Bad Contexts, Nice Bones — and Vice Versa?

Intrasite comparisons of faunal data from a Late Bronze Age settlement at Oymaağaç Höyük, Turkey are presented here. The main features comprise a multiphase temple, a city gate, a silo, and an underground stairway. The faunal samples studied derive from the temple area and the silo. Samples and contextual aggregations were chosen and defined in accordance with researchers occupied with the stratigraphy and pottery. A contextual framework is provided for each unit. Some samples seem related to well-defined human actions—namely, to ritual activities, and to specific pottery. They derive from single acts representing “closed” or “good” contexts. Other bulky samples accumulated during construction works; they are from the fill used to stabilize foundations. Regarded as secondary or tertiary waste by residual, multipe- riod pottery (“bad” contexts), it is shown that zooarchaeological interpretations do not always conform to assessments based on other find groups. The samples are compared according to the composition of the domestic triad (NISP and weight) and skeletal-part profiles. Special attention is paid to the groupings and dispersions of data points derived from related or mutually exclusive taphonomic pathways. In some cases, the original interpretation of contexts was supported by the faunal remains. In others, it was at odds.