ABSTRACT
In 1979, we did not expect that archaeological documentation of the activities of our hypothetical pathfinding, beaver-trapping deerslayers would ever be found. Given the nature of animal fur preparation, skinning and initial dressing probably would have been carried out at or near kill sites, which would be very difficult for the archaeologist to find, and only a few bones of the exploited species would appear in settlements to bear witness to these activities. Under normal circumstances of preservation, the hides and fur, of course, will have disappeared from the record (Groenman-van Waateringe et al. 1999).
