[Bonetools] Session for ICAZ 2027

[Alice Choyke]

Dear Colleagues,
    It is with great pleasure that I can announce that our session:
 '*The case of the missing waste bone data: Workflow gaps in**recognizing
hard osseous manufactured material'*
has been accepted by the scientific committee for the next ICAZ meeting in
2027 in Vancouver Canada.  A number of us have felt frustrated by the lack
of coordination between faunal analysts and specialists in worked bone as
concerns identification of waste bone from manufacturing - among
other problems. We are expecting papers from people who have found
solutions to this common problems as well as hearing from specialists who
are still wrestling with the problem.
     We see this session as more of a brain-storming opportunity with the
aim of ultimately producing a reference book to help faunal analysts
recognize waste bone. The long version of the abstract I submitted to ICAZ
is copied below.

Best,
Alice Choyke

*The case of the missing waste bone data: Workflow gaps in *

*recognizing hard osseous manufactured material *



This methodological, hybrid session aims at improving cooperation between
bone tool specialists and general faunal analysts. The goal is to create an
open-source, downloadable, digital identification book, available to all
academic, archaeology-related institutions. Ideally, access to this
reference book should help faunal analysts to recognize less obvious, bone
fragments that are likely associated with manufacturing activities as well
as very fragmented pieces of worked bone. Since what constitutes worked
bone and manufacturing will differ significantly depending on geographical
location, time-period and degree of serial, industrial production the
reference book will need to be continually revised.

In the best of all possible worlds, these two groups of specialists work
together in an organic fashion. However, Although there are places where
faunal analysts and specialists in worked hard osseous materials work
together organically as a team, the stark reality is that financial and
time constraints often, make such direct cooperation difficult. Debris from
manufacturing can be very difficult to recognize. Furthermore, the presence
of very fragmented or unusually used objects can also be signaled by the
presence of macroscopically visible areas of polish from heavy use or even
ritual handling of bone which was essentially unworked (or only
minimally worked). Such objects must be properly identified during
microscopic analysis, but their surfaces often have visible polish or minor
(but sometimes very specific) modifications, visible at low magnifications,
which can
provide grounds for their preliminary classification.

The session would revolve around developing general protocols to define
what both groups of specialists would be interested in adding to their
research repertoire and different possibilities of transmitting basic
know-how between these two tightly related fields. Papers should be kept
short and be closely concerned with what waste bone from manufacturing
sequences looks like in their research area

Possible points to cover:

1. Recognition/identification of waste and worked hard osseous material.

a. What type of tool marks are associated with bone tool reduction and
where are they typically located?

b. How can these marks be distinguished from butchery marks and taphonomic
damage (or can they be)?

c. What is the best way to disseminate this information?

d. What kind of information about worked hard osseous materials would be of
most practical use to faunal analysts?

2. When there is no bone tool specialist - what minimal but basic
information do zooarchaeologists need to take into account about the
worked hard osseous materials they find in the faunal sample?

3. How should worked bone specialists organize their workflow in the
absence of a zooarchaeologist?

4. Structural, storage problems with separation of small finds assemblages
and objects found in the faunal assemblage.

5. How can the study of worked hard osseous material be included in
zooarchaeology courses?
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