Culinary Processing and Preservational Effects on Bone

Abstract

This chapter discusses culinary and preservational processing as central aspects of the human adaptation, outlining gains in nutrition, reduction of mastication time and energy, and extension of animal product use-life. It agrees with authors who stressed the social nature of culinary practices and the central role these play in the social life of anatomically modern humans. It asserts that culinary processing and conservation of animal products has been understudied in zooarchaeology and advocates taking a chaîne opératoireChaîne opératoireapproach to carcass processing that unifies all phases of human use of vertebrates for food. It returns to attribution of cut mark function within a chaîne opératoire approach to processing. Chapter 15 reviews nutritional gains realized by different forms of cooking. It summarizes osteological markers of culinary processing, including cut marks, bone grease production, thermal alteration to bone color and fracture morphology, breakage associated with pot-sizing, and the distinctive abrasion known as pot-polish. It argues that better understanding the nutritional gains and energetic costs of specific food processing strategies enables closer assessment of their social, economic, and evolutionary significance.