Spatial Patterning Among Animal Bones in Settlement Archaeology: An English Regional Exploration.

Spatial Patterning Among Animal Bones in Settlement Archaeology: An English Regional Exploration. BOB WILSON Bob Wilson is the name of: Bob Wilson (footballer) (born 30 October 1941 in Chesterfield, England), a former goalkeeper for Arsenal and broadcaster Bob Wilson (cartoonist) is a caroonist and author of the Stanley Bagshaw series of children's cartoons . (BAR British series 251.) x+96 pages, 29 figures, 20tables. 1996. Oxford: Tempvs Reparatvm; 0-86054-840-6 paperback[pounds]26.In his book Bob Wilson has chosen to tackle a problematic area inarchaeology. His book begins with a list of some studies that havestimulated his interest, from ethnography ethnography:see anthropology; ethnology. ethnographyDescriptive study of a particular human society. Contemporary ethnography is based almost entirely on fieldwork. to sites in East Africa, andfrom Turkey to Medieval Britain. The sites can be roughly set into twocategories: those sites with a limited range of functions[hunting/butchery camps, or the social/ritual) and those of vastlygreater complexity - the sites where people were born, lived, worked anddied. Which presents the greater challenge in interpretation?The book presents a number of case from Wilson's own work withthe Oxford Archaeological Unit. Although excavation standards were of ahigh level, the recovery of bones was perhaps less than perfectlyplanned. Wilson confronts this issue and copes bravely with thelimitations it imposes.Chapter 2 shows how Wilson's interest developed with excavationsat the Asheville Trading Estate trading estateNounChiefly Brit a large area in which a number of commercial or industrial firms are situatedtrading estaten (BRIT) → pol��gono industrial, where the publication set aninfluential standard. He observed the differential distribution ofbones, with the smaller bones found mainly in features and the largerbones more scattered, often found in ditches at the periphery of thesite. In chapter 3 Wilson expands upon his approach to spatialpatterning and gives a brief account of this own recent experiments inbone dispersal. Bones were left in small piles where dogs, foxes andscavenging scavengingof anesthetic. See anesthetic scavenging. birds had access. Scavengers are selective - tasty bonesdisappeared from view within a few days, while the less desirable, withlittle marrow and no meat, remained where placed. The point is made thatbones move outward from a focus of abandonment.For the case-studies, the Iron Age enclosure of Mingles Ditch offeredattractive possibilities as a small, well-defined site, with shortoccupation and probably never ploughed. Sieving for bones was based on alimited sampling strategy, the results of which were found to be'unspectacular'. This conforms the reviewer's own limitedexperience of British Iron Age In the British Isles, the Iron Age lasted from about the 7th century BC until the Roman conquest and until the 5th century in non-Romanised parts. This period is also called the era of Celtic Britain<ref name=>Celtic Britain (The Iron Age) c. sites where the bone density was found tobe remarkably low and, I suspect, the product of severe attrition bydogs.Although the sample was not well preserved, Wilson shows thedifferential distribution of bones within the ditched enclosure, from 10bones per bucketful of excavated soil in and near the central houses tolittle or no bone at the periphery of the site. The result is useful andconforms to that suggested by experiment - the larger bones (cattle andhorse) had moved outward from the central area of activity while thesmaller bones (sheep and pig) tend to stay put there. This raises manyquestions, which are addressed by Wilson. Did the larger bonesnecessarily go to the centre to begin with? Were the more conspicuoushones moved outward as inconvenient rubbish? Were the larger bones moreoften chosen by dogs? As Wilson says, 'bone spread is a complicatedphenomenon to explain'. Perhaps a better-preserved, fully sievedsample might answer such questions more completely.A very different site is the medieval Hardings Field Manor, 'abone expert's dream'. Them bones were found withinwell-defined rooms or outside within a large moated farmyard. Again,little bones were found inside rooms (sheep, pig, bird, hare, fish)while the large bones were outside. Things get more complex with theRomano-British site at Claydon Pike. Wilson's findings support someinterpretation of the mass of intersecting features where there musthave been a problem of residuality, the bugbear of complex sites.After the case-studies, chapter 13 considers the overallinterpretation of the findings under the subheadings of description,interpretation and explanation and chapter 14 the issue of'intercultural differences'. Here the bone analyst is indanger of attempting to serve too many masters in the turmoil ofspeculation that is modern archaeological theory Archaeological theory covers the debates over the practice of archaeology and the interpretation of archaeological results. There is no single theory of archaeology, and even definitions are disputed. . What people do withbones is complex and varied and no amount of ethnographic eth��nog��ra��phy?n.The branch of anthropology that deals with the scientific description of specific human cultures.eth��nog parallelism An overlapping of processing, input/output (I/O) or both. 1. parallelism - parallel processing.2. (parallel) parallelism - The maximum number of independent subtasks in a given task at a given point in its execution. E.g. can invest bone dumps with precise meaning. Cattle and pig may wellbelong to different symbolic worlds {they certainly did in the historyof my own small community) but there are other, more prosaic reasons whytheir bones might be found in different places. Wilson discusses arecent analysis of Durrington Walls Durrington Walls is a prehistoric henge enclosure monument situated close to Woodhenge on Salisbury Plain. It is a Class II henge and measures around 500m in diameter. Along with the other giant examples at Avebury, Marden and Mount Pleasant in Dorset it is one of the 'super-henge' , where bone distribution patternswere identified and interpreted. A more recent view (Albarella &Sergeantson forthcoming) finds that the bones had previously beenmuddled in handling with many of the same type put into one hag. A'complicated phenomenon' indeed! Figure 27 is illuminating insetting out the proportional cost of Wilson's modern diet and theproportional weight of the residues that it leaves. This tells us notonly of his eclecticism eclecticism, in arteclecticism(ĭklĕk`tĭsĭz'əm), art style in which features are borrowed from various styles. in diet but also much of his place in the world.If only ancient bones had so plain a message.One word of complaint about the production of the book. BAR has movedto a glossier format with more attractive paper and finish, yet some ofthe figures and tables in the book should not have been publishedwithout the use of modern graphics. The tables are unattractive and some(especially 7 and 8) are too faint, seemingly from a dot-matrix printerin draft mode. The structure of table 10 seems to have partly collapsedand is unreadable.Setting this aside, Wilson has tackled a difficult issue and theproblems are not just those of bones. The case-study sites, though dugwith high competence, present various limitations of recovery andpreservation. He succeeds in his task to a degree. This book should be astimulus to others, a valuable purpose. Certainly it is not the lastword, and Wilson would not expect it to be so.A. LEGGE Centre for Extra-Mural Studies Birkbeck College, LondonReferenceALBARELLA, U. & D. SERJEANTSON. Forthcoming. A passion for pork:butchery and cooking in the British Neolithic site of Durrington Walls,in P. Miracle (ed.), Consuming patterns end patterns of consumption.Cambridge: MacDonald Institute for Archaeology.