Ina Plug

Ina Plug (née Post) (born August 5 , 1941) is a South African archaeozoologist (or zooarchaeologist), and teacher. Her long career included field research and in museums such as Transvaal Museum (now the Ditsong: National Museum of Natural History) and for the University of Pretoria on southern African mammals, starting with the animals from Iron Age sites at the Kruger National Park. Her work resulted in her publishing 130 scientific papers mostly on the skeletal remains of animals. She also published a book titled What Bone Is That? A Guide to the Identification of Southern African Mammal Bones.

Quotes

Early iron age buffalo hunters on the Kadzi river, Zimbabwe

Early iron age buffalo hunters on the Kadzi river, Zimbabwe On June 1997

• The faunal sample from Kadzi, an Early Iron Age site in the Zambezi Valley, is the first substantial sample for that period and region in Zimbabwe.
• The site appears to have been a permanent or semipermanent settlement. The sample consists mainly of bovid remains, dominated by buffalo as a single species, suggesting special hunting skills.
• The presence of some domestic animals proves that these animals were available to the inhabitants of the site. Their status in the community is, however, uncertain. Possible explanations for the small number of cattle fragments could be the result of paucity of livestock for environmental or other reasons, or may reflect differential disposal of cattle bones as part of ritual expression.