by Matthew Law

A commonly used method of quantifying relative frequencies of taxa in bioarchaeology, NISP stands for Number of Identified Specimens Present. It is very simple to calculate, as it is the total number of individual specimens that could be identified to a particular taxon. It is often used in addition to MNI to give an idea of the range within which the true number of individuals of the taxon present will fall. NISP is likely to be considerably higher than the actual number of individuals, as it may be difficult to know whether the specimens are independent of one another (Reitz and Wing 1999: 192).

See also MNI 

Reference:

Reitz, E.J., and Wing, E.S., 1999, Zooarchaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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