Introduction

This volume presents a study of site-formation processes at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov (GBY), focusing on the qualitative and quantitative analyses of the faunal remains in order to shed light on the processes involved in the genesis of the site. The objective of this study is to obtain a better understanding of the different processes that caused various damage types to the GBY bone assemblage. We hope to gain insight into a variety of taxonomic issues of the assemblages, and to draw conclusions based on a detailed comparison of the fossil bone assemblage together with the results of taphonomic experiments. Although the conclusions presented here originally pertained to GBY, they do much to contribute to our understanding of site-formation processes beyond the Jordan Valley and the Levant.