Ritual Zooarchaeology

The Albert Porter Pueblo great house, located in the central Mesa Verde region, was surrounded by numerous residential structures during the Pueblo II and Pueblo III periods. Using a variety of exploitation measures of wild game and turkeys,we test three hypotheses to see if there are meaningful similarities or differences in the faunal assemblages from the great house and the domestic households that surrounded it. Although the great house was a unique and prominent architectural featureat AlbertPorter Pueblo, thefaunas from the great house are generally similar to those from surrounding structures. However, there is some evidence that more meat of cottontails and turkeys was consumed in the great house compared to domestic structures during Pueblo III. Overall, all members from Albert Porter had equal access to animal food and those used in rituals and ceremonies. We explore different interpretations of social organization suggested by faunal remains.

The turtle shell attested in Kurgan 8 from the excavations of Jafar-Abad and Tu Ali-Sofla kurgans (in northwestern Iran), is the carapace of an animal belonging to the family Testudiniae sp. and was adapted to make a stringed instrument by a talented hand. It is 18 cm long and 15 cm wide. It was cut into a circle before being ornamented with incised designs. As stated above, it was found together with a bone fingerpick. It is supposed that the excavated tomb was belonged to a Shaman because of stringed musical instrument introduced from kurgan 8, with numerous and various womanish bronze artifacts. The material culture from Kurgan 8 could be dated to the Iron Age II (ca.1200- 800 B.C). The instrument is paralleled in a representation on a terracotta tablet from Susa dated to the second millennium BC The tradition of making musical instruments from tortoises shell, an earliest example of which is introduced here, has continued into the modern period, even possibly retaining the ancient forms.
https://www.academia.edu/38380117/ANIMAL_REMAINS_EXCAVATED_AT_JAFAR_ABAD_AND_TU_AL%C4%B0_SOFLA_KURGANS_NORTHWEST_IRAN_2010_AND_2013_SEASONS_T%C3%9CBA-AR_23._2018_pp.101-120

Die vorliegende Studie legt die Tierknochenfunde aus dem awarischen Gräberfeld an der Wiener Csokorgasse (11. Bezirk) vor. Sie hat zum Ziel, über eine detaillierte archäozoologische Analyse dieses Faunenmaterials neue Erkenntnisse darüber zu gewinnen, welche Rolle Tiere und Tierteile im awarischen Bestattungsritual spielten.
Das Gräberfeld wurde im Vorfeld von Baumaßnahmen in den Jahren 1976 und 1977 im Auftrag des Historischen Museums Wien (heute Wien Museum) unter der Leitung von L. Streinz vollständig ausgegraben. Es umfasst 705 Körpergräber mit teils mannigfaltiger Beigabenausstattung und wurde von der Frühawarenzeit II (2. Viertel 7. Jh.) bis in die Spätawarenzeit II bis III (2. und 3. Drittel 8. Jh.) kontinuierlich belegt.
In 491 (70 %) der 705 Gräber wurden Tierknochen gefunden. In den weitaus meisten Gräbern fanden sich Reste vom Huhn sowie von Schaf bzw. Ziege. Auch Funde vom Rind und vom Schwein treten in vielen Gräbern auf. Das Huhn wurde in verschiedenen Vollständigkeitsgraden beigegeben. Von den Haussäugetieren wurde bevorzugt die das Femur enthaltene Fleischpartie in das Grab gelegt. Hinzu kommen Skelettreste von Haus- oder Graugans, Dohle, Habicht, Feldlerche, Taube, Seeadler, Zwergsäger, Rebhuhn, Waldschnepfe sowie einige unbestimmbare Vogelreste, sowie von Fischen (Hechte, ein Wels und verschiedene Cypriniden – unter letzteren Nase, Döbel, Brachsen [?], Rapfen [?], Karpfen, Plötze und Barbe [?]). Vier gut ausgestatteten spätawarenzeitlichen Bestattungen wurden geschirrte Pferde beigegeben. Drei dieser enthielten zudem vollständige Skelette ausgewachsener großer Rüden.
Die kulturhistorische Auswertung stützt sich auf Erkenntnisse aus einem publizierten Grabkatalog von L. Streinz, einer unveröffentlichten anthropologischen Dissertation von K. Grossschmidt und einer jüngst von L. Streinz und F. Daim erstellten noch unveröffentlichten Belegungschronologie. Anhand dieser Daten wird geprüft, ob Korrelationen der Beigaben tierlicher Provenienz mit Alter, Geschlecht und Status des Toten festzustellen sind, die Hinweise auf die Hintergründe bzw. Motivation der Beigabe geben könnten. Diese werden sodann unter Hinzuziehung ethnologischer und soziologischer Erkenntnisse diskutiert.
Eine abschließende Eingliederung des Knochenmaterials aus dem Gräberfeld an der Wiener Csokorgasse in das anhand publizierter Tierknochenfunde aus anderen awarischen Gräberfeldern zu rekonstruierende Gesamtbild des die Tiere betreffenden Bestattungsrituals gibt Hinweise auf die Genese desselben in der autochthonen Bevölkerung. Die Regionalität einiger Parameter entspricht der historischen Aufteilung der ungarischen Tiefebene in das ehemals römische, dann langobardisch geprägte Pannonien westlich der Donau einerseits und das gepidisch beeinflusste ehemalige »Barbaricum« östlich der Theiss, und auch ein suebisch-slawisch geprägter Landstrich in der heutigen Slowakei lässt sich abgrenzen.

Gunnel Ekroth, in “Why Does Zeus Care about Burnt Thighbones from sheep?  Defining the Divine and Structuring the World Through Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Greece,” sets the plate for this volume by reassessing the historical backdrop against which nascent Christian traditions related to animal sacrifice emerge.  Animal sacrifice was the central ritual action of ancient Greek religion, as well as in most religions of the eastern Mediterranean in antiquity.  Although modern scholars have studied this religious practice for more than 100 years, animal sacrifice has always posed something of a problem, as it is so fundamentally alien to western European Christian culture. In order to understand animal sacrifice in the ancient world, one needs to encounter it in its own historical setting.  This means not only exploring its role in what moderns more narrowly construe as the religious sphere, but also in social and political orderings as well. Of central importance, to archaeologists of sacrifice like Ekroth, is the practical execution of the rituals.

Ekroth introduces readers to a relatively new wealth of material evidence about animal sacrifice in the pre-Christian, Greek world.  Ekroth’s critical contribution is to assess the results of recent research on the archaeology of sacrifice.  Her main concern is with historical animal sacrifice as it was actually performed, primarily, in the thysia ritual, which occurred across ancient Greek sanctuaries between the 8th and 1st centuries BCE.  At these events, mainly domesticated animals along with the fruit of agricultural labor and libations, after being dedicated to a deity, were sacrificed and shared – with butchered portions ostensibly going to gods like Zeus who preferred thighbones, while the rest of the animal, in particular the meat, was given to the human participants.  Ekroth encounters in the material handling, treatment, and distribution of meat derived from ritualized animal sacrifice an ancient structuring of the world.  Analysis of these sacrificial rituals provides us with windows to the cosmologies, hierarchies of social power, and group identities associated with those who participated.

In contrast to contemporary Scandinavia with its many burials of men that include raptors, only very few human graves with bones of bird of prey are known from the Central European 1st millennium AD. This observation, plus the fact that most of the species identification in Central Europe referring to this go back to the 19th century, raise the question of whether even these few records are reliable. To understand the background of the determinations, the paper gives a short history of the discipline of archaeozoology with a species focus on the identification of bird remains. This part is followed by a presentation and discussion of all seven German and Swiss burials with bones, originally identified as being from a bird of prey. The finds from the sites of Quedlinburg-Boxhornschanze, Alach, and Eschwege, which all date to 550–640 AD and which all yielded female goshawks are highly reliable, which makes the link with falconry even more probable since, in falconry, owing to gender dimorphism, the larger females were used. In contrast, the identification of the raptor records from Selzen and Hedehusum are questionable, and the report from Staufen is scientifically not cceptable. The eagle claw at a grave in Elsau seems not to be connected with falconry since there was no pre-modern falconry with eagles in Europe as far as we know. The results of this study are in line with the present state of knowledge about the early history and distribution of falconry in Central Europe during the Migration Period and shortly after. Later on, traces of this kind of hunting disappeared from burials with the growing influence of Christianity. Another result of the study is that the identification of animal bones, even to species levels, in old publications back to the 19th century are generally not to be challenged.

This session will provide a diachronic consideration of human, animal and landscape interplay with an emphasis upon Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea area. Focusing on, amongst other aspects, periods of change it follows a multi-perspective approach. The considered time frame covers the late Palaeolithic up to the Middle Ages, and the central topic is hunting and, more broadly, human-animal-relationship, against the background of human´s dependency on landscape and climate. Thus, in particular for the period of hunters and gatherers, hunting techniques, strategies and motivations are as relevant as the union formed between human and dog and indications for the veneration of hunted animal species. For the Neolithic and later periods, hunting for the protection of acres and flocks will have to be considered alongside the hunt for the acquisition of raw materials as opposed to, for example, trophy hunting and ‚princely hunt‘. For the session, papers from various disciplines in the Natural Sciences and Humanities are welcome.
Thus, the session will bundle different aspects connected with hunting, and the overall diachronic view, given by one of the keynote speakers for parts of Northern Europa, will imply the chance to trace red threads and changes. Furthermore, the focused analysis for certain periods and regions will enable us to see specific hunting patterns and more individual solutions, in dependency of landscape. Questions, central for the session, are as follows: to which extent were intensity and purpose of hunting linked to cultural transformations (example: Neolithisation)? Were times with changing hunting patterns also times of  general changes in the  human-environmental interaction or interplay (example: wolf and bear extirpations in Christian societies)? What about the dynamics of human-animal-relationship, from dogs to other true mates of humans (example: late Paleolithic dog burial from Bonn-Oberkassel), in relation to domestic animals (example: Neolithic cattle graves) and wild beasts (example: bear symbolism)? What about the reconstruction of hunting episodes at particular sites, what about the earliest indications for the veneration of hunted animal species and, finally, what about the beginning of trophy hunting and the development of  ‚princely hunt‘?

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Many theoretical methods of studying the Roman world over the past three centuries have emerged offering different perspectives on the Roman life from contradictory points of view. This work shall emphasize those pertaining to a few categories pertaining to food, drink and identity in the Roman world whilst taking a homogenous approach to exemplifying different patterns of thought. 

This piece of work showcases how the history of the chicken in the Early Roman Britain is littered with evidence from many different disciplines. It explores different avenues of research epitomizing how the chicken has been portrayed and utilised in the Early and through to the Late Roman period.

The use of classical literature along with art historical perspectives can act as two lines of inquiry that slotted together allows the scholar to study the interaction of humans and chickens throughout a pivotal point in history when the chicken became one of the most popular animals in Roman Britain.

The archaeozoological evidence indicates that the chicken was not only kept for ‘cockfighting’ as Caesar claims in De Bello Gallico, but also for eggs. A study of the environmental evidence and archaeozoological evidence will provide analysis of chicken husbandry in Roman Britain investigating the importance of male and female chickens and distinguishing between sexes. Furthermore one of the downplayed pointers is the use of the medullary bone, which can be used to seasonally date assemblages, sex birds, and help the interpretation of archaeological assemblages.

The association of the chicken with Roman religious cults shall also be explored to understand why the animal was deemed worthy of sacrifice at shrines and alters and how religion may have utilized the domestic fowl. Continuing this investigation I will look at Iron Age burials and Roman burials with chicken bones and eggs and discuss their importance.

Lastly, a study of material culture in relation to the chicken will provide a parallel to the other evidence to show how popular the chicken because through the use of chicken style brooches. This will allow new perspectives to be drawn on why people might have worn a chicken brooch.

The examination of prehistoric faunal assemblages has traditionally focused on dietary patterns, resource exploitation, and ecological reconstruction. Only limited attention has been given to the ritual use of animal remains. In the American Bottom, despite an abundance of archaeological sites and assemblages, few studies have explored this aspect of Native American ritual behavior. This article provides an overview of Late Woodland, Terminal Late Woodland, and Mississippian ritual use of bone and shell in the American Bottom and considers broad patterns of animal part use and changes in use over time. Using approaches formulated within social zooarchaeology, examination of this aspect of ritual behavior provides further insight into human-animal relations during the late prehistoric period.

In this book an analysis of over 300 animal bone assemblages from English Saxon and Scandinavian sites is presented. The data set is summarised in extensive tables for use as comparanda for future archaeozoological studies. Animals in Saxon and Scandinavian England takes as its core four broad areas of analysis. The first is an investigation of the diet of the population, and how food was used to establish social boundaries. Increasingly diverse diets are recognised, with high-status populations distinguishing themselves from other social sectors through the way food was redistributed and the diversity of taxa consumed. Secondly, the role of animals in the economy is considered, looking at how animal husbandry feeds into underlying modes of production throughout the Saxon period. From the largely self-sufficient early Saxon phase animal husbandry becomes more specialised to supply increasingly urban settlements. The ensuing third deliberation takes into account the foodways and interactions between producer and consumer sites, considering the distribution of food and raw materials between farm, table and craft worker. Fundamental changes in the nature of the Saxon economy distinguish a move away from food renders in the middle Saxon phase to market-based provisioning; opening the way for greater autonomy of supply and demand. Finally, the role of wics and burhs as centres of production is investigated, particularly the organisation of manufacture and provisioning with raw materials.