Zooarchaeology by Cláudia Costa
Revista Portuguesa de Arqueologia, 2018
The site of Juromenha 1 was excavated about 20 years ago in a Rescue excavation related with the ... more The site of Juromenha 1 was excavated about 20 years ago in a Rescue excavation related with the building of Alqueva dam. In order to present the results obtained in recent works of geo-magnetic field survey, we intent to present here a brief study of the results obtained in the 1998 test-pits.
Revista Portuguesa de Arqueologia, 2018
The Roman uilla of Almoinhas is located in the municipium Olisiponense, part of the the current G... more The Roman uilla of Almoinhas is located in the municipium Olisiponense, part of the the current Greater Lisbon (Loures), with exceptional maritime and terrestrial communications. Archaeological excavations confirmed the presence of a port with salting and fishing activities, and a rubbish dumping area dated between the 1 st and the 5 th century AD. The small bird assemblage is composed by 23 remains with a predominance of chicken (Gallus domesticus). The analysis supports the theory that chickens were kept locally. A partridge and a diurnal raptor were also identified. The former is hard to interpret due to the presence of a single bone but it can suggest that at least some hunting activities were taking place. The raptor, however, might have integrated the archaeological record due to natural causes. Considering the close relationship with a port, fishing activities and a small production of salted-fish goods, the absence of aquatic birds is somehow unexpected. Such pattern is prone to change if more bird samples are recovered and analysed.
CARDOSO, J. L. e COSTA, C. (2004) – “A study on the faunal assemblage from the prehistoric enclosure of Castanheiro do Vento (Vila Nova de Foz Côa)” Journal of Iberian Archaeology, 6, pp. 83-92.
Associations of Equus asinus remains to the roman necrópolis of Encosta de Sant'Ana (Martim Moniz... more Associations of Equus asinus remains to the roman necrópolis of Encosta de Sant'Ana (Martim Moniz, Lisbon)
In 2002 the Encosta de Sant'Ana site in downtown Lisbon was excavated by City Museum archaeologists. Fieldwork revealed a stratified occupation of a cemetery dated to he 1st century AD. This cemetery is characterized by primary and secondary incinetarion structures and is part of the Northern main cemetery of the Roman city of Olisipo. The center of this cemetery is nowadays known from Praça da Figueira archaeological investigation, only a few metres from Encosta de Sant'Ana. From the same layers as the incinerations, two groups of bones of an Equus asinus skeleton were exhumed. Althought one cannot undoubtfully associate them with the funerary structures, the bones seem to be in situ and spacially related to the area. The strtigraphic position of the bones, their organized display and the unlikely natural cause of the deposit support the hypothesis that these bones appear to be part of a ritual related to the funerary space, but not with the incineration itself.
This paper presents the results of a zooarchaeological study of faunal remains (mammals, birds an... more This paper presents the results of a zooarchaeological study of faunal remains (mammals, birds and molluscs), from Frielas, near Lisbon, that were excavated until 2003 by archaeologists of the Loures Museum. The remains come from negative structures dated to the XIIIth century. Pottery and metal were also found associated with the osteological material.
The species represented are, Bos Taurus, Sus domesticus, Ovis/Cpara, Cervus elaphus, Equus sp, Rattus rattus, Gallus domesticus, Columba livia, Columba palumbus, Falco tinnunculus, Phasianus colchius, Tetrao tetrix, Alectoris sp, Mytilus galloprovincialis, Crassostea crassissima, Cerastoderma edulis, Ostrea edulis, Scrobucularia plana, Chlamys varia, Pecten maximus, Solen marginatus.
Although not very numerous, this collection gives us elements to understand the paleoecomony of the medieval populations and environmental evolution of the region.
Taphonomical aspects of Castanheiro do Vento (Vila Nova de Foz Côa) based on archaeofaunal study
... more Taphonomical aspects of Castanheiro do Vento (Vila Nova de Foz Côa) based on archaeofaunal study
This paper presents the study of all the vertebrate fauna collected during the archaeological interventions that have been held in Castanheiro do Vento (Northern Potugal), from 1998 until the year 2006.
The assemblage is characterized by preservation problems with a very low percentage of identifiable material, high levels of thermal manipulation and degree of fragmentation also quite high, thus the study focused on a taphonomical approach. The study had as main objective the reconstruction of the taphonomic history of the site and consequent evaluation of destructive processes that affects the preservation of faunal collection here.
In this sense, beyond taxonomic classification, the study of the collection focused on the observation of the stigma surface of all fragments, as well as analysis of fragmentation pattern and anatomical representation and characterization of each fragment level metric taking into account the assessment of various taphonomic agents.
The mammal fauna from silo 1of Evoramonte Castle (Estremoz)
This paper presents the results of... more The mammal fauna from silo 1of Evoramonte Castle (Estremoz)
This paper presents the results of the zooarchaeological analysis of mammal bones recovered in a silo, in Evoramonte Castle (Estremoz, Portugal). The silo was full of sediment containing fragments of pottery, metal and animal remains, namely mammal, bird and fish bones as well as shellfish shells. It corresponds to the domestic trash left by the human community which lived in the medieval village in medieval ages. The archaeological context is dated to the final 15th century, beginnings of the 16th. The animal species are Bos taurus, Ovis/Capra, Capra hircus, Sus sp., Oryctolagus cuniculus and Cervus elaphus.
COSTA, C. (2009) – “As espécies animais representadas nas villae romanas da região de Freixo de Numão (Vila Nova de Foz Côa, Portugal)”, Apontamentos de Arqueologia e Património, 4, pp.14-22.
The animal species present at the roman villae of Freixo de Numão region (Vila Nova de Foz Côa)
... more The animal species present at the roman villae of Freixo de Numão region (Vila Nova de Foz Côa)
The present paper aims to present the zooarchaeological data from the study of faunal collections from three roman villae from Vila Nova de Foz Côa, on the Portuguese Douro Region, Prazo, Rumansil I and Zimbro II, with particular highlighting for the animal species detected. These sites were studied and excavated during the 90ths, integrated in the investigation project for the knowledge of roman occupation in Freixo de Numão Region, under the direction of S. Coixão.
The faunal assemblages are contextually dated to the III/IV century, but in Prazo there was established two other chronological phases, so there is faunal assemblages from the IInd and Vth century as well.
The list of species is short and doesn’t diverge much, pointing to the prominence of mammals, despite a few bones were attributed to bird. The species found are Ovis/Capra, Bos taurus, Sus sp., Cervus elaphus, Equus sp., Cannis familiaris, unidentifiable mustelidae, Oryctolagus cuniculus and Gallus gallus.
The data points to the importance of domestic activities like sheep, goat and cattle breeding. On the other hand it reveals the almost complete absence of hunting practices.
Despite being preliminary data, this contribution wishes to help completing the big picture of economic activities of the Lusitanian province still unknown.
The vertebrate fauna from Sector I of Perdigões (Ditchs 3 and 4 and pits)
This paper presents ... more The vertebrate fauna from Sector I of Perdigões (Ditchs 3 and 4 and pits)
This paper presents the results of the faunal analysis of Sector I from Perdigões. The assemblage consists of 4987 fragments of bones and teeth, extended over the various archaeological contexts: sections of ditches 3 and 4 and the 12 pits. The specific list point to the presence of Sus sp., the most important species in number, followed by Ovis/Capra, Bos taurus, Cervus elaphus, Equus sp., Canis familiaris, Canis sp., Oryctolagus cuniculus, Lepus sp., Eliomys quercinus and unidentifiable birds and a chelonian. Also have been identified a single remain of auroch (Bos primigenius).
The collection shows a good archaeological condition, besides the high percentage of excavation breakage due to the hardness of sediment. A small part of the assemblage reveals cut marks or other anthropic manipulation. The majority of taphonomical signatures are root marks, calcium carbonate and stains of manganese oxides.
Perdigões enclosure is a paradigmatic case to study the multiclass of archaeological faunal association’s through the different contexts: in one hand there are the ritual associations with human burials, whether with articulated faunal remains or isolated bones, on the other there are the assemblages coming from ditches and pits. In the first case, the faunal interpretation is obliged to a more carefully approach, strongly guided by observations of ritual and symbolic matters. Concerning the faunal remains from ditches and pits, the interpretation is somewhat difficult of carry on, if our aim is to run off from the functional observations.
We stated elsewhere (Costa & Valera, 2009) that the horizontal and vertical distribution of the faunal remains in the ditches has some characteristics that doesn’t fit on the discard patterning like garbage or an accidental natural accumulation due to the abandonment of the site. The patterning seems to fit better on an intentional deposition of some animal parts, sometimes in association with specific artefacts. Thus, the validity of the socio-economic and ecologic readings should be cautious.
Beyond this question, the data available seems to point to hunting and domestication, and to the use of animal skin and bone as raw material.
Neolithic dog burials:pit 5 from Corça 1 (Brinches, Serpa)
The paper presents a pit dated to t... more Neolithic dog burials:pit 5 from Corça 1 (Brinches, Serpa)
The paper presents a pit dated to the Late Neolithic (second half of the 4th millennium BC). The pit was filled with several deposits, where pottery fragments, some lithic materials and faunal remains were collected.
Amongst faunal remains a dog deposition, in a lower layer, and several bones of a paw of another dog (taht possibly was deposited in anatomical coenection), in an upper layer, were identified.
It is the firts Neolithic deposition of a dog excavated in South Portugal to this period. Based on this context, dog deposition practuces are briefly analysed, concerning the diversity of dog funerary manipulations (in terms of the whole animal or its parts) and the diversity of depositional contexts in Neolithic and Chalcolithic Iberia.
Fire management in Castanheiro do Vento: the possible use of bone animal as fuel
In this paper... more Fire management in Castanheiro do Vento: the possible use of bone animal as fuel
In this paper we analyse the hypothesis of the use of animal bone as fuel in the III/II millennium site of Castanheiro do Vento in Portugal. The faunal assemblage shows some specific characteristic such as very slow percentage of identifiable material and around 90% of calcined bones with a very high index of fragmentation.
We link the faunal analysis with the results of some experiments published by European investigators. These experiments show the particularities of bone fuel combustion, certainly used in specific activities. However the interpretation of these activities in Castanheiro do Vento are difficult to achieve because of the preliminary state of the investigations. In addition the interpretations available in the literature concern the hunter-gather communities, models that we cannot relate to the complex society of the III/II millennium b. C.
This article presents the study of the faunal remains recovered in the Loures Municipal Museum’s ... more This article presents the study of the faunal remains recovered in the Loures Municipal Museum’s interventions carried out over the years 1995 to 1999 at the Roman villa of Almoinhas, Loures, in the outskirts of Lisbon.
The faunal remains result mainly from sector of intervention V, which has been interpreted as a remnant deposit by the archaeology team.
The reading of the data points to the predominance of the domestic spectrum, headed by the ovine and caprine species, and, less expressively, the bovine and swine. In this context, hunting seems to be of little importance. One observes a strongly ruralized economy based on the exploration of domestic mammals and the probable practice of craft activities, such as the use of bone, and eventually the skins as raw materials.
Actas do V Encontro de Arqueologia do Sudoeste Peninsular , 2012
This paper presents the results of the zooarchaeological analysis of bird bones recovered in a si... more This paper presents the results of the zooarchaeological analysis of bird bones recovered in a silo, in Evoramonte Castle (Estremoz, Portugal). The silo was full of sediment which contained fragments of pottery, metal and animal remains, namely mammal, bird and fish bones as well as shellfish shells. It corresponds to the domestic trash left by the human community which lived in the village in the late 15th century, early 16th.
The study of bird remains show the presence of Chicken, Pheasant, Eurasian Woodcock, Great Cormorant, Eurasian Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Partridge, Pigeon, Blackbird, and a non-identified species of Goose and Thrushes. Chicken and Eurasian Woodcock are the most numerous species.
Actas do V Encontro de Arqueologia do Sudoeste Peninsular, 2012
In the poster about Horta do Jacinto we discuss how different bodies and artefacts entailed diffe... more In the poster about Horta do Jacinto we discuss how different bodies and artefacts entailed different space organizations. By considering the relationships between, what is put inside the pit and its internal configuration, it seems that, once we look at the feature as architecture, then the shape of the pit is, as important as what is inside of it, and not just as a way to think about functionality, but to understand it as an architectural device. Structure 1 is constituted from actions that bring together soil, sculpted shape and bodies. Furthermore, the distribution of fragments of objects keeps memory at work in these spaces: they create a material tension between how things were and how things are now. Architecture here, is not just a building activity, it constructs other possibilities for, how humans, animals and artefacts relate to each other in the world.
Association of animal bones to funerary contexts of Recent Prehistory: the Outeiro Alto 2 case st... more Association of animal bones to funerary contexts of Recent Prehistory: the Outeiro Alto 2 case study
In this paper the authors present the study of the faunal assemblage associated to the funerary Bronze Age contexts of Nucleus B of Outeiro Alto 2 (Serpa), both hipogea and pits. The taxa are Sus sp. and Bos sp. revealing an anatomical representation mainly composed by bones of the fore limbs.
The faunal association in hipogea 62 and 65 is similar to the rituals observed in hipogea from Torre Velha 3, Belmeque and Montinhos 6, also from Bronze Age, and at the same region: isolated radius diaphysis from an animal compatible to bovid. The ritual observed in pit 53 is particular and still exclusive of this site, where a set of disarticulated bones are deposed directly on the human body.
This article aims to contribute to the characterization of a particular “type” of negative struct... more This article aims to contribute to the characterization of a particular “type” of negative structures: the bone
shaped structures and long sub‑rectangular
plan structures. These features have been discovered in several
prehistoric sites at Alentejo and it seems to be an important architectural device in the construction of the
Late Prehistory landscape of the region. We focus our analysis on a group of structures with faunal remains,
discussing how these elements can contribute to a better understanding of the practices within which these
structures would have participated.
Cleia Detry e Rita Dias (ed) Proceedings of the First Zooarchaeology Conference in Portugal, Held at the Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon, 8th-9th March 2012, BAR International Series S2662, 2014
Montinhos 6 is located in Serpa (Beja, south Portugal) and was excavated under the direction of o... more Montinhos 6 is located in Serpa (Beja, south Portugal) and was excavated under the direction of one of the authors (LB) during an emergency intervention within the Alqueva Project. The site was characterized by negative structures of different types, chronologies and fills. In this paper the authors wish to focus on the structures related to the burial practices from the Bronze Age: both hypogea and pits with burials from one individual to a maximum of five. Only six hypogea revealed faunal remains associated with funerary rituals, consisting mainly of bones from the forelimbs of Bos taurus and Ovis/Capra and a partial skeleton of Oryctolagus cuniculus. Most parts of the faunal assemblage were deposited in articulation, but isolated radius are also present. An analysis of how these elements are used in these practices can contribute some information to our understanding of the burial practices of the Bronze Age.
DETRY C., DIAS R. (eds) Proceedings of the First Zooarchaeology Conference in Portugal Held at the Faculty of Letters, 8th–9th March 2012 BAR International Series S2662, 2014
In the last two decades an important development of commercial archaeology has occurred in Portug... more In the last two decades an important development of commercial archaeology has occurred in Portugal. During this process archaeozoology and zooarchaeology have definitively established themselves in Portugal as auxiliary disciplines of archaeology. This occurrence was enabled through the creation of the necessary tools for the training and operationalization of experts.
Despite the “evolution” of the research paradigms and the growing necessity of multidisciplinary studies, it seems to us that the possible contribution of archaeofauna experts to commercial archaeology still has a long way to go. We provide a brief outline of the recent developments on archaeofauna studies and commercial archaeology in Portugal and relate this to the current experts situation in an enquiry-based approach. Taking into account the present scenario and the results obtained we highlight some considerations about the relation between academic and commercial sectors using archaeofauna experts as an example.
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Zooarchaeology by Cláudia Costa
In 2002 the Encosta de Sant'Ana site in downtown Lisbon was excavated by City Museum archaeologists. Fieldwork revealed a stratified occupation of a cemetery dated to he 1st century AD. This cemetery is characterized by primary and secondary incinetarion structures and is part of the Northern main cemetery of the Roman city of Olisipo. The center of this cemetery is nowadays known from Praça da Figueira archaeological investigation, only a few metres from Encosta de Sant'Ana. From the same layers as the incinerations, two groups of bones of an Equus asinus skeleton were exhumed. Althought one cannot undoubtfully associate them with the funerary structures, the bones seem to be in situ and spacially related to the area. The strtigraphic position of the bones, their organized display and the unlikely natural cause of the deposit support the hypothesis that these bones appear to be part of a ritual related to the funerary space, but not with the incineration itself.
The species represented are, Bos Taurus, Sus domesticus, Ovis/Cpara, Cervus elaphus, Equus sp, Rattus rattus, Gallus domesticus, Columba livia, Columba palumbus, Falco tinnunculus, Phasianus colchius, Tetrao tetrix, Alectoris sp, Mytilus galloprovincialis, Crassostea crassissima, Cerastoderma edulis, Ostrea edulis, Scrobucularia plana, Chlamys varia, Pecten maximus, Solen marginatus.
Although not very numerous, this collection gives us elements to understand the paleoecomony of the medieval populations and environmental evolution of the region.
This paper presents the study of all the vertebrate fauna collected during the archaeological interventions that have been held in Castanheiro do Vento (Northern Potugal), from 1998 until the year 2006.
The assemblage is characterized by preservation problems with a very low percentage of identifiable material, high levels of thermal manipulation and degree of fragmentation also quite high, thus the study focused on a taphonomical approach. The study had as main objective the reconstruction of the taphonomic history of the site and consequent evaluation of destructive processes that affects the preservation of faunal collection here.
In this sense, beyond taxonomic classification, the study of the collection focused on the observation of the stigma surface of all fragments, as well as analysis of fragmentation pattern and anatomical representation and characterization of each fragment level metric taking into account the assessment of various taphonomic agents.
This paper presents the results of the zooarchaeological analysis of mammal bones recovered in a silo, in Evoramonte Castle (Estremoz, Portugal). The silo was full of sediment containing fragments of pottery, metal and animal remains, namely mammal, bird and fish bones as well as shellfish shells. It corresponds to the domestic trash left by the human community which lived in the medieval village in medieval ages. The archaeological context is dated to the final 15th century, beginnings of the 16th. The animal species are Bos taurus, Ovis/Capra, Capra hircus, Sus sp., Oryctolagus cuniculus and Cervus elaphus.
The present paper aims to present the zooarchaeological data from the study of faunal collections from three roman villae from Vila Nova de Foz Côa, on the Portuguese Douro Region, Prazo, Rumansil I and Zimbro II, with particular highlighting for the animal species detected. These sites were studied and excavated during the 90ths, integrated in the investigation project for the knowledge of roman occupation in Freixo de Numão Region, under the direction of S. Coixão.
The faunal assemblages are contextually dated to the III/IV century, but in Prazo there was established two other chronological phases, so there is faunal assemblages from the IInd and Vth century as well.
The list of species is short and doesn’t diverge much, pointing to the prominence of mammals, despite a few bones were attributed to bird. The species found are Ovis/Capra, Bos taurus, Sus sp., Cervus elaphus, Equus sp., Cannis familiaris, unidentifiable mustelidae, Oryctolagus cuniculus and Gallus gallus.
The data points to the importance of domestic activities like sheep, goat and cattle breeding. On the other hand it reveals the almost complete absence of hunting practices.
Despite being preliminary data, this contribution wishes to help completing the big picture of economic activities of the Lusitanian province still unknown.
This paper presents the results of the faunal analysis of Sector I from Perdigões. The assemblage consists of 4987 fragments of bones and teeth, extended over the various archaeological contexts: sections of ditches 3 and 4 and the 12 pits. The specific list point to the presence of Sus sp., the most important species in number, followed by Ovis/Capra, Bos taurus, Cervus elaphus, Equus sp., Canis familiaris, Canis sp., Oryctolagus cuniculus, Lepus sp., Eliomys quercinus and unidentifiable birds and a chelonian. Also have been identified a single remain of auroch (Bos primigenius).
The collection shows a good archaeological condition, besides the high percentage of excavation breakage due to the hardness of sediment. A small part of the assemblage reveals cut marks or other anthropic manipulation. The majority of taphonomical signatures are root marks, calcium carbonate and stains of manganese oxides.
Perdigões enclosure is a paradigmatic case to study the multiclass of archaeological faunal association’s through the different contexts: in one hand there are the ritual associations with human burials, whether with articulated faunal remains or isolated bones, on the other there are the assemblages coming from ditches and pits. In the first case, the faunal interpretation is obliged to a more carefully approach, strongly guided by observations of ritual and symbolic matters. Concerning the faunal remains from ditches and pits, the interpretation is somewhat difficult of carry on, if our aim is to run off from the functional observations.
We stated elsewhere (Costa & Valera, 2009) that the horizontal and vertical distribution of the faunal remains in the ditches has some characteristics that doesn’t fit on the discard patterning like garbage or an accidental natural accumulation due to the abandonment of the site. The patterning seems to fit better on an intentional deposition of some animal parts, sometimes in association with specific artefacts. Thus, the validity of the socio-economic and ecologic readings should be cautious.
Beyond this question, the data available seems to point to hunting and domestication, and to the use of animal skin and bone as raw material.
The paper presents a pit dated to the Late Neolithic (second half of the 4th millennium BC). The pit was filled with several deposits, where pottery fragments, some lithic materials and faunal remains were collected.
Amongst faunal remains a dog deposition, in a lower layer, and several bones of a paw of another dog (taht possibly was deposited in anatomical coenection), in an upper layer, were identified.
It is the firts Neolithic deposition of a dog excavated in South Portugal to this period. Based on this context, dog deposition practuces are briefly analysed, concerning the diversity of dog funerary manipulations (in terms of the whole animal or its parts) and the diversity of depositional contexts in Neolithic and Chalcolithic Iberia.
In this paper we analyse the hypothesis of the use of animal bone as fuel in the III/II millennium site of Castanheiro do Vento in Portugal. The faunal assemblage shows some specific characteristic such as very slow percentage of identifiable material and around 90% of calcined bones with a very high index of fragmentation.
We link the faunal analysis with the results of some experiments published by European investigators. These experiments show the particularities of bone fuel combustion, certainly used in specific activities. However the interpretation of these activities in Castanheiro do Vento are difficult to achieve because of the preliminary state of the investigations. In addition the interpretations available in the literature concern the hunter-gather communities, models that we cannot relate to the complex society of the III/II millennium b. C.
The faunal remains result mainly from sector of intervention V, which has been interpreted as a remnant deposit by the archaeology team.
The reading of the data points to the predominance of the domestic spectrum, headed by the ovine and caprine species, and, less expressively, the bovine and swine. In this context, hunting seems to be of little importance. One observes a strongly ruralized economy based on the exploration of domestic mammals and the probable practice of craft activities, such as the use of bone, and eventually the skins as raw materials.
The study of bird remains show the presence of Chicken, Pheasant, Eurasian Woodcock, Great Cormorant, Eurasian Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Partridge, Pigeon, Blackbird, and a non-identified species of Goose and Thrushes. Chicken and Eurasian Woodcock are the most numerous species.
In this paper the authors present the study of the faunal assemblage associated to the funerary Bronze Age contexts of Nucleus B of Outeiro Alto 2 (Serpa), both hipogea and pits. The taxa are Sus sp. and Bos sp. revealing an anatomical representation mainly composed by bones of the fore limbs.
The faunal association in hipogea 62 and 65 is similar to the rituals observed in hipogea from Torre Velha 3, Belmeque and Montinhos 6, also from Bronze Age, and at the same region: isolated radius diaphysis from an animal compatible to bovid. The ritual observed in pit 53 is particular and still exclusive of this site, where a set of disarticulated bones are deposed directly on the human body.
shaped structures and long sub‑rectangular
plan structures. These features have been discovered in several
prehistoric sites at Alentejo and it seems to be an important architectural device in the construction of the
Late Prehistory landscape of the region. We focus our analysis on a group of structures with faunal remains,
discussing how these elements can contribute to a better understanding of the practices within which these
structures would have participated.
Despite the “evolution” of the research paradigms and the growing necessity of multidisciplinary studies, it seems to us that the possible contribution of archaeofauna experts to commercial archaeology still has a long way to go. We provide a brief outline of the recent developments on archaeofauna studies and commercial archaeology in Portugal and relate this to the current experts situation in an enquiry-based approach. Taking into account the present scenario and the results obtained we highlight some considerations about the relation between academic and commercial sectors using archaeofauna experts as an example.