Description

Summary: Animal bone from trench A, context 5, from East Chisenbury, excavated by Wessex Archaeology.

Research results

A group of animal bone and stone excavated from the Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age layers of the large midden at East Chisenbury, Enford. Middens are a phenomena particularly associated with the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in central southern England, and are thought to represent build ups of refuse from large scale feasting events held repeatedly over a long period of time; the midden at East Chisenbury covers 2ha and is in excess of 2m deep in places. The midden is so large that it appears as a low hill in the landscape.

All of the animal bone from East Chisenbury, and a sample of those from the similar midden site at Potterne were examined by Madgwick and Mulville (2012) as part of a study investigating sub-aerial weathering of animal bone on British Arcaheological sites. Using statistical techniques they identified that the environment and skeletal element were the most significant factors, with depositional context only rarely making a significant difference - mainly in shallow fills.

Bones from this group were examined as part of Madgwick's (2016) study of the taphonomy of midden deposits. The study looked at a number of sites, including both Potterne and East Chisenbury, and examined the animal remains looking for evidence of weathering, gnawing, trampling and the freshness of fractures. The animal bones from the Wiltshire sites show relatively fresh fractures and little evidence of exposure, suggesting that the bones were protected by subsequent deposits, and that the middens were built up rapidly, linked to large scale feasting events. Those layers that do show signs of exposure probably represent hiatuses between events.

Bones from this group were sampled by Faillance et al. (2020) as part of a study utilising Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to examine bone collagen fibrils looking for evidence of heating and therefore of cooking practices on a number of prehistoric sites. Long bones show the most evidence of having been cooked, probably due to the higher quantity of meat, marrow and grease that they might provide but small pig bones were also foound to be more likely to be cooked than those of sheep and goats, suggesting differential treatment. The difference may be explained by pig limbs being more likely to be cooked articulated, or perhaps increased processing of sheep/goat carcasses prior to cooking.

The faunal remains from this archaeological archive were sampled (destructive analysis), as part of the FEASTNET project, led by Dr Richard Madgwick, Cardiff University. The results of the project are published here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fearc.2023.1221581/full. 'Farming and Feasting during the Bronze Age - Iron Age Transition in Britain (ca. 900 - 500 bce): multi-isotope evidence for societal change. A joint paper by Richard Madgwick, Carmen Esposito and Angela Lamb. Published 2023.