Animals in the Neolithic of Britain and Europe (Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers)

191 Pages·2015·14.452 MB·English

by  Dale Serjeantson, David Field

Animals in the Neolithic
of Britain and Europe
Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers 7
Edited by
Dale Serjeantson and David Field
Oxbow Books
Published by
Oxbow Books, Park End Place, Oxford OX1 1HN
© Oxbow Books and the individual authors, 2006
ISBN 1 84217 214 X 978 1 84217 214 8
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Cover: Woodcut of a charging aurochs, from Conrad Gessner’s
Historia Animalium: Liber I. De quadrupedibus viviparis
Printed in Great Britain by
The Short Run Press
Exeter
Foreword
This book presents the proceedings of a seminar organised under the Neolithic Studies
Group (NSG), forming part of an ongoing series of NSG seminar papers. The NSG is
an informal organisation comprising archaeologists with an interest in Neolithic
archaeology. It was established in 1984 and has a large membership based mainly in the
UK and Ireland, but also including workers from the nations of the Atlantic seaboard.
The annual programme includes two or three meetings spread throughout the year and
includes seminars held in London and field meetings at various locations in north-west
Europe.
Membership is open to anyone with an active interest in the Neolithic in Europe. The
present membership includes academic staff and students, museums staff, archaeologists
from government institutions, units, trusts and amateur organisations. There is no
membership procedure or application forms and members are those on the current
mailing list. Anyone can be added to the mailing list at any time, the only membership
rule being that names of those who do not attend any of four consecutive meetings are
removed from the list (in the absence of apologies for absence or requests to remain on
the list).
The Group relies on the enthusiasm of its members to organise its annual meetings
and the two co-ordinators to maintain mailing lists and finances. Financial support for
the group is drawn from a small fee payable for attendance of each meeting.
Anyone wishing to contact the Group and obtain information about forthcoming
meetings should contact the co-ordinators at the following addresses:
TIMOTHY DARVILL KENNETH BROPHY
School of Conservation Sciences Department of Archaeology
Bournemouth University University of Glasgow
Poole Glasgow
Dorset BH12 5BB G12 8QQ

Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Preface ix
Acknowledgements x
Contributors xi
1 William Cunnington and his Butcher
(David Field) 1
2 Neolithic Wild Game Animals in Western Europe: the Question
of Hunting (K. V. Boyle) 10
3 The Bear, the Wolf, the Otter and the Weasel: Carnivorous Mammals
in the Dutch Neolithic (J. T. Zeiler) 24
4 Dogs and Wolves in the Neolithic of Britain (Kate M. Clark) 32
5 Sheep in the Garden: The Integration of Crop and Livestock Husbandry
in Early Farming Regimes of Greece and Southern Europe
(Paul Halstead) 42
6 The Use of Spent Grain as Cattle Feed in the Neolithic
(Merryn Dineley) 56
7 Neolithic Shepherds and their Herds in the Northern Adriatic Basin
(Preston Miracle) 63
8 Ploughing with Cows: Knossos and the Secondary Products Revolution
(Valasia Isaakidou) 95
9 Food or Feast at Neolithic Runnymede?
(Dale Serjeantson) 113
10 A Community of Beings: Animals and People in the Neolithic
of Southern Britain (Joshua Pollard) 135
11 Taming the Wild: A Final Neolithic/Earlier Bronze Age Aurochs
Deposit from west London
(Jonathan Cotton, Nicholas Elsden, Alan Pipe and Louise Rayner) 149
12 Animals in the Neolithic: A Research Agenda? No Thanks.
(Umberto Albarella) 168
vi Left Running Head
List of Illustrations
FIGURES
1.1 Long barrows around Heytesbury in Wiltshire, with hypothetical territories based
on access to River Wylie and its tributary.
1.2 The cairn at Fussell’s Lodge with the Bos skull placed on the summit.
2.1 Geographical distribution of wild fauna across Western Europe during the sixth
millennium BP.
2.2 Geographical distribution of red deer frequencies across Western Europe during
the sixth millennium BP.
2.3 Sites with (A) roe deer and (B) boar across Western Europe during the sixth
millennium BP.
2.4 Percentage (NISP) of horse between 6000 to 5000 BP. The inset chart shows the
relationship between horse and wild boar.
2.5 Geographic distribution of (A) aurochs and (B) aurochs and boar across Western
Europe during the sixth millennium BP.
3.1 Location of Neolithic sites in the Netherlands.
4.1 Range of estimated shoulder heights of dogs from prehistoric Britain.
4.2 Dorsal view of cranium of Neolithic canid from Staines Road Farm, Surrey.
4.3 Outline of the skull of the canid showing its dental asymmetry.
5.1 Map of Greece showing location of sites mentioned in text.
5.2 Sheep grazing sprouting wheat in southern Thessaly, Greece.
6.1 Diagram showing what happens inside the grain whilst it is beginning to germinate
on the malting floor.
7.1 Location map of sites in the Northern Adriatic region discussed in the text.
7.2 Relative frequency of the main vertebrates in post-Mesolithic horizons at Pupic´ina
Cave. Top: main domesticates. Bottom: wild mammals.
7.3 Dog mandible with transverse cut marks.
7.4 Age at death of sheep and goat at Pupic´ina, based on tooth eruption and wear.
7.5 Age at death of sheep and goat at Pupic´ina, based on long bone fusion.
7.6 Age at death of cattle and pig at Pupic´ina, based on long bone fusion.
7.7 Sheep/goat and small ungulate remains with cut marks and burning.
7.8 Cattle and large ungulate remains with cut marks and burning.
8.1 Map of Greece showing location of Knossos.
8.2 Age at death of sheep at Neolithic and Bronze Age Knossos.
8.3 Age at death of goats at Neolithic and Bronze Age Knossos.
8.4 Age at death of cattle at Neolithic and Bronze Age Knossos.
8.5 Examples of ‘traction pathologies’ on bovine pelvis (female) and femur from
Knossos.
8.6 Examples of ‘traction pathologies’ on distal articulation of ?right-sided bovine
metacarpal (?male) from Knossos.
9.1 Runnymede: plan showing areas excavated in the rescue and research campaigns.
RLigishtt oRf uIlnlnuisntrga tHioenasd vii
9.2 Runnymede: Area 19 section, showing Late Bronze Age occupation soil, sterile
alluvium, gravel horizon with reworked Middle Neolithic material and Middle
Neolithic occupation soil.
9.3 Runnymede: percentage of cattle, pigs and sheep.
9.4 Runnymede: age at death of cattle and sheep.
9.5 Runnymede: fragmentation of cattle humerus, radius, femur and tibia.
9.6 Runnymede: fragmentation of pig humerus, radius, femur and tibia.
9.7 Runnymede: gnawed limb bones of cattle.
9.8 Runnymede: gnawed limb bones of pig.
9.9 Two butchered metacarpals of cattle.
10.1 The occurrence of different animal species in a sample of 30 earlier Neolithic sites
in Wiltshire and Dorset.
10.2 The occurrence of different animal species in a sample of 35 later Neolithic sites
in Wiltshire and Dorset.
11.1 Holloway Lane in relation to other West London sites. The position of the aurochs
deposit is marked.
11.2 Plan showing Grooved Ware pit, the aurochs deposit and arrowheads within pit.
11.3 Composite section through Grooved Ware and aurochs pits following the removal
of up to 0.50m of topsoil and subsoil.
11.4 The aurochs deposit within pit as excavated.
11.5 Pit [75] looking south with the aurochs deposit in situ.
11.6 Diagram of the Holloway Lane aurochs showing: surviving bone and bone likely
to have been present within the original deposit.
11.7 The six barbed and tanged flint arrowheads from the aurochs deposit.
11.8 Woodcut of a charging aurochs being speared by a hunter taking cover behind a
sturdy tree.
11.9. Reconstruction of the aurochs hunt by Derek Lucas.
TABLES
1.1 Incidence of animal and human bones as described by Cunnington in fourteen
Wiltshire long barrows excavated between 1800 and 1809.
2.1 Average frequencies of major wild taxa from European Neolithic sites.
3.1 Number of identified remains of mammals, wild mammals (excluding small rodents
and insectivores) and wild carnivorous mammals in 25 Dutch Neolithic sites.
4.1 Selected skull measurements of British Neolithic dogs.
7.1 Faunal remains (NISP) from Neolithic levels at Pupic´ina Cave identified to taxon
and body size.
7.2 Minimum Number of Elements (MNE) and Minimum Number of Individuals
(MNI) by taxon and horizon at Pupic´ina.
7.3 Age categories for the major ungulates from Pupic´ina.
7.4 Sheep and goats (MNI) from Pupic´ina based on shed deciduous teeth and ageable
dentitions from dead sub-adults and adults.
viii LLeifstt Rofu Inlnluinstgr aHtioeands
7.5 Dated Initial Neolithic faunal assemblages from Piancada, Grotta dell’Edera,
Pupic´ina, Nin, Smilc(cid:1)ic´ and Tinj.
7.6 Middle Neolithic faunal assemblages from Bannia-Palazzine di Sopra, Grotta
Azzurra, Grotta degli Zingari, Grotta del Mitreo, Grotta dell’Edera, Podmol pri
Kastelcu, Acijev spodmol, Mala Triglavca, Pupic´ina and Smilc(cid:1)ic´.
7.7 Middle Neolithic sheep/goat mortality at Grotta degli Zingari; Grotta del Mitreo;
Grotta dell’Edera and Pupic´ina.
7.8 Comparison of faunal composition of Late Neolithic and Copper Age assemblages
in Trieste Karst, Istria, and Dalmatia.
7.9 Percent of sheep and goat remains by age class at Late Neolithic (Pupic´ina and
Grapc(cid:1)eva) and Copper Age (Edera 2) sites along the eastern Adriatic coast.
8.1 Absolute and relative chronologies for Knossos and mainland Greece.
8.2 Adult sex ratios for cattle, sheep and goats from Knossos, based on pelves.
8.3 Anatomical and chronological distribution of ‘traction pathologies’ in limb bones
of cattle from Knossos.
8.4 Incidence of eburnation of the acetabulum in male, female and indeterminate-sex
cattle pelves from Knossos, by period.
9.1 Number of hand retrieved bones from Neolithic Runnymede by site area and
zone.
9.2 Minor species from Runnymede. Rodents (probably intrusive) and red deer antler
are shown separately.
9.3 Burnt cattle bones from Runnymede, distinguished as per cent charred and per
cent partly burnt.
9.4 Burnt pig bones from Runnymede, as Table 9.3.
Right Running Head ix
Preface
The papers collected together here follow from the Neolithic Studies Group seminar
held at the British Museum on 10th November 2003 on the subject of Animals in the
Neolithic. The presentations and discussion at the meeting were enthusiastically received
and we were encouraged to bring the contributions together for publication and
dissemination to a wider audience as a volume in the Neolithic Studies Group seminar
series. This book includes most of the papers delivered and debated at the meeting and
others contributed later.
When we first started to plan to bring together a group of people interested in animals
in the Neolithic for a seminar of the Neolithic Studies Group in 2003, we did so knowing
that there had been no general book or collection of papers on Neolithic animals,
something rather surprising in view of the central role of animals in the Neolithic of
Europe. We set out to cover the range of current approaches to animals in the Neolithic,
and to encompass as wide a geographical scope as possible in Europe. In particular, we
aimed to ensure that both wild and domestic animals were discussed and that their social
as well as economic roles were given appropriate attention. The only limitation imposed
on the contributors was that the papers should focus on Neolithic Europe. As a result
the papers are refreshing in their range of perspectives. We welcomed papers on theoretical
topics as well as studies of individual Neolithic assemblages which have not up to now
been published. Two important individual deposits, the aurochs from Holloway Lane
and the canid from Staines Road Farm, both – co-incidentally – from sites not far apart
in West London – are also discussed.
We much regret that some of the participants in the original meeting were not able in
the end to contribute to this book. The absence of papers by Julie Bond, Mark Copley,
Caroline Grigson, Andrew Jones, A. J. Legge, Anna Mukherjee and Anne Tresset is a
great loss, but the topics presented by these authors have been (or will shortly be)
published elsewhere. Umberto Albarella, a discussant at the meeting in 2003, has rounded
off the volume with a commentary on the papers which puts them into the perspective
of changing views of animals in the Neolithic of Europe.
Just as this book was going to press the contributors were shocked and saddened to
hear of the death of Andrew Sherratt. One of his most innovative contributions to
prehistory was in defining the ‘Secondary Products Revolution’ twenty years ago: this
was the change which took place when animals ceased to be kept solely for meat and
skins, but began to be valued for what they provided while still alive, especially traction,
milk, and wool. Many of the papers in this book refer explicitly or implicitly to this
change; in particular, Andrew Sherratt’s ideas and encouragement were a great inspiration
for research of Valasia Isaakidou, which is discussed in Chapter 8. New methods of
analysis have shown that the ‘revolution’ identified by Sherratt started earlier and took
place over a much longer period than he originally envisaged, but, as Umberto Albarella
says in Chapter 12, the concept ‘was a hugely stimulating idea for more than twenty
years’. Andrew Sherratt’s thought provoking presence and ideas will be missed by everyone
who studies prehistoric Europe and we would like to dedicate this book to his memory.