Ritualisation (or The Four Fully-Articulated Ungulates of The Apocalypse) (Lee Broderick)

Ritualisation (or The Four Fully-Articulated Ungulates of The Apocalypse) (Lee Broderick)

It is now common practice amongst archaeologists to interpret burials of fully articulated animal skeletons on sites in Britain and Europe as evidence of ritual activity, particularly on those sites from the prehistoric or Roman periods. This interpretation has become an accepted analysis for many archaeologists, despite the full meaning behind such an interpretation remaining obscure, and so it is sometimes applied as a short-hand for these deposits without full consideration of other potential explanations.

Whilst conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Ethiopia during 2008, many fully and partially articulated bovid skeletons were observed on the ground, and were reported within the ground. The reasons and methods behind such methods of disposal were discussed with the local people and are here presented with reference to archaeological examples, in the hope that they may aid future interpretation of archaeological sites and zooarchaeological assemblages as an analogue of use in a variety of temporal and climatic situations.

Lee Broderick, Institute of Cornish Studies / University of Exeter

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