pfp.'^o.' fsf* HOSTERMAN SITE — ^MILLER 235 



partially explained in that animals that were killed at a distance 

 from the village were dressed in the field and only the most desired 

 portions were transported back to the village. In dressing, the head, 

 along with the atlas and axis, was severed from the vertebral colimm, 

 probably with a blow of the ax. As has been pointed out numerous 

 times, the head, as a whole, is a heavy un wieldly part of the animal 

 and is covered at the most with a minimum amount of usable meat ; 

 hence it was not usually transported from the kill to the village. On 

 the other hand, if the brains and tongue were desired they could just 

 as easily be removed at the time of the kill. 



White (1954, p. 164) seemed to think that the mandibles at the Dodd 

 site are close to the greatest number of individuals represented and 

 that none were ever used for anything and were probably brought 

 into the village along with the tongue of the animal. He states: 

 "Certainly the easiest way to remove the tongue would be to smash 

 the ascending ramus of the jaw and remove jaws and tongue as a 

 unit for further cutting at a more convenient time." If the per- 

 centage were low, then he suggests that most hunting was performed 

 at considerable distance from the village and the tongue eaten at the 

 hunting camp and the mandibles discarded there. 



Practically all of the mandibles in the Hosterman site were complete 

 with the ascending rami entire. This fact would indicate that they 

 were part of the skull when introduced into the village and that we 

 did not find the entire assemblage. 



On the other hand, we recovered 24 hyoid bones, which is a small 

 bone attached to the tongue. This number approximates the number 

 of maxillae, a fact that may be significant. 



Vertebrae. — Very few animals are represented by the vertebrae, 

 for their distribution covers the entire column. However, the in- 

 teresting thing is the large number of caudal vertebrae, which signify 

 that the entire tail was left intact with the pelt as it was removed 

 from the animal and brought back to the village to be processed. This 

 fact indicates that the tail was an important ornamental feature, since 

 it was left attached to the hide after skinning. 



Fish. — The remains of several fish were found in various of the 

 midden pits. Fishbones were mixed with the midden in Features 

 1, 2, and 3. In Feature 9 they were found at various levels : between 

 3.0 feet and 3.5 feet, between 4.0 feet and 4.5 feet, and between 5.5 feet 

 and 8.0 feet. Many were just miscellaneous bones, but the complete 

 articulated skeletons would appear to indicate that the complete fish 

 was discarded because it was not considered to be palatable by the 

 Indian. Fish remains were also found in Features 10, 18, 21, 22, 24, 

 and 25. Individual fishbones appeared in many of the small isolated 

 midden heaps. 



661-932—64 17 



