THE IRON AGE ANIMAL BONE EXCAVATED IN 1991 FROM OUTGANG ROAD, MARKET DEEPING (MAD 91), LINCOLNSHIRE
Author(s): Umberto Albarella
About 35 kilograms of bones, mostly deriving from butchery and food waste, were recovered from the mid-late Iron Age levels at Market Deeping. These were predominantly found in the fills of a palaeochannel. The animal economy of the site was primarily based on the exploitation of domestic animals, although wild game was also occasionally hunted. Water resources, such as beavers, swans, geese, ducks, were sometimes used, but represented only as an occasional addition to the diet. The scarcity - or absence - of fish is particularly noticeable. Sheep was the most common animal, but cattle provided the largest quantity of meat. Cattle were probably mainly reared for traction and sheep for meat. The presence of neonatal bones suggests that breeding was carried out on site and that the site was occupied in spring. But the analysis of the sheep tooth wear stages points to the fact that the site was also occupied in summer and autumn, when most of the lamb culling was probably carried out.
- Report Number:
- 5/1997
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 33
- Keywords:
- Animal Bone Animal Remains Bird Bone
