Dressing for Dinner: Butchery and Bone Deposition at Late Neolithic Toumba Kremastis-Koiladas, Northern Greece

Vasiliki Tzevelekidi

City: Oxford

Year: 2012

Publisher: Archaeopress

Series: BAR International Series 2451

Description: Paperback, x &142 p., 63 tables, 59 figures, 29.7x21 cm

Abstract

Excavations at Late Neolithic Toumba Kremastis Koiladas, near the modern town of Kozani in north-western Greece, have yielded one of the largest faunal assemblages of this period from Greece (and probably also from Europe). This assemblage is important not only because of its large size, but also because of the character of the site and the apparently distinctive nature of bone deposition. Although near to a settlement mound or tell, the excavated area from which the assemblage is drawn appears to be of the ‘flat/extended’ type of site. As such, much of the bone assemblage is derived from clearly defined pits and ditches cut into the bedrock, offering much greater opportunities for contextual analysis than is usually possible on tell sites with complex vertical stratigraphy. Furthermore, the excavator’s observation of complete animal skeletons in some pits suggested the possibility of structured deposition of a sort that, though well known from the Aegean Bronze Age, is as yet rare in the Neolithic of Greece. The assemblage studied here thus offers unusually high potential for investigation of patterns of bone deposition and animal consumption and also for exploration of the extent to which these processes may have obscured or distorted the evidence commonly used to infer patterns of animal management and land use. The questions addressed in this book are centred within four main contexts: Types of Neolithic settlements (tells vs. ‘flat/extended’ sites); The Neolithic household in Greece; Neolithic husbandry regimes in Greece; Scales and contexts of consumption during the Greek Neolithic.

Contents

Acknowledgements [i]
List of contents [ii]
List of tables [v]
List of figures [vii]
Abbreviations [x]

Chapter 1. TKK in Context: settlement, society and subsistence in the Greek Neolithic [1]

1.1. Introduction [1]
1.2. The Greek Neolithic: recent research and current questions [1]
1.3. Toumba Kremastis-Koiladas: the site [6]
1.4. From research context to research questions [13]
1.5. The structure of this book [14]

Chapter 2. Methodology [15]

2.1. Introduction [15]
2.2. Theory behind methodology [15]
2.3. From theory to practice [18]
2.4. The faunal assemblage from TKK [25]

Chapter 3. Exploring taphonomic processes [27]

3.1. Introduction [27]
3.2. ‘Pick up a bone’. Exploring recovery bias [27]
3.3. Evaluating attrition [32]
3.4. Conclusions: taphonomy or …not taphonomy? [42]

Chapter 4. Patterns of consumption and discard [44]

4.1. Introduction [44]
4.2. Representation of anatomical units [44]
4.3. Evidence for butchery practices [51]
4.4. Fragmentation patterns and marrow exploitation [62]
4.5. Species composition [63]
4.6. Structured deposition (Appendices 1-3) [66]
4.7. Patterns of consumption and discard in TKK – conclusion [75]

Chapter 5. Understanding management strategies [77]

5.1. Introduction [77]
5.2. Animal management in TKK [77]
5.3. Management regimes in TKK: conclusions and implications [112]

Chapter 6. Conclusions [114]

6.1. Summary of analysis [114]
6.2. TKK in the context of the Greek Neolithic [115]

Appendices [121]

List of references [134]