Zooarchers,
I've been contacted by a journalist who wants an opinion on the
following:
http://www.archaeologyonline.org/Site%20-%20Area%20Feather%20Pits.html
Just wondered if anyone has ever seen anything like this before?
The information is difficult to get out of the website in any empiracle
or useful form, but from the pictures and text, I'm not personally sold
on the unique ritual angle. I'm sure there's a simpler explanation -
birds dead on nest - abandoned nest, rubbish pits.
It's a wet, acid deposit which explains the great organic preservation
(and probable lack of bones). Does it just look weird because of that?
The journalist said that there some AMS dates putting the remains into
the mid 17th & 18th centuries. That's about as much as I know.
There's also this article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3517036.ece
Keith
Dr Keith Dobney
Dept of Archaeology
Durham University
South Road
Durham DH1 3LE
UK
Tel +44 191 334 1119
Fax +44 191 334 1101
www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/?id=1221
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