Animal consumption and social change: the vertebrates from Ditch 7 in the context of a diachronic approach to the faunal remains at Perdigöes enclosure (3400-2000 BC)

Abstract

The results from the study of the faunal assemblage from ditch 7 of the Perdigöes enclosure (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal) are presented. Dated to the Chalcolithic and the transition to the early Bronze Age it comprises a total of 3380 remains. Results show the relevance of swine, caprines, cervids, bovines and equids and their diachronic oscillation. Indicators of butchering and consumption were recorded, comprising cutmarks, anthropogenic breakage, thermo-alterations and tooth marks, the latter mainly of a carnivore origin. The spectra obtained were compared within the scope of the Perdigöes chronology, from the late Middle Neolithic to the transition to the early Bronze Age (3400-2000 BC), thus representing a first approach to the diachronic behaviour of vertebrate consumption at the site. Domesticated species are prevalent but changes in the domesticated/wild ratio are evident with a wild input, mainly from red deer, of significance in the late Middle Neolithic and in the transition to the early Bronze Age, whereas the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods have a growth in the domesticated component.