RESEARCH DEPARTMENT REPORT SERIES no. 29-2011 ISSN 1749-8775 REVIEW OF ANIMAL REMAINS FROM THE NEOLITHIC AND EARLY BRONZE AGE OF SOUTHERN BRITAIN (4000 BC – 1500 BC) ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES REPORT Dale Serjeantson ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Department Report Series 29-2011 REVIEW OF ANIMAL REMAINS FROM THE NEOLITHIC AND EARLY BRONZE AGE OF SOUTHERN BRITAIN (4000 BC – 1500 BC) Dale Serjeantson © English Heritage ISSN 1749-8775 The Research Department Report Series, incorporates reports from all the specialist teams within the English Heritage Research Department: Archaeological Science; Archaeological Archives; Historic Interiors Research and Conservation; Archaeological Projects; Aerial Survey and Investigation; Archaeological Survey and Investigation; Architectural Investigation; Imaging, Graphics and Survey; and the Survey of London. It replaces the former Centre for Archaeology Reports Series, the Archaeological Investigation Report Series, and the Architectural Investigation Report Series. Many of these are interim reports which make available the results of specialist investigations in advance of full publication. They are not usually subject to external refereeing, and their conclusions may sometimes have to be modified in the light of information not available at the time of the investigation. Where no final project report is available, readers are advised to consult the author before citing these reports in any publication. Opinions expressed in Research Department Reports are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of English Heritage. Requests for further hard copies, after the initial print run, can be made by emailing: [email protected]. or by writing to English Heritage, Fort Cumberland, Fort Cumberland Road, Eastney, Portsmouth PO4 9LD Please note that a charge will be made to cover printing and postage. © ENGLISH HERITAGE 29-2011 SUMMARY This review surveys the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age bone assemblages from c. 200 sites in southern Britain, summarising and synthesizing the data. Most assemblages are from Wiltshire, Dorset and Oxfordshire; other counties covered are Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Berkshire, London (Middlesex), Surrey, East and West Sussex and Kent. Chapter 2 discusses the domestic animals, cattle, pig, sheep, goat, dog and horse. The focus is on animal husbandry, in particular traction and the milking of cows. Chapter 3 discusses the wild animals and the reasons why they might have been hunted or caught. Chapter 4 is concerned with how animals were butchered, cooked and consumed and examines the evidence for feasting. Chapter 5 looks at deliberately placed and possibly placed deposits of skulls, skeletons, bones in articulation and individual elements, and the possible motives which governed bone deposition at different times and in different places. Chapter 6 considers the extent to which micro-vertebrates and larger mammals reflect changes in vegetation and environment on a local and a wider scale. The implications of the findings for the economic and social life of the people living in southern Britain from the Early Neolithic to the end of the Early Bronze Age are discussed in Chapter 7 by period. The final chapter sets out recommendations for future research and excavation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was funded by English Heritage and was conducted at the University of Southampton between 2009 and 2011. I would like to give my warmest thanks to those who have made helpful suggestions and especially those who have improved the text with their valuable comments: they include Umberto Albarella, Polydora Baker, Alistair Barclay, David Field, Jonathan Last, Peter Rowley-Conwy and Alasdair Whittle. I am also very grateful to those who have allowed me to refer to their unpublished work, including Robin Bendrey, Kate Clark, Jessica Grimm, Sheila Hamilton-Dyer, Jacqui Mulville, Adrienne Powell, and Naomi Sykes. Thanks too to Penny Copeland for her work on the illustrations and to Chris Evans for the distribution maps. ARCHIVE LOCATION The data in the appendices and some of the summary tables are available on-line via the ADS website at the following address: http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/neorev_eh_2011/ CONTACT DETAILS Dale Serjeantson Archaeology, School of Humanities, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ. [email protected] © ENGLISH HERITAGE 29-2011 List of figures Figure 1.1 Location of sites included in the review: Early and Middle Neolithic Figure 1.2 Location sites included in the review: Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Figure 1.3 Diet of individuals from Hambledon Hill: the ratio of δ13C to δ15N in a sample of human bones Figure 2.1 Percentage NISP of cattle, pig, sheep and roe deer in Early Neolithic assemblages. The Coneybury Anomaly pit is shown separately Figure 2.2 Percentage NISP of cattle, pig and sheep in Early-Middle Neolithic assemblages. Long barrows, causewayed enclosures and occupation layers and pits are shown separately Figure 2.3 Percentage NISP of cattle, pig and sheep in Middle Neolithic assemblages. Stonehenge, cursuses, barrows and occupation layers and pits are shown separately Figure 2.4 Percentage NISP of cattle, pig and sheep in Late Neolithic assemblages. Henges and other enclosures, pits and Durrington Walls are shown separately Figure 2.5 Percentage NISP of cattle, pig and sheep in Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (mainly Beaker) assemblages. Henges and other enclosures, barrows and occupation layers and pits are shown separately Figure 2.6 Percentage NISP of cattle, pig and sheep in Early Bronze Age assemblages. Barrows are shown separately Figure 2.7 Size of Neolithic and Bronze Age cattle: length of lower third molar from Neolithic and Bronze Age assemblages Figure 2.8 Size of cattle from four Neolithic assemblages: metacarpal midshaft diameter Figure 2.9 Cattle sex ratio based on breadth of distal humerus from Grimes Graves, Windmill Hill, Durrington Walls and Hambledon Hill Figure 2.10 Age classes of cattle from Runnymede, Hambledon Hill and other Early-Middle Neolithic assemblages Figure 2.11 Age classes of cattle from Middle and Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age assemblages Figure 2.12 Age classes of pigs from Early-Middle Neolithic, Durrington Walls and other Late Neolithic assemblages Figure 2.13 Dogs: shoulder height in centimetres Figure 2.14 Dogs: number and percentage in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age assemblages Figure 2.15 Horse: number and percentage in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age assemblages Figure 3.1 Percentage of wild mammals and percentage of assemblages with wild mammals Figure 3.2 Percentage of assemblages with red deer, roe deer, wild boar and aurochs © ENGLISH HERITAGE 29-2011 Figure 3.3 Percentage shed of antler picks from ten sites Figure 3.4 Distinction of domestic cattle and aurochs from length of lower third molar Figure 3.5 Distinction of domestic cattle and aurochs from distal breadth of astragalus Figure 3.6 Wolf or dog skull from the henge ditch at Shepperton Staines Road Farm Figure 3.7 Dentary of pike (Esox lucius) from Neolithic Runnymede Figure 4.1 Dismembering cuts on cattle radiuses from Neolithic Runnymede Figure 4.2 Longitudinal filleting marks on a cattle rib from Neolithic Runnymede Figure 4.3 Incidence of cut marks and chop marks on limb bones of pig and cattle from Durrington Walls Figure 4.4 Location of cut marks on pigs from Radley Barrow Hills Grooved Ware pits Figure 4.5 Location of butchery and burning on pigs from Mount Pleasant and other Late Neolithic sites Figure 4.6 Marks of charring on a pig humerus from Durrington Walls Figure 4.7 Charring on the shaft of a cattle long bone from Beaker deposits at Mount Pleasant, showing as erosion and discolouration Figure 5.1 Ratio of placed deposits to total number of assemblages in each period Figure 5.2 Ring ditch at Shepperton Staines Road Farm showing location of wolf or dog skull, antlers, human burials and Mortlake bowl Figure 5.3 Beaker burial at Hemp Knoll with the ‘head and hooves’ of an ox Figure 5.4 Burial of an aurochs in pit at Hillingdon. The positions of six Beaker arrowheads associated with the aurochs are also shown Figure 5.5 Percentage of dog gnawed limb bones of pig and cattle at Runnymede and Durrington Walls Figure 6.1 Size of Neolithic red deer: humerus measurements from Hambledon Hill compared with Star Carr Figure 7.1 Numbers of the main domestic animals in assemblages from Eastern and Western counties in the Early-Middle Neolithic compared © ENGLISH HERITAGE 29-2011 List of tables Table 1.1 Periods, dates and associated pottery for assemblages included in this review Table 1.2 Numbers of sites and assemblages per county Table 1.3 Assemblage size shown in four size classes Table 1.4 Variations in the percentage of identified bone and possible interpretations Table 2.1 Definitions of age stages of cattle and correlation of wear stage and age Table 2.2 Definitions of age stages of pig and approximate age Table 2.3 Horse: sites with records of horse Table 3.1 Wild mammals: totals by period Table 3.2 Wild mammals: number and percentage of assemblages by period in which wild mammals were present Table 3.3 Fish from Neolithic and Early Bronze Age sites Table 3.4 Birds from Neolithic and Early Bronze Age sites Table 4.1 Percentage of bones with cut marks for assemblages where cut marks were quantified Table 4.2 Percentage of bones with cut marks by individual species Table 4.3 Percentage of burnt bones in assemblages with available data