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Animal Remains from Ritual Sites: A Cautionary Tale from the Eastern Adriatic
Author(s) -
Gaastra J. S.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of osteoarchaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1099-1212
pISSN - 1047-482X
DOI - 10.1002/oa.2627
Subject(s) - extant taxon , context (archaeology) , assemblage (archaeology) , identification (biology) , zooarchaeology , faunal assemblage , archaeology , consumption (sociology) , history , geography , ecology , biology , fauna , evolutionary biology , art , aesthetics
This article assesses the potential pitfalls of extant methods and criteria used for identifying the ritual use and consumption of animals. Previous analysis of the Late Iron Age sanctuary assemblage from Spila Nakovana identified the ritual consumption of domestic animals in the sanctuary through comparison with a common set of criteria for the identification of ritual patterning in faunal assemblages. A recent analysis of a larger sample from Spila Nakovana has overturned this original determination, leading to a re‐evaluation of the ranked importance of the common criteria utilised for ritual patterning identification. The importance of context is addressed in the determination of ritual patterning within archaeological faunal assemblages, with regard to both the direct and wider context of the sample. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.