Etruscan Animal Bones and Their Implications for Sacrificial Studies

Rask, K. A.

doi:10.1086/674242

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Although it is not always possible to separate domestic and ritual remains, most cultic assemblages are clearly defined defined by their context. Furthermore, cultic assemblages differ from habitation-related debris in several key aspects (see Rask, 2014). Cultic assemblages often contain an unusually large proportion of a certain species, age group, and/or body part.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Etruscan Foodways and Demographic Demands: Contextualizing Protohistoric Livestock Husbandry in Northern Italy

Trentacoste

2016

Eur. j. archaeol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Domestic livestock were a crucial part of Mediterranean communities throughout later prehistory. In the first millennium BC, livestock mangement changed, and was changed by, the rise of cities in Italy. Italian prehistory has a rich zooarchaeological tradition, but investigation of the Iron Age has been regionally divided and synthetic works on the Po valley comparatively few. This article presents a pan-regional review of late prehistoric and protohistoric livestock exploitation that considers Northern and Central Italy together for the first time. Zooarchaeological comparison reveals an increase in the use of sheep/goat for secondary products, while cattle and caprines were subject to size changes that distinguish their management from that of pigs. A marked increase in pig husbandry is visible in both regions, but this shift took place earlier and more emphatically in Northern Etruscan centres than in Central Italy. After defining the main changes in animal management during the period under review, this article looks beyond population density to explore the wider environmental, economic, and cultural context of pork consumption and its relation to the development of urbanism in Etruria padana.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Etruscan Foodways and Demographic Demands: Contextualizing Protohistoric Livestock Husbandry in Northern Italy

Trentacoste

2016

Eur. j. archaeol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Bone deposits on funerary pottery are not unusual and support the subsistence of ancient funerary practices, already observed to be spread among other Italic populations such as the Etruscans, of inhumating the deceased along with votive food offerings. 31 The presence of proteins from organisms that are ordinarily found in soil, such as actin of Acanthamoeba castellanii (UniProtKB accession P02578) and ATP synthase β-subunit from model fungi Neurospora crassa (UniProtKB accession P23704) are the result of a long exposure of the earthenware to the hypogeal burial environment.…”

Section: Proteomicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proteomics and Integrated Techniques to Characterize Organic Residues in Funerary Findings from Italic Populations of the First Millennium BC

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Multiple analytical techniques were combined to achieve a detailed characterization of organic residues in different typologies of funerary pottery, which were found at two separate archeological sites in the Campania Region (Italy) and both dated back to the first millennium BC. Gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of lipids provided inconclusive results. The attenuated total reflectance−Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectra of encrustation on two glazed bowls of the 3rd to 4th century BC were comparable to those of fresh bone, revealing the presence of hydroxyapatite and proteins, which were identified as bovine collagen chains by liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based proteomics. This finding confirmed that Italic populations used to inhume the dead along with votive meat offerings. Proteomics was decisive for identifying bovine milk in an unusually shaped amphora unearthed from a grave that belonged to a woman at the necropolis of the Greek colony in Cuma (7th century BC). Peptidomic analysis demonstrated that the genetic variant A 1 of β-casein was already present in the southern Mediterranean area at least 2500 years ago. Overall, these results depict an agropastoral system of Italic populations at the age of Magna Graecia based on a significant role of domesticated cattle.

show abstract

“…Red deer is the most abundant wild animal encountered in Poggio Civitate's skeletal assemblage (Table 1) and is represented by elements from all parts of the skeleton, indicating they were, at least sometimes, butchered on site. Several examples in Etruscan iconography depict what appear to be tamed or captured deer, suggesting that deer may have been led to the site ‘on the hoof’, for example for sacrifice (see Rask, 2014: 300–03), although this is unlikely to be the case for large red deer. Biometrical data from Poggio Civitate indicates a preference for stags.…”

Section: Integrating the Zooarchaeological Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to providing food and raw materials, animals were used in sacrifice and ritual, and there is evidence from the Etruscan period, particularly in funerary contexts, that whole animals or parts of animals were used in such ways (Rafanelli, 2013;Rask 2014). The inhabitants of Poggio Civitate certainly engaged in these practices, although they are difficult to identify on a large settlement site.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Where the Wild Things Are’: Etruscan Hunting and Trophy Display at Poggio Civitate (Murlo), Italy

Kansa

Tuck

2022

Eur. j. archaeol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An integrated study of the zooarchaeological, iconographic, and artefactual data from the Etruscan site of Poggio Civitate (Murlo, Italy), inhabited from the eighth to the sixth century bc, reveals intra-site differences in the distribution and disposal of animal body parts and species represented, including wild animals. Smaller mammals and birds that would be trapped are encountered more frequently in the site's workshop area and larger prey (deer, wolf, bear, and aurochs) that would be hunted are found more often in the area of the elite residence. We suggest that some of these remains are evidence that hunting was for the purpose of trophy display by the elites of Poggio Civitate and we discuss the social implications of such an activity in this community.

show abstract

Etruscan Animal Bones and Their Implications for Sacrificial Studies

Cited by 12 publications

References 22 publications

Etruscan Foodways and Demographic Demands: Contextualizing Protohistoric Livestock Husbandry in Northern Italy

Etruscan Foodways and Demographic Demands: Contextualizing Protohistoric Livestock Husbandry in Northern Italy

Proteomics and Integrated Techniques to Characterize Organic Residues in Funerary Findings from Italic Populations of the First Millennium BC

‘Where the Wild Things Are’: Etruscan Hunting and Trophy Display at Poggio Civitate (Murlo), Italy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About