Intrastrata geochemical variability of a Paleolithic bone assemblage: The case of single-phase Gravettian site Jaksice II, southern Poland

摘要

Bone remains constitute the portion of an archaeological assemblage that may record a geochemical signature of the depositional environment and may be used as an indicator of the homogeneity of the assemblage. However, the range of the inner chemical variability inside a single depositional bone assemblage has not been sufficiently studied. In this study, the chemical composition of 60 fossil bones excavated from a single component Paleolithic site was measured and the statistical variability of the set established via multivariate analysis. Fossil bones from a single stratum exhibited weak internal chemical variability, compared with that shown by fresh recent bones, although fossil material is significantly enriched in trace elements. Data presented here may be used as one example of chemical variability for Late Pleistocene fossil bone assemblages.