Taphonomy and experimentation

Many experiments have been conducted in the field of taphonomy in order to understand the effects of some agents and the associated pattern and process of bone modifications. A review of these experiments and the patterns of bone modifications is presented here. Numerous experiments focus on peculiar points of bone accumulation, mainly to gain knowledge about human habits and practices, but the action of some taphonomic agents has also been explored, among them, diagenetic processes. The striking feature of all these works are that they are localized, performed on non–statistical samples and without repeatability. Very few experiments combine different agents to fit more closely to the complexity of most fossil bone accumulations.