| Entry: | Find of the day, says Chris Knusel! Today I worked to lift all of the elements of cluster u. 20863, an assemblage of faunal bone found in our burnt north room, space 444. At first, we thought we had a human fibula mixed in with some cattle scapulae (probably used shovels, said the faunal team), an astragalus, some vertebrae, and an upside-down sheep (?) cranium… But it turned out to be a crane or stork ulna!!
Awaiting further details from the faunal team, but it's pretty exciting, since in other contexts this particular bone has had symbolic associations, inviting imaginations of a potential crane dance to celebrate life. It's the bone on the bird where the wing feathers attach, and is quite rare at Catal.
It's striking, then, that it has been included in this seemingly arrangement that seems at once random and intentional. Nothing is delicately placed, these bones are both up against the wall and in the center of the room, on top of each other in some places but not others. All of the scapulae were the same side up-- but the mixture of elements seems to have no consistency. What is the pattern here??
What's additionally interesting is that this cluster was found underneath unit 20856, which seems to potentially represent the destruction of this space. It was a burnt layer with a seemingly apparent point of ignition where the soil was blackest, loosest, and the wall was singed… And a groundstone tool was placed directly in the center.
So the cluster, then, may be a deposit functioning to close the space. But why these elements, why these animals, and why in this arrangement? What is the story behind the stork ulna?? |
