Boiling Technology

[Daniel Kaufman]

We are dealing with a taphonomic phenomenon in the context of faunal assemblages from the Epipaleolithic of Israel.Body-part representation consistently shows a near absence of vertebrae and we were thinking that this might be related to grease extraction from these bones. This, of course, would require a boiling technology. We are looking for sources with reference to both archaeological and ethnographic data relating to such technology. Any help that any of you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Daniel Kaufman

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

We are dealing with a taphonomic phenomenon in the context of faunal assemblages from the Epipaleolithic of Israel.Body-part representation consistently shows a near absence of vertebrae and we were thinking that this might be related to grease extraction from these bones. This, of course, would require a boiling technology. We are looking for sources with reference to both archaeological and ethnographic data relating to such technology. Any help that any of you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Daniel Kaufman

I am presently temporarily out of touch, once again, with my personal files dealing with this most interesting problem that happens to have been somewhat intensively studied in many North American sites dating approximately from the Middle to the Late Holocene. Curiously, given the importance of fat & marrow consumption, especially at relatively high latitudes, very little archaeological evidence, specifically pertaining to the rendering of grease, is available from sites dating back to the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary and the earlier portion of the Holocene.

This said, you are not completely out of luck. The term generally in use for "grease extraction" in the North American literature is "bone grease". By doing a Google search, using 'bone grease archaeology", you will have access to quite a bit of information (including pertinent references) on many aspects of this particular technology.

Good luck and, by the way, welcome to the PALANTH - Forum.

Jacques Cinq-Mars

[Dale Hoogeveen]

Hi Daniel,

As Jacques notes, Native Americans used non-metal boiling techniques extensively. and not only for grease extraction but also for glue extraction from hoofs, etc. as well as adaptations for heating and steaming sweat lodges, amoung other things.

This is described in

The Indian Tipi: Its History, Construction and Use.
by Reginald and Gladys Laubin, 1957, originally from the University of Oklahoma Press

My paperback copy was printed in 1971 by Ballantine Books.  I do not know if copies are still available for purchase from any source, but it should be in libraries.

Although the main topic is the various types of tilted-cone skin lodges of the American Plains Indians, this book goes into a number of related life-style subjects partially gleaned from old Native Americans who in some cases were remembering from before reservation days.  The authors are quite careful in trying to attribute various arifacts and methods to the appropriate tribes.

A very good read, by and large, ending with a number of references besides.

Dutch

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

We are dealing with a taphonomic phenomenon in the context of faunal assemblages from the Epipaleolithic of Israel.Body-part representation consistently shows a near absence of vertebrae and we were thinking that this might be related to grease extraction from these bones. This, of course, would require a boiling technology. We are looking for sources with reference to both archaeological and ethnographic data relating to such technology. Any help that any of you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Daniel Kaufman

A bit late for your needs, perhaps, but I recently came across the following article:

Church, Robert R. and R. Lee Lyman. 2003. Small fragments make small differences in effciency when rendering grease from fractured artiodactyl bones by boiling. Journal of Archaeological 30: 1077–1084.

Abstract:

Part of the conventional wisdom of modern zooarchaeology is that in order for grease to be effciently rendered from bones by boiling, skeletal elements must be broken into very small pieces. Experimental boiling of fresh long bones (humeri, femora, tibiae) of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) reduced to various sizes indicates this is not necessarily true. No significant difference was found in the effciency (rate) of rendering grease from bone fragments generated by hammerstone breakage (fragment maximum dimension %5 cm) or from bones cut into pieces of 4, 2, or 1 cm maximum dimension. All produced over 80% of their renderable grease in 2–3 h of boiling. Long bones cut into three pieces comprising the complete diaphysis and two epiphyses were the least efciently boiled; 80% of their grease was rendered in 5 h. The small amount of grease rendered suggests that the extraction of fat-soluble trace nutrients other than lipids may be an additional reason that bone fragments were boiled.

Keywords: Bone grease; Grease rendering; Bone fragment size; Bone boiling; Effciency

2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Let me know if you need a copy.

Jacques Cinq-Mars

[Daryl Habel]

I suppose this is related:

http://www.wynja.com/arch/cooking.html

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

I suppose this is related:

http://www.wynja.com/arch/cooking.html

Dar,

Thanks for passing this on. Quite interesting. In fact a fascinating and clear demonstration that while interest in experimental archaeological enquiries can be triggered by reading Jean Auel's books, the latter are not exactly a very solid foundation on which to base such exercises.  Whoever carried this out would have saved a lot of time by reading a few basic cookbooks (!) and by looking up some pertinent scientific literature. I am thinking, here, of ethnography and archaeology.

Jacques