Plio-Pleistocene sites are a rare occurrence in the archaeological record. When they are uncovered, the faunal materials so crucial to unlocking their behavioral meaning are often poorly preserved. For example, at Koobi Fora, Kenya, a prolific region that preserves several classic Plio-Pleistocene sites, many bones are affected by poor cortical surface preservation (Isaac, 1997). Such taphonomic vagaries limit the range of questions that can be addressed with these assemblages. In other instances, access to materials can be limited due to local from politics or rivalries between individual research teams. As a result, many important assemblages either remain unstudied or have been interpreted without the advantage of a fully developed taphonomic framework, a situation that all but guarantees stagnant interpretations. |