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THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 



Table 12: Cattle: estimated age according to epiphyseal 

 fusion 



Fused Unfused % 

 unfused 



7-10 months Scapula 1 1 1 



Pelvis 4 



SubtotaKlyr 15 1 6 



12-15 months Radius,p 26 



15-18 months Phalanx II 5 



15-20 months Humerus,d 20 



20-24 months Phalanx I 1 7 



Subtotal<2yrs 68 



24-30 months Tibia,d 1 1 4 



Metacarpal 9 



Metatarsal 1 1 1 



Subtotal<3yrs 31 5 14 



36 months Calcaneus 2 1 



36-42 months Femur,p 1 7 



42-48 months Humerus,p 1 



Radius,d 3 6 



Ulna,p 3 



Femur,d 1 2 



Tibia,p 



Subtotal<4yrs 



10 



17 63 



Table 13: Wayside Farm compared with Brain (1967) 



Wayside Farm Brain (1967) 



Skull 33 



Humerus,p 1 2 2 



3rd phlanx 1 3 



2nd phalanx 3 14 



1st phalanx 9 3 



Femur,d 14 8 



Tibia,p 24 1 1 



Calcaneus 38 12 



Astragalus 38 13 



Femur,p 21 15 



Metatarsal^ 43 16 



Radius.d 24 18 



Metacarpal^ 29 19 



Atlas 33 19 



Axis 10 23 



Metacarpal, p 43 27 



Pelvis 36 28 



Scapula 43 28 



Metatarsal^ 48 34 



Radius.p 64 52 



Tibia,d 29 58 



Humerus,d 48 68 



Mandible 86 93 



The anatomical elements have been grouped 

 into body parts to facilitate comparison between 

 the four feature types. Due to sample size this is 

 only warranted for the cattle assemblage, although 

 mention is made of sheep/goat. Cattle loose teeth 

 dominate most of the major features, especially the 

 buried soil and ditch deposits, but are the least 

 numerous element in pits. Cranial bones are also 

 relatively abundant in all feature types being more 

 or equally numerous than post-cranial elements. 

 Major limb bones are not dominant in any of the 

 feature types and only reach an equal abundance 

 with crania in pits and ditches. Elements belonging 

 to the feet are the least abundant body part in 

 midden and ditch deposits but in pits they slightly 

 outnumber loose teeth and in buried soils they are 

 more numerous than major limb bones. 



Only ovicaprid remains from the midden 

 comprise an assemblage worthy of discussion in 

 terms of body part representation. Loose teeth 

 completely dominate the sample with cranial and 

 post-cranial (major limb and foot bones) elements 

 fairly equally represented. 



TAPHONOMY 



The abundance of loose teeth and mandibles, which 

 are the most durable elements in the skeleton, 

 suggests the assemblage has been severely affected 

 by differential preservation. In order to test this, 

 the percentage survival of cattle elements has been 

 calculated and is compared with the model 



proposed by Brain (1967), to reflect density related 

 survival (Table 13). It is clear that the pattern at 

 Wayside Farm is generally inconsistent with the 

 model suggesting that cultural factors are largely 

 responsible for the anatomical patterning. Elements 

 which are noticeably under-represented are the distal 

 humerus, distal tibia, axis, 2nd phalanx and 3rd 

 phalanx. The remaining elements are to some extent 

 over-represented but the relative abundance of fragile 

 skull bones, tarsals (astragalus and calcaneus) and 

 metapodials is particularly noticeable. 



The overall proportion of gnawing and butchery 

 according to species is shown in Table 14 and 

 indicates that sheep/goat display more evidence 

 (11%) for gnawing than the larger animals. A 

 considerable proportion (14%) of the cattle 

 assemblage displays evidence of butchery, in the 

 form of cut or chop marks. Butchery marks are also 

 visible on a number (8%) of horse bones, mostly 

 chop marks. During recording, a constant pattern 

 of chop marks was noted, in particular, many of 

 the cattle mandibles had been sliced along their 

 ventral surface, epiphyses had often been chopped 

 sagitally, resulting in removal of the lateral or medial 

 portion, and shafts had been chopped through. 

 Multiple cut and chop marks were often clearly 

 visible on individual bones and the fragmented 

 nature of many of the long bones suggests they were 

 deliberately smashed. Very few bones had been 

 burnt; only one could be identified to species and 

 this belongs to sheep/goat. 



