Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-1994

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Anthropology

Major Professor

Walter E. Klippel

Committee Members

Charles H. Faulkner, Paul W. Parmalee

Abstract

This report concerns the faunal remains excavated from the Gibbs House Site in Knox County, Tennessee. This site was excavated by Dr. Charles H. Faulkner of the University of Tennessee in five field seasons between 1987 and 1991. The animal bones were examined at the University of Tennessee, Department of Anthropology's Zooarchaeology Laboratory. Faunal remains were excavated from a number of deposits that dated from the late eighteenth century up to the turn of the nineteenth century. The total assemblage was divided into, early, middle, and late period samples in order to examine changes in diet over time. The largest sample, made up of 3,310 bones, dated to the late eighteenth century. The second faunal sample from this site dated to the early nineteenth century, but comprised only 535 bones. The third assemblage was slightly larger, with a total of 569 bones. The latter collection was from mid-to-late nineteenth century contexts.

Species represented in the assemblages did not change very much over time, nor did their relative importance. Pigs were far and away the most important species in all time periods, followed by cattle and chickens. Domestic mammals were dominant even in the frontier period assemblage. Native fauna incorporated into the Gibbs' diet included, among others, white-tailed deer, squirrels, turkeys, opossums, raccoons, and Canada geese. Wild animals played a small role in this dietary strategy; from the early to the late times native fauna always made up only about 10 percent of the identified species. Butchering methods remained very similar over most of the time represented by the deposits, but did change around the tum of the nineteenth century. Similarly, dumping patterns remained similar in character over much of the time, but were altered late in the nineteenth century.

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