News and Events
Experimental Archaeology: Stone Tools and Deer Butchering
October 28, 2011
Assistant Professor of Anthropology Bill Schindler shows students in his Experimental Archaeology class how to use primitive technology in food production by making stone tools and using them to skin and butcher four deer donated by alumni Katie Eckenrode '11 and Doug Pfaff '10.
Enlarge photos by Center for Environment & Society Program Manager Tara Holste '07.
Helen Bish '13, Katie Manion '12 and Sarah Baldree '13 get started on a deer.
Brendan Callaghan '13 lays out the hide, which can be used as a work surface to protect the meat from the grass.
Sarah Baldree '13 uses a stone tool to slice open a leg.
Some modern hunters will just remove the skin to get to the meat, but primitive peoples would have tried to keep the skin intact for tanning, which the students tried to do as well.
Earlier in the semester, students made their own stone tools to use in the butchering process.
Professor of Archaeology Bill Schindler demonstrates how to remove the skin from the deer using a stone knife.
Mark Melino '12 and Miqdad Annab '12
Katie Manion '12 carefully removes the skin from a leg. Removing the skin can be the most time consuming part of butchering.
Once the skin has been sliced apart, it is easy to peel it back to expose the meat.
Sean Harrison '12, Miqdad Annab '12, and Mark Melino '12, working hard on a large buck.
Joseph Batchelor '12 scrapes meat from a hide.
A stone biface easily detaches the skin from the body.
Dr. Schindler shows off the sinew he removed from the back of a deer. The sinew is valuable as a source of fiber, which can be used to make bowstrings and bindings.
Amy Shaw '12 and Rose Deegan '12 get started on a new deer.
Dr. Schindler shows students how to remove the excess meat from the hides so they can be tanned and stored.
Meat collected from the deer.
Katie Manion '12 holds up a prize- the loin of the deer, one of the most prized pieces of meat.
Sarah Baldree '13 works to remove a leg bone for use in her final project for the class, out of which she'll craft a tool.
Miqdad Annab '12 scrapes a hide for tanning.