196 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 



Table 10: Species representation according to feature type(NISP)- Later Romano-British 





Midden 



Pit 



Ditch 



Buried soil 



Other 



Total 



% 



Cattle 



786 



148 



59 



49 



30 



1072 



33 



Sheep 



4 



4 









8 



<1 



Sheep/goat 



54 



11 



8 



1 



4 



78 



2 



Pig 



13 



4 



2 



2 





21 



1 



Horse 



79 



11 



6 



1 



3 



100 



3 



Dog 



2 



3 



1 







6 



<1 



Red deer 





1 









1 



<1 



Fox 



9 











2 



<1 



Large mammal 



879 



121 



102 



51 



23 



1176 



36 



Medium mammal 



11 



14 



1 



1 





27 



1 



Unidentifiable bird 



1 











1 



<1 



Unidentifiable 



426 



55 



129 



110 



18 



738 



23 



Total 



2257 



372 



308 



215 



78 



3230 





% 



70 



11 



10 



7 



2 







(58%) and horse (6%) were less abundant than 

 suggested by number if identified specimens 

 (hereafter NISP) with sheep/goat (22%) and pig 

 (6%) accounting for a larger proportion of the 

 assemblage (Table 11). 



The proportion of the assemblage which is 

 identifiable (40%) is comparable with hand- 

 recovered material from other sites of this period; 

 the variations which can be seen to exist according 

 to feature type will be discussed below. 



ANATOMICAL 

 REPRESENTATION 



Anatomical representation according to NISP is 

 given in Table 1 1 . Cattle are represented by elements 

 from all parts of the body, and the presence of 

 vertebrae and ribs is suggested by those categorised 

 as large mammal. However, the elements are not 

 equally represented and the assemblage appears to 

 be dominated by mandibles, loose teeth and 

 numerous fragments from the skull. Of the 

 remainder, major limb bones have the best 

 representation with smaller and/or more fragile 

 elements (carpals, tarsals, phalanges, atlas, axis, 

 specified skull bones) becoming progressively less 

 well represented. 



The size of the sheep/goat and pig samples is 

 too small to provide conclusive evidence concerning 

 body part representation, however mandibles and 

 loose teeth are again the most numerous elements 

 and apart from major limb bones, other elements 

 are scarce. Vertebrae and ribs categorised as medium 

 mammal are also scarce although a few nondescript 

 fragments of rib are present. 



The majority of the horse remains are loose 

 teeth although mandibles and most of the major 

 limb bones are also represented. Dog is represented 

 solely by the skull and mandible. 



EVIDENCE FOR AGE AND SEX 



According to tooth eruption and wear (n=50), the 

 majority of cattle were aged between 2 and 6 years 

 at the time of death, within this group the highest 

 peak occurs between 2 and 3 years (50% of total) 

 of age. Few cattle appear to have died when young 

 or very old. Epiphyseal fusion data confirms that 

 the majority of cattle were over 2 years old at the 

 time of death but suggests that the highest rate of 

 death occurred in animals over 3 years (Table 1 2) . 



The tooth eruption and wear data for sheep/ 

 goat although based on a small sample (n=21) 

 suggest a fairly constant rate of mortality up until 

 the age of 6 years. Evidence from epiphyseal fusion 

 is scarce. 



The crown height of two horse maxillary 

 toothrows indicate ages between 5Vi - 9Vi and 6V2 

 - 8V2 years; in addition an isolated mandibular third 

 molar is from an animal aged 7% - 9 V* years. 



Ageing data for pig are scarce. Two mandibular 

 pig canine teeth belong to a male and a female, in 

 addition a mandibular canine alveolar, which had 

 lost its tooth post mortem, is from a male. 



FEATURE TYPE 



Cattle are the most numerous species in all feature 

 types. Their proportion of the total assemblage 

 displays some variation with cattle bones at their 

 least abundant in the ditches (19%) and buried soil 



