Counting individuals: different ways to address taxonomic abundance in taphonomy

M. MONDINI; M. V. PIA; COLL, D.; CAROLINA MOREANO

Congreso; 14th International Council for Archaeozoology Conference; 2023

In zooarchaeology, MNI (minimum number of individuals) is the usual way to assess taxonomicabundance. Although it has been measured in various ways through time, several methodologicaldecisions during counting may affect the outcome, and results are sometimes interpreted in aratio scale rather than an ordinal one, this has been extensively dealt with, and nowadays there isa rather standardized way to asses MNI. Yet, in taphonomy, while archaeologists usually apply thisquantitative unit in actualistic studies so as to compare with the fossil record, often studies fromother disciplines –namely ecology– are considered as a frame of reference and for comparativepurposes. These studies usually assess taxonomic abundance by counting prey items through anapproach different from MNI. Besides, in small vertebrate taphonomy involving predators, MNI isusually estimated in a somewhat different way as compared to the usual way in zooarchaeology.Here we consider these differences and their implications, and provide an example where the MNIand prey item approaches are compared in the same assemblage –a modern collection ofscatological bones accumulated by mammalian carnivores– to illustrate this.