Cattle, consumption and causewayed enclosures (response to Parmenter, Johnson and Outram). Issue 5 (19th October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thomas, Julian
• Is Part Of: World archaeology. Volume 48:Issue 5(2016)
• Page Start: 729
• Page End: 744
• Publication Date: 2016-10-19
• Subjects: Neolithic Britain -- causewayed enclosures -- subsistence economy -- feasting; Archaeology -- Periodicals; Archéologie -- Périodiques; 930.1
• DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2016.1229214
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0043-8243

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article takes issue with Parmenter, Johnson and Outram's (2015) characterization of the faunal assemblages from causewayed enclosures as indistinguishable from those from domestic sites. Their study of bone processing at Etton is helpful and innovative, but they neglect other aspects of assemblage variability, while their account of Neolithic subsistence in Britain underplays differences across space and time. A distinction can be made at causewayed enclosures between bones that have been minimally processed and swiftly buried, and others that have been picked over and stored in surface middens. The latter appear to predominate at the single-circuit enclosure at Etton, but this need not mean that feasting did not take place at the site. Finally, the significance of a comparison of the remains at Etton with the Linearbandkeramik site Ludwinowo 7 is questioned, as it is probable that feasting also took place at the latter site.