Normal goat or diseased human? Disciplinary boundaries and methodological traps in the analysis of fragmentary remains at Franchthi cave, Greece

Abstract

In his study of skeletal remains from Franchthi Cave, Greece, J. Lawrence Angel described three groups of small vault fragments as pathological, pointing out well-developed falciform impressions and unusual suture margins. Restudy reveals them to be small ungulate vault fragments. Recognition of human versus nonhuman and normal versus pathological bone is related to fragment size, curvature, and location and distribution of discrete morphological features. Vault fragments that cannot be definitively identified as human or nonhuman constitute a large portion of the scattered bone at Franchthi, and many probably derive from small ungulates. The taphonomy of cave deposits poses methodological problems regarding the borderland between zooarchaeology and physical anthropology. Training in comparative anatomy and zooarchaeology is desirable for physical anthropologists. We ought to employ the methods of zooarchaeology where appropriate.