The bone ditch
Oct. 18th, 2009 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ossamentaWhere do you put the bone expert on an excavation? At the ditch filled with bone fragments. I estimate that the deposit is approximately 70% bones and the rest is soil. The entire deposit is being taken up as samples, so that we don’t miss the smaller fragments. Well, I would probably have included everything, but when the method statement was written no-one knew I would be the one excavating the ditch.
As of last Friday, I’ve removed c. 70% of the deposit - what’s visible that is: I’m not certain where one edge is. Needs more trowelling. My initial impression is that the deposit mostly consist of chopped up pieces of cattle and horse long bones. From the fragmentation of the long bone ends it would probably be possible to discern butchery trends and how they correspond with previous studies of Roman butchery (cf. Maltby 1989, Maltby 2007 and Seetah 2006). I’m not sure if we’re dealing with waste from bone working or from cooking waste. If the deposit is cooking waste, it suggests that the bones may derive from a period of starvation, since horse were not normally eaten by the Romans.
Surface photo.
During excavation. This slot was a bit unusual, with the occasional ”non-long bone”, such as the sheep/goat mandible to the left, and much less long bone splinters.
Maltby, M. (1989) “Urban-rural variations in the butchering of cattle in Romano-British Hampshire”, in D. Serjeantson and T. Waldron (eds), Diet and crafts in towns: The evidence of animal remains from the Roman to the Post-Medieval periods. British Archaeology Reports vol. 199, Oxford. ISBN: 0860545989. pp. 75-106.
Maltby, M. (2007) “Chop and change: Specialist cattle carcass processing in Roman Britain”, in B. Croxford, N. Ray, R. Roth and N. White (eds) TRAC 2006. Proceedings of the sixteenth annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. Oxbow Books, Oxford. ISBN: 978-1-84217-264-3. pp. 59-76.
Seetah, K. (2006) “Multidisciplinary approach to Romano-British cattle butchery”, in M. Maltby (ed), Integrating zooarchaeology. Oxbow books, Oxford. ISBN: 1-84217-123-2. pp. 109-116.
As of last Friday, I’ve removed c. 70% of the deposit - what’s visible that is: I’m not certain where one edge is. Needs more trowelling. My initial impression is that the deposit mostly consist of chopped up pieces of cattle and horse long bones. From the fragmentation of the long bone ends it would probably be possible to discern butchery trends and how they correspond with previous studies of Roman butchery (cf. Maltby 1989, Maltby 2007 and Seetah 2006). I’m not sure if we’re dealing with waste from bone working or from cooking waste. If the deposit is cooking waste, it suggests that the bones may derive from a period of starvation, since horse were not normally eaten by the Romans.
Surface photo.
During excavation. This slot was a bit unusual, with the occasional ”non-long bone”, such as the sheep/goat mandible to the left, and much less long bone splinters.
Maltby, M. (1989) “Urban-rural variations in the butchering of cattle in Romano-British Hampshire”, in D. Serjeantson and T. Waldron (eds), Diet and crafts in towns: The evidence of animal remains from the Roman to the Post-Medieval periods. British Archaeology Reports vol. 199, Oxford. ISBN: 0860545989. pp. 75-106.
Maltby, M. (2007) “Chop and change: Specialist cattle carcass processing in Roman Britain”, in B. Croxford, N. Ray, R. Roth and N. White (eds) TRAC 2006. Proceedings of the sixteenth annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. Oxbow Books, Oxford. ISBN: 978-1-84217-264-3. pp. 59-76.
Seetah, K. (2006) “Multidisciplinary approach to Romano-British cattle butchery”, in M. Maltby (ed), Integrating zooarchaeology. Oxbow books, Oxford. ISBN: 1-84217-123-2. pp. 109-116.