Animals in the sanctuary. Bird bones and eggshell

All content of Opuscula 12 (2019) is available with open access. Printed edition distributed by Eddy.se AB. Also available at Amazon.com, Adlibris, and Bokus. View volume at ERIH PLUS. Animals in the sanctuary. Bird bones and eggshell By Dale Serjeantson (University of Southampton, United Kingdom) Abstract Excavations at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia and the application of a systematic soil sampling and water flotation programme led to the collection of a moderate amount for bird bones and eggshell fragments. Their dating in the first millennium BC and their association with cult renders them a significant addition to the extant bird remains record in Greece. In this paper the bird and egg remains are presented in detail by chronological phase and by feature, they are compared with other contemporary assemblages of bird remains, and some commentary is offered on their significance. Bibliographical information Dale Serjeantson, ’Animals in the sanctuary. Bird bones and eggshell’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome (OpAthRom) 12, Stockholm 2019, 223–231. ISSN: 2000-0898. ISBN: 978-91-977799-1-3. https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-12-05 Bioarchaeological remains from the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia The section on the bioarchaeological remains from the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia, published in the OpAthRom 12,…

Symbolic connotations of animals at early Middle Helladic Asine

Opuscula 10 (2017) is now available for purchase at Amazon.com, Bokus.com, Adlibris.com, and Bokorder.se. Symbolic connotations of animals at early Middle Helladic Asine. A comparative study of the animal bones from the settlement and its graves By Stella Macheridis Abstract This paper is a contribution to the zooarchaeological research on animals or animal parts found in human graves during the Middle Bronze Age in Greece. The animal bones from the early Middle Helladic settlement (MH I-II, c. 2100–1800 BC) and contemporary burials at Asine are presented. The goal is to compare the animal bones from the settlement with those from the burials, in terms of species composition and body part distribution. Through this comparison, this paper aims to discuss any symbolic connotations of bone waste from everyday-life practices. The results show that the most common domesticates from settlement contexts, pig, sheep/goat and cattle, also appear to be the most abundant animals deposited in the early MH graves at Asine. This is consistent with mortuary data from other sites on the Peloponnese, especially Lerna. The pig was most abundant in both settlement and graves at Asine. The similarities between wild and domestic pigs might be important, and are discussed as a…