Description

Summary: Animal bone from trench A, context 8, from East Chisenbury, excavated by Wessex Archaeology.

Research results

Animal bone excavated from Trench A, Context 8, from East Chisenbury, excavated by Wessex Archaeology. A cattle phalanx and sheep calcaneum were sampled for radiocarbon dating, the latter dating to 2431+/-31 BP, the former, dated twice, to 2384 +/- 29 BP and 2440 +/- 26 BP.

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 for radiocarbon dating by Waddington et al. (2019). Despite the radiocarbon calibration 'plateau' of the early Iron Age, which reduces the precision of radiocarbon dating in this period, the well preserved stratigraphy at East Chisenbury allowed for the application of Baynesian modelling to radiocarbon dates from a variety of contexts in order to help refine the chronology of the site. The study identified two distinct phases of occupation at the site as well as demonstrating that it both took much longer than initially thought to build up, as long as 500 years, but also that this process continued much later than assumed, with the latest phases of the midden possibly contemporary with the construction of some Hillforts.

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.