The symbolic meaning of cattle and sheep/goat in Bronze Age: faunal inclusions in funerary contexts of South-Weastern Iberia

• Published in: International journal of osteoarchaeology 2019, Vol.29 (4), p.1-11
• Main Authors: Costa, Cláudia, Bettencourt, Ana M. S., Senra, Marta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: anatomical representation; cattle; funerary practices; goats; História e Arqueologia; Humanidades; human–animal interaction; Iberian Bronze Age; Science & Technology; sheep; sheep/goats; Social Sciences
• ISSN: 1099-1212
• DOI: 10.1002/oa.2756

The inclusion of faunal remains in funerary practices is widely documented in Iberian prehistory. For the late prehistory (Neolithic to Bronze Age), there is relatively more data than in earlier periods, with limb segments being very common, and complete animals are rarer. In Bronze Age contexts from South‐Western Iberia, a high percentage of human burials in subterranean chambers (hypogea) are associated with limb bones of cattle (Bos taurus) and sheep/goats (Ovis/Capra), along with other grave goods. Traditionally, this practice is interpreted as the result of rituals of commensality. In this paper, we present a different perspective. Besides commensality, we show that the inclusion of the same species and the same anatom- ical parts is a highly standardised behaviour. Beyond the tight connection between humans and animals, this pattern also points to a strong symbolism of these domestic species and to symbolic meaning of the anatomical parts themselves. The authors want to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuablecomments. We also thank to Lídia Baptista and Victor Filipe for pro-viding and authorising the publications of field photos (Figures 2–4).We also want to thank Vera Aldeias and Nuno Bicho for their com-ments and suggestions in an early draft and to Célia Gonçalves forher help with Figure 1 and Tables 1–4.First author (CC) postdoctoral grant was supported by Fundaçãopara a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UID/ARQ/04211/2013‐ICArEHB).