Animals for the deceased. Zooarchaeological analysis from Bronze Age of Castillejo del Bonete site (Terrinches, Ciudad Real and Spain)

Abstract

The 2978 faunal bone remains recovered from the Bronze Age levels at the Castillejo del Bonete site between 2005 and 2019 were analyzed in this study. In the main structure (Great Tumulus 1, Tumulus 2, and Tomb 5), the faunal bone remains were identified and interpreted as offerings in a funerary context. In Enclosure 4, a large building possibly dedicated to the celebration of wakes and rituals—including the eating of food and drinking—in honor of the deceased, the anthropic modifications on the bone surfaces indicate their possible consumption. The cave is constituted by four galleries with inhumations (in Galleries 2, 3, and 4) and pithoi (in Gallery 4). Wild and domestic animals were identified in the cavity, and the caprine (likely sheep) is the best represented taxa in the entire cave. The almost complete skeletal representation; the predominance of fetal, neonate, and juvenile individuals; the absence of anthropic modifications related to consumption, in addition to the bone industry made of caprine bones (such as an eye idol and anthropomorphic artefacts), suggest that caprines were used as offerings to the deceased that accompany them. Postdepositional taphonomic alterations, the animals not having been found in anatomical connection, and the refits of the bones between different stratigraphical units indicate the repeated use of the cave during the Bronze Age.