Unit 5290
Category: layer dug in 1999
Area: South
Interpretive Categories: dump,midden
Data Category Information: Location: external; Deposition: coarsely bedded (dumps)
Dimensions: 5.2m+ w-e, 1.5m+ n-s, average 0.30m thick
Discussion: General very mixed 'midden type' layer covering all of space 181. Made up of lots of distinct events. Some thin bands others general dumps and others discrete dumps. Looks to be a 'midden' area for refuse disposal / general dumping.
Sample 11 actually comes from (4519).
Recognition: very colourful
Definition: deep sounding / limits of excavation
Execution: trowel / mattock
Condition: moist
Consistency: soft
Colour: very mixed mainly light to mid brownish grey but with patches of bright colour
Texture: clayey silt but quite patchy
Bedding: compound layered
Inclusions: moderate charcoal flecks, occasional bone/obsidian/stone frags, ashy lenses, light clay lenses, patches of burning
Post-depositional Features: deep sounding
Basal Boundary: distinct, flat, smooth, anthropogenic
Unit Stratigraphy (as recorded in the field):
Dry sieve volume: 2325
Total Deposit Volume: 2527
Number of Samples recorded by excavator: 56
Number of Related Diary Entries: 1
Settlement Phase:
Associated Mellaart Levels (from Space):
Associated Hodder Level (from Space): Unassigned at present
| Related Photos: 25 (Opens as a group in a new window) | |
| Buildings: none | |
Spaces: (Click to view the record)
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| Features:: none |
Finds Room Information:
All material from site passes through the finds room for washing and separating before it is passed onto the various lab teams. The finds room keeps a basic inventory of what is found. A finds material type list is given here. Further analytical detail maybe provided by the Lab Team data below.
X Finds Material: nothing recorded
Finds Material Stored: nothing recorded
Lab Team Data
Please note the list below does not represent everything that might have been found in this Unit, but represents the datasets we have available on-line. Please ArchaeoBots Sample Recorded: No Ceramic Records: No Clay Object Records: No Chipped Stone Records: No Conservation Recorded: No Faunal Records: Yes
Count of records:: 811
Unit description: F 916, 917, 2601, 2604, 2606, 2608, 2610, 2612, 2613, 2619, 2627, 2628, 2629, 2630, 2631, 2635, 2636, 2637 subsampled for ZooMS (DCO 2014)
An absolutely enormous unit from one of the space 181 'dumps'. The unit is dominated by bone from sheep-sized animals, but there is some large mammal (notably, one extremely large piece of male cattle pelvis that must have come from a huge animal), some equid (of two sizes), pig, and red deer, as well as some carnivore (a few mandibles and some post-cranial elements of small dog or jackal, and fox). Vertebrae and phalanges are scanty. At first, the large mammal toes appeared to be quite rare (as did large mammal in general), but after the discovery of a second crate of material and many more flotation samples, this imbalance was more-or-less corrected. Fragmentation is extremely high; there are very many long bone shaft fragments (without ends). There are many pieces of pig skull, including mandibles from at least 2 individuals. Since we cannot have this species in our reference collection, it is likely that we are under-identifying it. It would be very useful for this unit to be re-checked by someone more familiar with pig bones, or with a pig skeleton, if we ever can get one. Most of the pig bones that we have identified are from quite large animals. Gnawing is very high and so is digestion. Most phalanges are crushed by gnawing, and articular ends of long bones are nearly completely gnawed away. Small, crushed, digested fragments of long bone ends can be detected in the scrap pile, but it is difficult to identify them closely. Most of the phalanges appear to have been deliberately cracked open to extract marrow. Burning is quite rare, less than 10%of the whole, at low temperatures. There are many juveniles and some very young individuals, but also a few very old ones: the impression is of a bimodal peak in the age distribution of sheep-sized animals, but this must be checked more closely with the individual records. The bone is not weathered (i.e. exposed to the elements before being buried) but has been knocked around (is not fresh). The preservation is interesting: even though fragmentation is high, the relatively high amount of bone from very young animals (which is soft and easily destroyed) indicates that the bone went into a preservative environment fairly quickly. It is not as well preserved as the 1999 Kopal material, however, which showed excellent surface condition and a golden colour from burial in a boggy environment. This does not look like one event, because all the bones come from different individual animals; rather, a large amount of post-consumption discard (which has been heavily processed for bone grease) from one household over a long period of time, or (more likely) from several houses - a neighbourhood dumping ground, worked over by dogs fairly thoroughly, and therefore exposed for some time. But some delicate pieces (e.g. hyoids, some ends of bones) are present - therefore the volume of rubbish disposed must have been large enough that the carnivores could not reach the deeply buried material. The two crates of bone from this unit seemed slightly different from each other. The second crate does not show as dramatic a degree of digestion or gnawing (although this is still quite high), has fewer coprolites, and has more ends of long bones, and more large mammal. Perhaps this part of the unit was more deeply buried and thus harder for the dogs to reach? There are loads of coprolites mixed in with the bones (stabling-type? Check with Wendy) and many bones Figurine Records: Yes
Count of records::none Ground Stone Records: Yes
Count of records:: 18 Heavy Residue Records: No Microfaunal Records: No
Sorry not all of this data is available online at present, please contact us if you are particularly interested microfauna recordsPhytolith Sample: No
Sorry not all of this data is available online at present, please contact us if you are particularly interested phytolith samplesDownload this Units Data
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