In anthropology and archaeology, an attritional age profile describes the age distribution of animal remains at a site that reflects natural mortality patterns rather than mass hunting or catastrophic events. It is a key concept in zooarchaeology (archaeozoology) for interpreting how humans interacted with animals and how herds or populations were managed.

🌍 Definition

• Attritional Age Profile: A mortality curve showing gradual losses across age groups, with higher representation of the very young and very old.
• Contrast:
  • Catastrophic Profile: Sudden mortality across all age groups (e.g., mass kill events, epidemics).
  • Attritional Profile: Selective mortality, reflecting natural attrition or targeted hunting.

🔑 Anthropological Contexts

• Zooarchaeology:
  • Used to analyze faunal assemblages (bones, teeth) to reconstruct hunting strategies and herd management.
• Hunting Practices:
  • Attritional profiles often indicate selective hunting of vulnerable animals (juveniles, old individuals).
  • Suggests opportunistic rather than large-scale hunting.
• Pastoralism & Herding:
  • In managed herds, attritional profiles may reflect culling strategies (e.g., removing unproductive animals).
• Environmental Insight:
  • Natural attrition may reflect predation, disease, or environmental stress in wild populations.

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Subsistence Reconstruction: Helps distinguish between opportunistic hunting, herd management, and catastrophic kill events.
• Cultural Insight: Reveals human decision-making in resource use.
• Chronological Utility: Age profiles can be compared across sites to track changes in subsistence strategies.
• Interdisciplinary Value: Links anthropology with biology (population dynamics) and ecology (mortality patterns).

In short: An attritional age profile is a mortality pattern in faunal remains showing natural or selective losses across age groups, used in anthropology to interpret hunting, herding, and ecological dynamics.