Dear Zooarchers,
Further to the series of messages concerning the preponderance of particular
sides of bone elements in deposits, I'd like to add a multiphase site near
Salisbury with two cattle burials. Initially I assumed they were modern farm
animals, as the cuts are very shallow and contained no finds except bone,
until I looked more closely at the contents. They are within a few metres of
each other and in one were the left side elements (in articulation) and in
the other, the right side elements of probably female cattle. The
measurements are similar and this may be two halves of one individual. The
head is missing. The right side part-skeleton was buried with a foetal
artiodactyl in the area of the womb, which has been tentatively identified
as sheep/goat on the basis of its small size and fairly advanced state of
ossification, although it is in extremely poor condition and surface detail
has been lost.
The burials were found in an area of middle Neolithic pits, with some Bronze
Age, Iron Age and RB/Med/Post-Med activity nearby. Hopefully carbon dating
will provide a date for these features. There is a ring ditch to the south
and three rows of undated postholes running N-S to the east of the burials,
which are themselves orientated E-W, with the head area of each pointing in
a different direction.
Two Neolithic pits at the site have produced articulated parts of pig, most
of which are left side elements. Apart from the West Kennet palisade
enclosures and those already mentioned on zoozrch, I can't think of any
other examples of left / right separation of bones in this area of any date,
certainly not of articulated partial skeletons. Loose associations between
foetal and mature animals of different species are recorded in pit deposits
at Danebury, but does this happen in earlier periods, and is the foetal
individual found in the womb area? I don't suppose anyone else has come
across this type of burial pattern with a close association between foetal
and mature animals of different species?
Steph
_______
Stephanie Knight
Wessex Archaeology
Portway House
Old Sarum Park
Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP4 6EB
01722 326867
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