Dear Michael
have a look at Legge et al. (2000) "Lambs to the
slaughter: sacrifice at two Roman temples in southern
England" (in: Rowley Conwy, ed. Animal Bones, Human
Societies, pp. 152-157).
Interestingly, at one of the temples (Great
Chesterford) an almost absolute side preference
(right) was observed for scapula, humerus, radius and
ulna; in contrast, in mandible, maxilla and
metapodials both sides were represented in equal
proportions.
cheers
Jaco
--- Michael MacKinnon <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Recently, I examined zooarchaeological remains from
> the Hero Shrine of
> the baby Opheltes from the site of Nemea, Greece.
> The deposit dates to
> the Archaic period. The bulk was cremated, so there
> were lots of tiny
> fragments. Nevertheless, results revealed a
> signficant predominance of
> lower left leg bones (tibia and downwards) of
> ovicaprids (principally
> sheep). This remained the case even after I
> standardized for taphonomic
> biases -- it appears it was culturally determined.
> Body part and/or
> side preference is noted at a few other sacrificial
> deposits among
> ancient sites around the Aegean; however, in these
> cases (only a few I
> should add) the right side is preferred. I'm not
> aware of side choices
> among Roman samples I'm familiar with across the
> Mediterranean, and am
> curious if others have come across side preferences
> in ritual deposits.
> Side data are not always recorded, so this may be
> part of the trouble.
> Still, as I mentioned, the choice of the left side
> at Nemea is usual in
> the Aegean and brings up issues such as right =
> godly, left = sinister.
> I've checked through the ancient literature and have
> come to the
> conclusion that for some reason the hero Opheltes at
> Nemea had to be
> distinguised in sacrifice from gods, such as Zeus
> (who is also
> associated with the site -- but sadly the ritual
> sample associated with
> his temple yielded insufficient faunal data).
>
> Any thoughts and comparative information would be
> greatly appreciated.
> Many thanks in advance,
>
> Michael MacKinnon
>
>
> --------------------------------------------
> Dr. Michael MacKinnon
> Department of Anthropology
> University of Winnipeg
> 515 Portage Avenue
> Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9
> Canada
>
> phone: (204) 786-9752
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
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