Capturing cetacea: bioarchaeologcal whalling in Tierra del Fuego

SALLY EVANS; CAMILLA SPELLER; KERI ROWSELL; BRIZ I GODINO, IVAN; JACQUI MULVILLE; MATTHEW COLLINS; MYRIAN ÁLVAREZ; PHOEBE COLLIER

Durham

Congreso; UK Archaeological Sciences Conference 2015; 2015

Durham University

Identifying cetacean exploitation from zooarchaeological material can be problematic.  Morphological identification is often challenging as cetacean bone is regularly subject to a high degree of fragmentation.  Additionally identification manuals for all species and elements do not exist and the transportation of materials to museums, as well as access to appropriate collections, is difficult.  Visual characterisation of cetacean bone can now be supplemented by bioarchaeological techniques, with aDNA and ZooMS providing new methods for species identification.