IRON AGE SETTLEMENT AND ROMAN ACTIVITY AT BRICKLEY LANE, DEVIZES 



229 



Table 6: Number of sieved bone by species and period. 



PERIOD 



SHEEP PIG 



SMALL 



FROG 



UNIDE] 









RODENT 



TIFIED 



3- 1st BC 



21 



1 



1 



4 



42 



Post Med 



2 















272 



Undated 



5 















9 



TOTAL 



28 



1 



1 



4 



323 



condition of many of the bones. In addition to this 

 357 fragments of bone were retrieved from sieving 

 of environmental samples through a mesh of 

 >10mm, 10 - 4mm and 4 - 2mm (Table 6). 



Methodology 



The calculation of the species recovered from the 

 site was done through the use of the total fragment 

 method. All fragments of bone were counted 

 including elements from the vertebral centrum, ribs 

 and long bone shafts. Sheep and goat bones were 

 separated using the criteria of Boessneck (1969), 

 and Prummel and Frisch (1986). The ageing of the 

 domestic animals for the assessment was based on 

 tooth eruption and epiphyseal fusion of the bone. 

 Tooth eruption and wear were measured using a 

 combination of the tables of Payne (1973), Grant 

 (1982) and Halstead (1985). Silver's (1969) tables 

 were used to give timing of epiphyseal closure for 

 cattle and sheep, since there were not enough 

 indicative elements from the other domestic species 

 (Tables 8-11). 



Condition 



The condition of the bone was graded from 1 to 5 

 using the criteria stipulated by Lyman (1 996), grade 

 1 being the best preserved bone and grade 5 

 indicating that the bone had suffered such structural 

 and attritional damage as to make it unrecognisable. 

 The majority of the bones were in medium to poor 

 condition, around grade 3 to 4. It can be seen from 



Table 7 that a large number of the bones had fresh 

 breaks. This is almost certainly due to the fragile 

 condition of many of the bones, which would also 

 have affected the number of bones identified. It is 

 also likely that some of the butchery and gnaw 

 marks were not visible due to damage to the surfaces 

 of the bones. 



Species Representation 



Cattle appeared to be the most dominant species 

 found through all but the Iron Age periods. 

 However, due to the bad condition of the bone, it 

 is likely that cattle bones are over represented in 

 the assemblage due to better preservation than the 

 smaller, more porous bones of the sheep and pigs. 

 There were no identified fragments of cattle bone 

 found in the sieved material, again indicating that 

 sheep may have been more numerous during the 

 Iron Age occupation of the site. 



There were no articulated remains found at the 

 site. Part of a cattle skull was found in Saxon pit 

 63. However, it is uncertain if this was a 'deliberate' 

 deposit or butchery waste. 



Although there were few indicative elements 

 showing the age at death of the cattle, it does appear 

 from the tooth wear stages (Table 8) and the 

 epiphyseal fusion of the bones (Table 9) that the 

 majority of the cattle from the Iron Age features 

 were likely to have been killed at more than 2 to 2.5 

 years of age. Similarly the few mandibles from the 

 Saxon features indicate that the majority of the 

 animals were over 2 years of age at death, although 

 it must be borne in mind that the poor condition 

 of many of the bones may have affected the 

 preservation of the more fragile juvenile bones. 



It can be seen from results of the analysis of 

 tooth wear stages in Table 1 that age at death of 

 all the sheep from the Iron Age features was 1-2 

 years or less. This also appears to be mirrored in 

 the results of analysis of the epiphyseal fusion of 

 the bones (Table 11). 



Table 7: Condition of hand-collected and sieved bones. 













PERIOD 



BUTCHERY 



BURNT 





GNAW 





FRESH BREAK 





Hand 



Sieved 



Hand 



Sieved 



Hand 



Sieved 



Hand 



Sieved 



3 - IstBC 



13 



1 



3 



5 



2 



1 



437 



28 



LIA/ER 



























1 







Roman 











2 















18 







Saxon 



5 























133 







Medieval 



1 























3 







Post Medieval 



























23 



6 



Undated 



2 











4 











100 







