Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Exploitation of mammals at the Early Bronze Age site of West Row Fen (Mildenhall 165), Suffolk, England

1994; Volume: 63; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5962/p.226645

1943-6300

Sandra L. Olsen,

Paleopathology and ancient diseases

The large assemblage of faunal material from the Early Bronze Age site of West Row Fen (Mildenhall 165) in Suffolk, England, provides important data on the economy and subsistence during a poorly known time period in Great Britain.Dominated by gracile, short-homed cattle and small, Soay-sized two-homed sheep, this primarily domestic fauna demonstrates that by this period there was minimal dependence on hunting in comparison to stock rearing.Other common domesticates in the assemblage are goats, pigs, and dogs.Wild species that were hunted include hare, red deer, roe deer, and aurochs, the latter represented by only one extremely large humems.It is unclear whether horses at West Row Fen were domestic or wild.Preserved carnivores include the wild cat, red fox, and domestic dog.The presence of the western hedgehog, the western mole, and the water vole suggests a wet woodland habitat typical of the fens during this period.Aging of the domestic livestock by epiphyseal fusion and dental eruption and wear show differential treatment of cattle, sheep and goats, and pigs.Cattle were probably used more for draft than for their dairy products, whereas sheep or goats were being milked.Most pigs were slaughtered in their first year of life to control population growth, although some were allowed to reach reproductive maturity and were killed as needed.Major taphonomic processes included carnivore gnawing, sedimentary abrasion probably caused by trampling, moderately light root-etching, and, more rarely, erosion, weathering, and rodent gnawing.Butchering patterns, previously poorly known from the Bronze Age of Britain, suggest that cow horns were heavily utilized, metal axes may have been used on cattle carcasses, and dogs were eaten.Pathologies are those frequently associated with domestic animals, such as malocclusions, tooth anomalies, and bone modification caused by heavy draft.A total of 1 20 bone and antler artifacts were identified, including awls, a pin, a scoop, a spatula, tubular beads, a dagger, pressure-flakers, a handle, socketed mace-heads, and a wedge.