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Archived News ~ Week ending Friday 20th February 2004.
Assessment of Animal Bone from Nosterfield, 1998-2003
Since 1998 only 362 fragments of animal bone have been recovered during the ongoing watching brief. This number does not include animal burials, nor does it include the possible prehistoric quadruple horse burial. The small size of the assemblage is in spite of hand-excavation strategies, including 100% excavation for occupation refuse deposits, and the flotation sampling regime. The preservation of animal bone at the site is generally very poor and this has meant that, of the 362 fragments, only 28 can be identified to taxon (species). Nevertheless, this small sample has produced some interesting results (see Zooarchaeological Assessment).
The preservation of the bone may be attributed to many factors such as truncation and disturbance of ploughing, the pH of the gravels and the fluctuating water table at the site. Preservation is best when the bone has been completely calcined since this renders the bone much more resistant to decay and other taphonomic processes. The same is true of human bone recovered from excavation at Nosterfield; the cremated bone being far better preserved that the more unusual inhumed bone.
Calcined bone was recovered from four features excavated in Intervention 1 during 1998 and 1999 (F116, C1141; F134, C1166; F142, C1149; F125, C1149). None of the calcined bone was hand-collected and all calcined bone was recovered entirely and deliberately by flotation of 100% of deposits, dry residues were then sorted by hand. Bone fragments were generally small but elements recovered included long bone, skull, rib, foot and horncore fragments. Two species were confidently identified; sheep or goat, and pig. Pottery date analysis from associated pits is ongoing, but the deposits have been tentatively identified as food rubbish from late Neolithic to early Bronze Age occupation.
Calcined bone has also been recovered from a possible Bronze Age cremation pit (F91) and again, all bone was recovered by flotation of 100% of the deposit. The fragment was not identifiable to taxon but came from a medium sized mammal (caprovid, pig or small-sized deer). Presumably, part of the animal had been included on the cremation pyre as a funerary offering.
Unburnt animal bone has survived at Nosterfield and comes from a swallow hole (F13), pit alignments, boundary ditches and boundary pits. From the swallow hole a large jaw bone was hand collected and appears to be partly fossilised. The bone has been identified by Professor Terry O’Connor as possibly that of an elk or megaloceros; both species have been extinct in Britain since the Pleistocene.
Jaw of an elk or megaloceros
The remaining animal bone has been recovered from secondary deposits backfilling pit alignments and ditches. As such, it is considered to represent 'background noise’ present in the soils used to backfill prehistoric features in the Roman period. Species present in these deposits are pig (two calcined phalanges), cow and, perhaps more significantly, horse, which was present in all but two deposits which yielded animal bone. Horse remains, predominantly jaw fragments and isolated teeth were present in pit alignment and ditch backfills (F156 C1256; F82 C1242; F132, C1199, C1233; F15, C1030, C1041). The relatively conspicuous horse remains may represent more robust bone but may also be present for other reasons, although conclusions are necessarily tentative due to the small sample size.
Photograph of horse teeth clockwise from top right; F15, C1022, C1041, C1023, C1028; F335, C1753; F15, C1025; F72, C1116; F15, C1030; F156, C1256; F132, C1233
In the context of the quadruple horse burial, thought to be prehistoric in date, and the importance of horses to past societies, particularly during the Iron Age, the horse remains may be interpreted as being complementary to the ritual use of the pre-Roman landscape at Nosterfield. The importance of horses to Iron Age communities has been discussed in previous updates (see Update 4, week ending 09/01/04). The use of horses on Celtic coinage, monuments such as the white horse at Uffington, Wiltshire, horse gods in Iron Age religious traditions and art, the presence of horse remains, particularly head elements, and complete horse burials, from sites all over Britain, are evidence of their special meaning and status. Perhaps the horse remains from Nosterfield, while deposited with Roman pottery, were present at the site as offerings in the pre-Roman period, displayed on the surface, near features with special meaning. The presence of a single horse tooth with the human burial in the ditch of a possible square barrow or enclosure at the site suggests the same. This tooth may have been deliberately offered as a grave good, or it was introduced into the grave when the ditch was recut. Either way, the remains of a horse’s head had been nearby during initial burial, or during later maintenance of the square ditch. Apparently, so were other such remains, which were eventually included in material used to level the pit alignments and ditches of the prehistoric ritual landscape.