Archaeozoology
Post-excavation work on the bone assemblage from the excavations at Horse Cross has continued in 2004. Cataloguing of the animal bones is ongoing, and the subsequent analysis should shed some light on diet and animal-based industry. Combined with the results of the environmental analysis being carried out for us at Headland Archaeology, we should also gain an insight into living conditions in this area of the burgh.
Contract work on behalf of other archaeological units has also been undertaken. This year, both CFA and GUARD have commissioned post-excavation work on assemblages from a number of prehistoric and medieval sites. GUARD’s excavations on the A1 Haddington to Dunbar road improvements has provided small but important assemblages from several sites in the shadow of Traprain and North Berwick Law. Dating from the early Neolithic to the later Iron Age, these assemblages add to the knowledge of funerary practices, animal husbandry and food supply in East Lothian, an area in which large excavations undertaken in the past still remain to be published.
CFA’s excavations at Skilmafilly, on the route of a gas pipeline through Aberdeenshire, uncovered the remains of a Bronze Age cemetery. Accompanying the human cremations were several animal bone fragments. These turned out to be the foot bones and talons of a golden eagle – a most exciting discovery. The burial of the eagle (or part of it) may have some symbolic meaning, perhaps of chieftainship. CFA also commissioned work on a medieval finds assemblage from a deserted settlement at Halhill. Here, the diet seemed to include horsemeat, most of it obtained from very small ponies.