"It is so modern that it seems that the remains of animal bones are part of the celebration of this great metalwork event," Martin Caruthers, the excavation director of the site and a lecturer in archaeology at orkney College, told Life Science. [Photo: Gold, amber and bronze treasures found in iron age tombs]
Archaeologists discovered Keynes while digging. Keynes is the archaeological site of South Ronaldinho, which is one of the Orkney Islands on the northern coast of Scotland. Researchers knew about this site from 190 1, but it was not until 20 17 that scientists made a valuable discovery: they unearthed 60 molds for metal processing, as well as the remains of furnaces and crucibles that melted metal at high temperature. They also found ancient metal products, including bronze needles and brooches, as well as animal bones and broken cans near and above the metal processing zone.
People in the Iron Age made molds out of clay in order to cast metal rings. Carruthers (Institute of Archaeology, Highland and Island University) said: Radiocarbon analysis of animal bones can be traced back to around 300 AD. However, he pointed out that the website itself is much older and may have been inhabited at least in the first century BC.
The discovery of gifts for banquets and parties "tells us that the social life of these people is very complicated," Caruthers said, and pointed out that people with high status may receive certain kinds of jewelry. In fact, he said, such large-scale social activities will define social strata and unite the whole society.
Of course, about 65,438+065,438+0,000 bone fragments discovered by researchers do not mean that the ancients slaughtered thousands of animals, but "even hundreds of animals represent an amazing amount of meat slaughtered and distributed to relatively short activities," Carruthers said.
The analysis of bones shows that the iron age feasters ate cattle, sheep, pigs and other domestic animals, as well as red deer, otters, seals, whales and even horses. Caruthers said that the fragments of pottery found at the site showed that people in the Iron Age swallowed the feast with alcoholic drinks.
Archaeologists found a fireplace in Keynes's excavation. (Institute of Archaeology, Highland and Island University) Probably they are sitting there, eating their feast and drinking all kinds of drinks at the same time, cheering for the social wheel, he said.
In addition, bone fragments don't seem to be processed in large quantities, which means that iron age chefs didn't decompose every bone in order to extract bone marrow. "When people are very eager to get all the calories from food, you will get this kind of thing," Caruthers said. In fact, their waste of this meat resource is a symbol of wealth and status.
The discovery of this feast is remarkable, but archaeologists have not finished the scene yet. Caruthers said that this year, they plan to dig the bottom of the site and the surrounding settlements. "
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