Comparative Archaeology Database, University of Pittsburgh
URL: http://www.cadb.pitt.edu
Email: cadb@pitt.edu

Las Vegas Fauna Dataset
Peter Stahl and Karen Stothert

Ichthyo (Fish) Fauna Inventory

The files ICHTHYO.TXT and ICHTHYO.XLS provide taxa information about fish specimens recovered at each excavated context in the various Vegas sites. ICHTHYO.TXT is a comma delimited ASCII text file; ICHTHYO.XLS contains the same data in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. Each line in the ASCII file represents all the elements of the same species within a context. There are 848 lines, each with 22 variables separated by commas. The variables are listed in the following order:

1 Site number
2 Phase (if available)
3 New context number (if available). See the following PDF for a reconciliation of trench locations to new context numbers. For the location of the original context designations, please refer to Figure 1.5 of the publication associated with this dataset.
4 American Museum of Natural History specimen number (if available)
5 Florida Museum of Natural History specimen number (if available)
6 Trench
7 Quadrat (Section)
8 Provenience
9 Level (depth below datum in cm)
10 Number of fragments of elements of the same species within this context
11 Weight (g) (to 0.01)
12 MNI
13 Class
C. = Chondrichthyes
A. = Actinopterygii
14 Order
SEL = Selachimorpha
BAT = Batoidea
15 Family (n.i. = not identified)
16 Genus
17 Species
18 Element
19 Portion
C = caudal
PC = precaudal (sometimes followed by the number of the vertebra; e.g. PC1 = "precaudal one" or the first vertebra)
PU = preural
20 Side
R = right
L = left
A = axial
21 Comments
22 Estimated live weight of the fish based upon specimen size (g)

The first line of the ASCII text file, for example, looks like this:

OGSE-80,Late ,?,,,B,101-1,,0-20 cm,1,0.25,1,C.,SEL,Carcharhinidae,,,vertebra,,,,

This means that the specimens belong to site OGSE-80 and date to the Late period. They were recovered from trench B, quadrat 101-1, at a depth of 0-20 cm below datum. There is one specimen with a weight of 0.25 g belonging to the class Chondrichthyes, order Selachimorpha, family Carcharhinidae. The specimen is a vertebra.

The last, or 848th line of the ASCII text file is:

OGSE-38,,,,,,cut 2,,1,3,0.07,,A.,,n. i.,,,,,,,

This means that the specimens belong to site OGSE-38, recovered from the quadrat labeled "cut 2," level 1. There are three specimens with a total weight of 0.07 g belonging to the class Actinopterygii. The family of the specimens is not identified.

Download the file ICHTHYO.TXT (80 KB) or the file ICHTHYO.XLS (208 KB).


Return to the Table of Contents