Animal bones found in Late Bronze Age rubbish heaps show the distances people traveled to feast

Middens, a lot of massive prehistoric waste that is part of the British landscape, reveal the distances that people have traveled to feast together at the end of the Bronze Age.

In the largest study of the genre, archaeologists at the University of Cardiff used a advanced isotopic analysis on the equipment found in the six middens of Wiltshire and the Thames Valley. The work is published in the journal iscience.

The results, which reveal where the animals that were enjoyed were raised, have highlighted the watershed of these vast festivals, undoubtedly the largest to take place in Great Britain until the medieval period.

Middens are huge debris mounds left from these rallies, some of which have become mounds in the landscape over time. The largest, Potterne de Wiltshire, covers an area of ​​approximately five football fields and is full of festive remains, including up to 15 million bone fragments.

In Potterne, the pork was the meat of choice, with pigs coming from a large watershed, even in the north of England. The extent of the results of this place indicates that animals come from several regions – suggesting that it was a meeting place for producers of locally and beyond. Likewise, Runnymede in Surrey was a major regional center, but here it was cattle that were taken from a distance.

On the other hand, East Chisenbury, a monumental mound 10 miles from Stonehenge, estimated to contain the remains of hundreds of thousands of animals, was extremely dominated by sheep. Unlike the other middens studied, the new research shows that the majority of these animals came from the surrounding landscape.

The main author, Dr. Carmen Esposito, who was based at the School of History, Archeology and Religion of the University of Cardiff when research was carried out and is now at the University of Bologna, said: “Our results show that each Midden had a distinct composition of animal remains, with a number of locally high sheep and others with pigs or cattle.

“We believe that this demonstrates that each midden was a Lynchpin in the landscape, the key to maintaining specific regional savings, expressing identities and maintaining relations between communities during this turbulent period, when the value of the bronze has dropped and people turned to agriculture instead.”

Multi-isotope analysis is a scientific method in rapid development in archeology. Each geographic area has a different chemical composition, distinct from its environment and this permeates the water and the food cultivated there. While animals eat and drink, these regional markers remain locked in their bones, allowing researchers to trace where they were raised centuries later.

The co-author of the study, Professor Richard Madgwick, also based at the School of History, Archeology and Religion of the University, said: “At a time of climate and economic instability, the inhabitants of the south of Great Britain have turned into age.

“These events are powerful to establish and consolidate relationships inside and between communities, today and in the past. The scale of these accumulations of debris and their large watershed is amazing and points to community consumption and social mobilization on a scale which is undoubtedly unequaled in the British prehistory.

“Overall, research indicates the dynamic networks that have been anchored on festing events during this period and different roles, perhaps complementary, that each midden had to the transition from the Bronze Age.”