Andrews Peter 1989 Owls Caves and Fossils PDF

PIA 2 1991
BOOK REVIEWS
Andrews, Peter. Owls, Caves and Fossils. London: Natural History

Museum, 1989. 231pp. £27.50.
Small mammal remains on archaeological sites have tended to be
overshadowed by the larger and more visible fauna and as such may have been
regarded, consciously or unconsciounsly, as forming part of the background
noise. Their size (less than 5kg), though, is more than compensated for by the
amount of information they can furnish on the environment and palaeoecology
at the time of their deposition. But there are many ways in which small
mammal fossil assemblages can be formed so that an assemblage may not
always relate directly to the area in which it is found. To avoid
misinterpretation of the implied palaeoecology it is vital to understand the
processes which have affected the fossil assemblage. In Owls, Caves and
Fossils Peter Andrews describes the various taphonomic processes which can
affect small mammal faunas illustrating these processes with a detailed account
of the formation of the fossil assemblage of the Middle Pleistocene site of
Westbury-Sub-Mendip in southwest England.
The book is divided into three related sections. The first documents
the taphonomic processes which affect modern day small mammal faunas. It is
followed by a detailed examination of a fossil assemblage using the techniques
of analysis described in the first part. These two sections form the body of the
work. The third part of the book is a large, comprehensive appendix with
information on predator species which completes and complements the main
body of text.
Modification may be produced by a number of different agencies and at
different periods in time beginning at the moment of death. Bone
ccumulations can be affected by scavenging, trampling, weathering,
transportation and by post burial collecting and sampling techniques. Later
modifications may remove traces of earlier ones. The problem lies in
recognising the agents of modification.
Predation plays a key role in the death of small mammals and in their
subsequent modification. This is discussed in detail in chapters two and three.
A survey of predators, their habitat and prey selection is summarised in chapter
two and presented in greater detail in the appendix. The discussion on bone
m>dification includes an analysis of skeletal element proportions and' considers
,aspects of bone breakage, digestion and loss for different predator types. Five
categories of modification are presented ranging from slight to extreme
DX>dification and the predator most likely to have produced such an effect is
given. Thus a barn owl is seen to be a category 1 predator (causing little
DX>dification) while mammalian carnivores usually cause the greatest damage
and are classed as category 5 predators.
The taphonomic processes which affected the small mammal fossil
assemblage of Westbury-Sub-Mendip are described in chapters four to seven.
The general formation of limestone caves and the modification processes which
affect bones in caves is first discussed. The Westbury Cave formation and its
suatigraphic sequence is then described. With the contextual information
firmly established the small mammal assemblage is presented unit by unit. The
microstratigraphy of each unit is explained and an analysis of the bone
79
Reviews/Seminars
distribution, skeletal proportions, bone breakage and digestion, post

depostional modification is presented. Finally the predator most likely to have
been responsible for the assemblage is given where possible. The stratigraphic
and taphonomic evidence is then used to give a palaeocological interpretation
for each of the units of the Westbury sequence.
The book is well written and illustrated. The chapters are summarised
in point form for easy reference and the data presented in a series of tables,
some of which are particularly comprehensive e.g. those on predator habitats
and prey selection, on predator modification and on the taphonomic
modifications of the Westbury faunas. The various types of modification
described in the book are extremely well documented in the abundant, well
produced SEM. photographs taken by Jill Cook. An extensive appendix
supplies information on the predators discussed in the book, giving details of
appearance, size, activity patterns, distribution and diet of each predator.
Owls, Caves and Fossils demonstrates the use of a methodoligical
approach to the problem of understanding the formation of small mammal
fossil assemblages which is organized, thoughtful and meticulous It is an
excellent reference book on small mammal taphonomy, suitable not only to
small mammal specialists but to all archaeologists irrespective of their area and
period of interest.
Norah Moloney
Brooks, I and Phillips, P. (eds). Papers from the Sheffield Conference

1988. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 213. 1989.
"The conference was conceived of and designed by the organisers .. to
elucidate the current nature of Lithic Studies in an area of Britain other than the
'flint-rich' reaches of south-eastern England". The majority of the papers
contained in the volume were given at a conference entitled 'Lithic Studies in
the North-East Midlands in England
After a brief introduction by Kirk, Henson's paper 'Away from the
core? A northerner's view of flint exploitation' examines changes in the nature
of individuaVgroup interaction through the Neolithic and E.B.A. using as
examples possible control of raw material sources, changes from communal to
individual burials and the introduction of more 'social' (as opposed to
utilitarian} tool kits into burials.
Phillips et al. in 'Flint procurement in prehistoric quarry ditches'
suggest that fortuitous acquisition of flint nodules from the quarry ditches of
earthern mounds may have been followed by recurrent reuse of those ditches to
procure raw material through the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The evidence of
frequent recutting and irregular ditch and bank profiles are used to support the
argument.
The next two papers deal with the early results of laboratory based
scientific methods in the examination of flint. Brooks in 'Debugging the
system: the characterisation of flint by micropalaeontology discusses the
viability of micropalaeontology as a technique for sourcing flint using thin
sections. Richards provides the preliminary results of analysis of blood
residues on Mesolithic artefacts in his paper 'Initial results of blood residue
analysis of lithic artefacts from Thorpe Common rockshelter, south Yorkshire'.
80

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PIA 2 1991

Andrews, Peter. Owls, Caves and Fossils. London: Natural History

distribution, skeletal proportions, bone breakage and digestion, post

Brooks, I and Phillips, P. (eds). Papers from the Sheffield Conference

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