Bone Summary

T90 yielded moderate quantities of animal bone in the 2023 excavation season; this amount is significantly more bone than was found in T90 in the 2017, 2018, and 2022 excavation seasons, but less than was found in 2019, when 837 bone fragments were recovered. The majority of bone fragments recovered in T90 in 2023 came from deposits associated with the abandonment and destruction of EPOC4: Loci 45 and 52 jointly yielded 374 bone fragments, or 57% of all bone recovered in 2023 in T90. This is in keeping with the 2019 excavations, when equivalent deposits yielded 52% of the entire season’s bone assemblage. Of the 657 fragments of bone recovered in T90 in 2023, four fragments were of antler and three of these four fragments were recovered from deposits associated with the abandonment and destruction of EPOC4.

Notably, 106 bone fragments, or 16% of all bone found in T90 in 2023 was found in deposits infilling the rectangular cutting into EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor (Locus 47). Of the bone fragments found infilling the Locus 47 cut, a handful of examples preserved evidence of burning, but none of cutting or butchering. In addition, the fourth antler fragment was found in Locus 48, the second of the three deposits infilling the Locus 47 cut. Despite the presence of bone and antler in these deposits, it is still unclear why occupants of EPOC4 may have made a large rectangular cut into the building’s floor surface; while the orientation of the cutting to the cardinal directions invites speculation that the cut may have been made for ritualistic or religious purposes, and the concentration of charcoal near the bottom of the cut could provide evidence a sacrificial offering, none of this evidence is decisive. Moreover, the quantities of bone recovered from deposits infilling the cut, coupled with a dearth of burnt or butchered bone, neither supports nor disproves this potential interpretation.

Notably, two human neonatal humeri were found in T90 in 2023. The first, PC20230001, was recovered from Locus 43, a deposit associated with the interior floor surface of a small rectilinear hut built atop the ruins of EPOC4, following the building’s abandonment and destruction. This is in keeping with finds from previous years; in 2022, a human neonatal bone fragment was recovered from Locus 32, a deposit situated outside of the aforementioned small, rectilinear hut. In 2023, a second human neonatal bone fragment was found in Locus 52, a deposit associated with the abandonment and destruction of EPOC4. This is the first human neonatal bone fragment to be recovered from a deposit directly associated with EPOC4, but may reflect similar practices that led to the deposition and recovery of human neonatal bones in the area of OC1/Residence.

Nearly all bone recovered from T90 in 2023 was animal bone that did not exhibit evidence of working, cutting, or butchering. One notable exception is a murex core fragment (PC20230132), which was recovered from Locus 48, a deposit infilling the rectangular cut into Locus 47; as this is the only example of a marine animal bone found in the trench, let alone the deposits infilling the Locus 47 cut, this find has limited probative value. We await proper analysis and a breakdown of animal species for these bones, but preliminary analysis indicates that the majority are sheep/goat and pig bones.