iernl'nt fri: c111ency ( 0) (, ..eighted mean)(£) 0 /E
Proatlas 3 1.0 3.0
Atlas J 1.0 3.0
Tho r::icic 6 2.1 2.;I
Prccaudal 30 9.9 3.0
C:1ud::i l 48 15 .6 3.1
Prnulti n1 a; e 1.0 3.0
Ultim ate 3 1.0 3.0
Y..(0/ £) = 21.0
I(O i F,) = 3.0
A
3.0 = Number of in.J i,·id uais repr.:,<:ntcd by bone frequ encies
0:ily .

Examinin g t:ible 2 for the \ertebral types wi th E = 1.0 one may return to figure 3 and
compare tbe weights indica ted fo r :cJch. These same vertebrae 3re those with, generally, the
highest correlati o ns and, there fore, those in which one would normally expect the least
variance with re gJ rd to estimJkd to tal ii,;: \\e ights . -fable 3 presents the weights represented
by each of tilese vertebra l types for ,he thr ee inJividu ,lis indicated. These show mean weights
of 128.7, 206.3, and 305.9 gm under the :issumption that they indeed represe nt three fishes.
The situation with rega rd to th e other vertebral types is less clear. They have larger O and
E values and also, generally, lower correlations. Thus, one might expect more variance in
the weight estimates derived f; o m the m, , inc:: their co rrelat ions acco unt for less of the vari-
ance in their original di:;tributi c, :1,. It can h ~ n01;:d, h owever, th a t the pre-caudal verte!:ir:ie
do show a tri-modal di~tributi on with peaks <i t ::-, pproxi,nately; 28, 170, and 300 gm. This is
fairly consistent with the results obtained using only the verte brae with E = 1.0.
The thoracic and caudal vertebrae do not present a clear picture. Both indicate individuals
with weights at the extremes of the distributi om (90-110 and 400-430 gm).

T:ible :, Estinwted ;,·eights based upon

elements wirh expeckd frquenr:ics (E) of 1.0
onrl ac t11r.l wei!;hts of sp ecin~t ns in sarnp !e

A B c
- ---- -- -- ---- -·-·--·---
Pro.!tl:i, l 2~ .~{ 196.9 318.8
Atl as 1-frO 224.5 294.9
P;: nult i;r:atc 11 ~-7 192.0 287.7
Ul :i~ate l :3.5 211.8 3::2.4
I = 5 1:i .O 825.2 1223.3
I /N = 128. 7 206.3 30:i.9
Actu:il weight = 1:s .O 178.0 310.0
 Rcserirrh 11 .11es and opplicatio n reports 243
As a consequence of this it app<.:ars possibk to postulate the sure occurrence of three
individuals of .·irchoplirl!s inri:rruprus with weights of l 28. 7, 206.3, and 305.9 gm as best
estimates. Also it see ms po ssible that at kJst one smaila and one larger individuJl might
also be prese!Jt on the basis of clusters :lt the extremes of90- l IO and 400-430 gm exhibitc.:d
by thoracic and caudal ve rtebrae. That there might be at least one each of these ex treme
examples is because the frequencies in the respective clusters ( 0) are less than the expected
frequencies per individual ( £).
The bst line of table J indicates the true situation. There were, in fact, o nly three speci-
mens with weights of l 25 , l 78, and Ji O gm each. The hypotheti cal extreme indi viduals were
not present in the actual materiJI. As ,J result of th is it seems one may put more faith in the
judgements based up on th ose vatebrae with v;:ilul'5 of E = 1.0 th ,rn in those where£> 1.0
and where correlations (r) and , henc('. , the ,ari il11ce accounted fur by the regressions (r 1 ) are
also low.
It may be concluded that the two goals ha ve been achic:ve<l. There now exists :111 approxi-
mation of lww many indi vidua ls are repre 5e ntcd along with some· added information
as to wh:ci:i bones pro ved to be or d i::: most ':a lue . In aJJitioo , th t' re are wry ~!ccur:.it;!
estimates as lo th e wc:ighls of th f:,.c :rn ima\c. . \Vi tb o,ll a <:u utrolkd application cf these
methods and the test of their ability to mimic the control situati o n, one would not be in a
position to assess their accuracy sa ve but 1hcoretically.

A C K NO\\' L EOG E:'vl [ NTS

The author gntefully :icknowkdges the assisr :rnce of co mputer funds provided by the University of Washing-
ton . Partial financial support for this research wa s provided by a grant from th e Graduale Student Resea rch
Fund, Physic:il Sciences and Engineering Sect ion, Univer,ity ot W:ishington . An earlier version of part of
• this papc:r was pres~nted at the 38 th 3nnua! meeting of the Soci ety fo r American Archaeology, San Franc isco,
California, 5 May J 973.
•·

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l 956', P11biic.?tio,,s of tire Thor ~sby So ciety 4'l (I 07), 41 - 54 .
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Abbey e:<c:ivations, 9th repo rt 19 58', P:,b/ications of 1he Thoreshy Societv 48, 98-100.
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