Findings

1  Provenience. Table A1.1 (site 28) lists the assigned provenience designations. As the excavators themselves treat this site in their publications as a single temporal unit, we do the same.

2  Species. Our sample of 113 pieces contains only mammoth (74.3%; Table A1.2, site 28), and bison (25.7%). We did not see the horse or wolf pieces reported by Maschenko and Leshchinskiy (2001).

3  Skeletal elements. Feet (15.0%) and ribs (15.0%) are the most frequent items (Table A1.3, site 28). However, when pieces identified as “feet” are combined with other skeletal elements located inferior to the leg bones, then nearly half (46.9%) of our sample is in actuality bones of the feet. Maschenko and Leshchinskiy (2001) report a similar finding. Long bones are conspicuous by their under-representation, some of which is due to salvage and conservation considerations.

4  Age. Our Volchiya Griva sample has mostly adult bones (69.9%; Table A1.4, site 28). However, sub-adults are well represented (20.3%). As with skeletal elements, these percentages are similar to those reported by the excavators.

5  Completeness. Our sample has a large number of whole bones (69.0%; Table A1.5, site 28), and bones with one anatomical end (12.4%). Bones that have no anatomical ends are much fewer (18.6%). The relatively good preservation situation and the very small amount of identifiable carnivore damage are responsible for this aspect of preservation.

6  Maximum size. As expected for a predominately mammoth and bison paleontological site, the Volchiya Griva mean for 117 pieces is large (17.0 cm), as is its range (4.2 cm to 69.1 cm). Compared with the pooled assemblage values, Volchiya Griva is significantly larger. Looking at the whole long bone lengths of mammoth and bison provided by Vera Gromova (1950: table 27), Volchiya Griva upper range limit is larger than that of bison, but generally smaller than her mammoth elements.

7  Damage shape. By far the most numerous of our 113 pieces was classified as undamaged (69.9%) (Table A1.7, site 28). Much rarer are pieces we call medial rib fragments (9.7%). All other types are quite infrequent. As noted above, this sample has very little perimortem damage.

8  Color. As an indication of preservation, the color of the Volchiya Griva sample suggests a relatively good preservation context, because almost half of the pieces are ivory colored (48.7%) (Table A1.8, site 28). The brown coloration that we associate with soil-staining by mineral-bearing sub-surface water movement is understandable here in this “mineral oasis” context.

9  Preservation. Seemingly contradictory to the above remarks about good preservation at Volchiya Griva, most of the bone pieces in our sample have a chalky quality (91.1%) (Table A1.9, site 28). We feel that the contradiction is due largely to the nature of mammoth bone and its relatively thin cortex. Another possibility is that the salts and other concentrated chemicals in Volchiya Griva had erosive effects on bone.

10  Perimortem breakage. Here again, perimortem damage is minimal, at least in comparison to the faunal remains from other sites such as Okladnikov Cave. Only 8.0% (Table A1.10, site 28) of our sample has identifiable perimortem breakage. Given that this site existed for about 4000 years, this suggests that the bones we studied were sealed in the mud and mud-cracks soon after the death of the animals, and that carnivores, humans, and other scavengers who might have exploited their remains were infrequent visitors to the site.

11  Postmortem breakage. Despite what appear to be good conditions for preservation, at least for an open site, there is a large amount of postmortem breakage (46.0%) (Table A1.11, site 28). Some of the 52 pieces with postmortem breakage may have resulted fTom trampling; however, we suspect that most happened during excavation, although we saw no trowel or shovel marks.

12  End-hollowing. Only one piece has end-hollowing (0.9%) (Table A1.12, site 28). It is a chalky 7.5 cm long adult bison carpal bone that also has two tooth dints.

13-14 Notching and tooth scratches. No examples of these variables were found in the Volchiya Griva sample.

15 Tooth dints. One exampleoftoothdintingwas found (Table A1.15, site 28). Itisthe specimen mentioned under end-hollowing.

16-19 Pseudo-cuts, abrasions, polishing, and embedded fragments. No examples of these variables were found.

20  Tooth wear. No teeth were studied.

21  -22 Acid erosion and rodent gnawing. No examples of these variables were found, although Maschenko and Leshchinskiy (2001) report that some mammoth bones had rodent gnawing.

23-26 Insect damage, human bone, cut marks, and chop marks. No examples of these variables were found.