Perioada celei de-a doua epoci a fierului la Olteni – Cariera de nisip (jud. Covasna) în oglinda studiilor arheozoologice / Second Iron Age period at Olteni – Cariera de Nisip (Covasna County) in the light of archaeozoological studies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelemen Imola
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Domestic Species ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Bone Fragments

A settlement and a necropolis from the 4th-3rd centuries BC, with typical North-Thracian materials, were discovered at Olteni – Cariera de Nisip/The Sand Quarry in northern Covasna county. The few animal remains analysed in the present study were found in 3 pits of this settlement. The faunal material is not necessary very representative but completes the picture of the already published archaeological and anthropological reports concerning the assemble of discoveries at Olteni which depict a local North-Thracian community in all its life aspects, funerary and domestic. There are only 12 bone fragments from which only 8 could be determined in species. These come from 3 different domestic species (cattle, sheep/goat, pig). Four bones showed burn marks, while a whole metatarsus offered the possibility to identify a very short cow, with the wither’s height of only 97 cm.

The raw, the cooked and the burnt

2000 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
World View ◽  
Structural Patterns ◽  
Domestic Species ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Relative Status ◽  
Food Residues

AbstractThe iron age settlement at Sollas, North Uist, Scotland, provides an unusually varied set of data relating to food and the role of animals in society. By comparing the evidence of food residues on pottery with animal remains from middens, foundation burials and cremations, structural patterns emerge which throw light on the relative status of domestic species. Sheep and cows are treated differently, with sheep being mainly buried, and cattle cremated. This patterning enables a speculative world view of the inhabitants to be constructed, and further analysis shows that mature cattle were classified differently from younger animals. It is suggested that these normally hidden structuring principles cause difficulties for the conventional interpretation of animal remains on other iron age sites.

Cremated animal remains and shattered pottery. Rare ritual deposits from the Middle to Late Bronze Age at Aalst – Siesegemkouter (Belgium)

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne Verbrugge ◽  
Maaike Groot ◽  
Koen Deforce ◽  
Guy De Mulder ◽  
Wouter Van der Meer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Early Date ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Animal Bone ◽  
Maintenance Practice ◽  
Organic Remains

Abstract Archaeological research at Aalst – Siesegemkouter revealed several pits within a Middle to Late Bronze Age settlement. Most of them hardly contained any artefacts, but one exception showed a structured stratigraphy with an abundance of finds, including a large amount of shattered pottery, charcoal and calcined animal bone. The study of this assemblage, and comparison with two other pits showing similarities, provides strong indications of a closing deposit or another type of ‘site maintenance practice’. In the Low Countries, comparable contexts generally date from the Iron Age, suggesting that the finds from Aalst – Siesegemkouter represent early forerunners of this ritual practice. On top of this early date, the large volume of cremated animal bone represents an almost unique characteristic for which, until now, parallels from the Metal Ages have hardly been found, even on a Northwestern European scale. In general, the role played by organic remains in ritual contexts from these periods and regions is poorly understood, often due to bad preservation conditions or the lack of a multidisciplinary approach.

The Bear in the Grave: Exploitation of Top Predator and Herbivore Resources in First Millennium Sweden—First Trends from a Long-Term Research Project

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl-Johan Lindholm ◽  
John Ljungkvist
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Animal Products ◽  
Interregional Trade ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Chronological Sequence ◽  
Middle Iron Age ◽  
Faunal Exploitation

This paper focusses on animal remains associated with archaeological contexts dated to the middle and later phases of the Scandinavian Iron Age, which corresponds to the first millennium AD. The main question to be addressed is whether this record can be used for identifying human impact on certain animal populations for modelling faunal exploitation and interregional trade. In the first part of the paper, we undertake a detailed inventory of animal finds recorded in published excavation reports, research catalogues, and in existing databases maintained primarily by the Historical Museum in Stockholm. We compare the chronological pattern identified in the burial assemblages with a chronological sequence retrieved from pitfall hunting systems located in the Scandinavian inland region. The chronologies of the animal finds from burials and the pitfall systems are then compared with dated pollen-analytical sequences retrieved in the inland region and additional archaeological assemblages, such as graves and hoards of Roman coins. In our discussion, we outline an interregional model of faunal exploitation between AD 300 and 1200, including the possible location of hunting grounds and end-distribution areas for animal products. The paper provides deeper insights into the burial record of the middle Iron Age, arguing for the need for broader interregional approaches, and focussed archaeological research in the inland regions of Scandinavia.

Death and Burial in Iron Age Britain

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Harding
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Regular Form ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Minimal Impact ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
The Dead ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Burial Rite

Archaeologists have long acknowledged the absence of a regular and recurrent burial rite in the British Iron Age, and have looked to rites such as cremation and scattering of remains to explain the minimal impact of funerary practices on the archaeological record. Pit-burials or the deposit of disarticulated bones in settlements have been dismissed as casual disposal or the remains of social outcasts. In Death and Burial in Iron Age Britain, Harding examines the deposition of human and animal remains from the period - from whole skeletons to disarticulated fragments - and challenges the assumption that there should have been any regular form of cemetery in prehistory, arguing that the dead were more commonly integrated into settlements of the living than segregated into dedicated cemeteries. Even where cemeteries are known, they may yet represent no more than a minority of the total population, so that other forms of disposal must still have been practised. A further example of this can be found in hillforts which, in addition to domestic and agricultural settlements, evidently played an important role in funerary ritual, as secure community centres where excarnation and display of the dead may have made them a potent symbol of identity. The volume evaluates the evidence for violent death, sacrifice, and cannibalism, as well as age and gender distinctions, and associations with animal burials, and reveals that 'formal' cemetery burial or cremation was for most regions a minority practice in Britain until the eve of the Roman conquest.

scholarly journals Isotopic and microbotanical insights into Iron Age agricultural reliance in the Central African rainforest

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine Bleasdale ◽  
Hans-Peter Wotzka ◽  
Barbara Eichhorn ◽  
Julio Mercader ◽  
Amy Styring ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Pennisetum Glaucum ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Dental Calculus ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Environmental Requirements

Abstract The emergence of agriculture in Central Africa has previously been associated with the migration of Bantu-speaking populations during an anthropogenic or climate-driven ‘opening’ of the rainforest. However, such models are based on assumptions of environmental requirements of key crops (e.g. Pennisetum glaucum) and direct insights into human dietary reliance remain absent. Here, we utilise stable isotope analysis (δ13C, δ15N, δ18O) of human and animal remains and charred food remains, as well as plant microparticles from dental calculus, to assess the importance of incoming crops in the Congo Basin. Our data, spanning the early Iron Age to recent history, reveals variation in the adoption of cereals, with a persistent focus on forest and freshwater resources in some areas. These data provide new dietary evidence and document the longevity of mosaic subsistence strategies in the region.

Animal remains excavated from the Robertsdrift Iron Age site

1973 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-196
Author(s):  
R. G. Welbourne
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Animal Remains

The Life of Things Long Dead: a Biography of Iron Age Animal Skulls from Battlesbury Bowl, Wiltshire

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Hambleton
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Complex Dynamic ◽  
The Past ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
Biographical Approach

This study expands perceptions of ritual behaviour in the British Iron Age, which conventionally focus on the deposition and burial of objects. Classification of animal bones as special deposits in Iron Age Britain, and interpretation of the ritual activities they may represent, has tended to concentrate on the significance of their burial location and composition and/or the cultural perception of the particular animal species deposited. Other than for consumption and sacrifice, little consideration has been given to the complex, dynamic histories (biographies) and cultural significance of animal remains in the period between death and burial. Detailed examination of the taphonomic and pre-depositional histories of animal deposits, are one means by which it is possible to explore the activities that occurred above ground in the past. Zooarchaeological investigations of a group of cattle and horse skulls from Battlesbury Bowl, Hampshire, provide an excellent example of a ‘special deposit’ where it was the objects themselves, as much as their species, location or structured burial that held special significance for the Iron Age community. By taking a biographical approach, we can create detailed narratives of archaeological animal bones and their treatment, thereby expanding the view of activities that fall under the ‘ritual’ umbrella.

scholarly journals Cave finds indicate elk (<i>Alces alces</i>) hunting during the Late Iron Age in the Bavarian Alps

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-200
Author(s):  
Kerstin Pasda ◽  
Matthias López Correa ◽  
Philipp Stojakowits ◽  
Bernhard Häck ◽  
Jérôme Prieto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Left Shoulder ◽  
Domestic Species ◽  
Cut Marks ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Bavarian Alps ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Elk Hunting ◽  
Shoulder Blade

Abstract. The finding of a partially preserved elk skeleton from the Bavarian Alps is reported. Remnants of an adult male were found, together with skeletal elements of juvenile moose calves, at the base of a talus cone in the pit cave Stiefelschacht, next to Lenggries (southern Germany). The adult's bones exhibited anthropogenic traces like cut marks and were radiocarbon-dated to the Late Iron Age. A projectile hole in the left shoulder blade and cut marks on the bones are indicative of hunting and meat usage. The elk remains were associated with several wild and domestic species such as ungulates and hare but were not, however, accompanied by archaeological artefacts. Other archaeological sites of the Late Iron Age are so far not known within a distance of less than 30 km to the Stiefelschacht. While the presence of elk during prehistoric times in the Alps has already been known before, the finds and the location are unique in that they are the first evidence of elk hunting during the Late Iron Age in the northern Alps.

From the Bronze Age to the Roman Conquest: the Oppidum of Monte Bernorio (Northern Spain)

2016 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 363-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesús F. Torres-Martínez ◽  
Manuel Fernández-Götz ◽  
Antxoka Martínez-Velasco ◽  
David Vacas-Madrid ◽  
Elina Rodríguez-Millán
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Northern Regions

The northern regions of the Iberian Peninsula have traditionally been excluded in international debates on Iron Age urbanisation. However, the hillforts and oppida of the Cantabrian area show considerable similarities to the situation found in wide parts of Temperate Europe during the 1st millennium bc. One of the most important centres is the oppidum of Monte Bernorio, which was occupied between the Late Bronze Age and the Roman Conquest. This paper offers a first overview of the archaeological fieldwork carried out over the last decade, which has revealed the existence of an extremely complex and extensive system of multivallate fortifications enclosing an area of about 90 ha. Therefore, it is one of the largest Iron Age fortified sites of the whole of the Iberian Peninsula. The material culture recovered at the settlement – including large amounts of pottery, animal remains, metal objects, and glass beads – testifies both local production and long-distance networks. Moreover, the recovery of a tessera hospitalis with written text constitutes a prime example of the existence of legally sanctioned ‘citizenship rights’ among the pre-Roman communities of the Cantabrian area. Finally, recent discoveries at the oppidum itself and at the nearby Roman military camp of El Castillejo indicate a siege and conquest by the Roman army in the course of the Cantabrian Wars led by Emperor Augustus in the 20s BC. The evidence points towards the existence of one of the major battlefields of Rome’s imperial expansion in the West.

Animal burials and animal symbolism

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Harding
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Special Treatment ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Secondary Products ◽  
Domestic Consumption ◽  
Phase 3 ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Special Character ◽  
Human Burials

Animal remains may be deposited archaeologically in a great variety of circumstances, many of which must reflect their role in the domestic and agricultural economy of Iron Age communities, and result from normal disposal of the residues of butchery or consumption. In some circumstances the reason for disposal will have been death through disease or misadventure. The case of the cow in pit 61 of the phase 3 settlement at Gussage All Saints (Wainwright, 1979) that apparently died in calving is a case in point, though it is not clear why this animal was not processed for consumption, and we may suspect that an inauspicious omen was inferred that may have resulted in some special act of deposition. Ritual killing of animals, nevertheless, has been attested throughout Europe from earliest prehistory to the medieval period (Pluskowski, 2011). In reviewing animal sacrifices among the Gauls, Méniel (1992) divided the evidence into three principal categories of deposits found in habitation sites, in cemeteries, and in sanctuaires. The special character of those found on sanctuary sites, or accompanying human burials, individually or in cemeteries, is implicit from context, but animal burials that may have been deposited ritually on habitation sites are more difficult to distinguish from other forms of domestic or agricultural discard. The key problem, of course, is distinguishing ‘special deposits’ from normal butchery waste, which itself may have been disposed of in a systematic but not ritually significant fashion, a notion that was first advanced by Maltby (1985b) in the context of the Winnall Down animal remains. Despite interest generated by the Danebury project in special treatment of animal remains, the majority of faunal material from the 1985–6 excavations at Maiden Castle (Sharples, 1991a) was interpreted as the product of animal husbandry for domestic consumption or secondary products. Even in the few instances in which a possible ritual dimension was conceded, the animal remains showed evidence of butchery, involving removal of skins and flesh and disarticulation of the skeletons. Special treatment in particular may have been accorded to dogs (Smith, 2006).

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