SERVICES

 

Stone cut tool marks under magnification.

 

Zooarchaeology Services

Richard Grubb & Associates (RGA) offers zooarchaeological services to cultural resource consulting firms, researchers, universities, and government agencies. Rob Lore, M.S., Principal Investigator and faunal analyst, maintains a comparative zooarchaeology laboratory at RGA’s corporate headquarters in Cranbury, New Jersey. Mr. Lore received his training in zooarchaeology and his M.S. degree in Quaternary Studies under the direction of Dr. Kristin Sobolik of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, Orono. He has extensive experience analyzing fragmented calcined bone, providing interpretive data that is often overlooked in archaeological site reports. Animal bones recovered from archaeological sites provide information on diet, seasonality, settlement patterns, past environmental conditions, and the historic range of species. These data are useful for prehistoric and historic archaeologists, biologists, climatologists, and historians. The laboratory contains a microscope, digital scales, computers, standard osteological references, and cookbooks from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The RGA zooarchaeology laboratory is equipped with a comparative collection, with an emphasis on domestic and wild species commonly recovered from archaeological sites in the northeast and the mid-Atlantic. Mr. Lore will prepare a report to meet the specific requirements for each project. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typical Services:

 •  Standard identification of mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish. This  

    includes bone identification to the lowest taxonomic order  

    possible and examining it for taphonomic modification, including

    the presence of butchery marks.

•   Quantification of faunal data.

•   Photographic documentation to illustrate common bone

    modifications (e.g. cut marks, gnaw marks, root etching).

•   Bone marking with catalog numbers for curation.

•   Report preparation and production.

Osteoarchaeology: Richard Grubb & Associates would like to welcome Amy Raes to the zooarchaeology laboratory. The addition of Ms. Raes will enable RGA to simultaneously analyze several faunal assemblages with stringent report deadlines. Ms. Raes received her Master’s in Osteoarchaeology from Bournemouth University, with an emphasis in faunal analysis as well as in human osteology. Her Master’s research focused on paleopathology, which is the study of ancient diseases. She is currently analyzing eighteenth century faunal assemblages from the Hart Farmstead site (28-Me-370) and the Stites Farmstead (28-Un-36). In addition to conducting faunal analyses, Ms. Raes will also analyze human remains in the field, and in a laboratory setting.