Tracing the Indo-Europeans by Oxbow Books

Author:Oxbow Books [Oxbow Books]
Language: eng
Format: epub

6

Late Bronze Age midwinter dog sacrifices and warrior initiations at Krasnosamarskoe, Russia

Dorcas R. Brown and David W. Anthony

Introduction

A winter-season sacrifice of dogs and wolves occurred between 1900–1700 cal BC at Krasnosamarskoe, a Late Bronze Age (LBA) settlement of the Srubnaya (or Timber-Grave) culture located in the middle Volga steppes near Samara, Russia. The ritual deposit is described in parts of three chapters in the site report (Anthony et al. 2016) and in a recent journal article (Anthony & Brown 2017a). The sacrifice included at least 51 dogs and seven wolves (and six additional canids of intermediate, uncertain size) as counted by the minimum number of individuals (MNI). Their bones bore marks revealing that they were skinned, roasted and eaten and were chopped into very small and regular pieces, with particular attention to the heads (Fig. 6.1). The sheer number of dogs, in a region and time period when dogs were not normally eaten, the intense chopping applied only to canids, and the inclusion of a small yet significant number of wolves that were processed in the same way as the dogs together suggested ritual behaviour centred on canid sacrifices.

Eleven unusual characteristics of the faunal assemblage at Krasnosamarskoe distinguish the canid remains from animal bones connected with ordinary, utilitarian behaviours:¹

1. The percentage of canids among all domestic animals was 19% by minimum number of individuals (MNI) and 37% by number of identifiable specimens (NISP). At other Srubnaya settlements, canids are usually under 1% (NISP), occasionally as high as 3%. Krasnosamarskoe is unique among settlements of the Srubnaya culture in the number of canids in its discarded animal bones.

2. Most of the bones were deposited in shallow pits inside a structure interpreted as a well-house ( Fig. 6.1 upper left and Fig. 6.5 ). Normally Srubnaya structures contain relatively few animal bones. Interior disposal could have been used to protect discarded ritual canid remains from scavenging by secular site dogs.

3. The seasons of death for animals slaughtered at Krasnosamarskoe show that cattle and sheep were butchered in every season throughout the year, and were butchered normally, while dogs were killed almost exclusively in the winter, and were intensely chopped.

4. Of the 2,794 (NISP) canid bone fragments from the site, many showed skinning, fileting, roasting, and dismemberment marks, so they seem to have been skinned, fileted, roasted and consumed. Importantly, wolf bones, although outnumbered by dog bones by 150:1 (NISP), also showed roasting and butchering marks, so seem to have been eaten and segmented like the dogs, but in much smaller quantities, or by single participants, or both.

5. The body part distribution of the dogs indicates that the whole body of the dog was discarded. Heads were somewhat over-represented, particularly inside the structure, so might have played a special role. But the body parts suggest that the whole dog was cooked, eaten and discarded.

6. All of the recovered animal bones at Krasnosamarskoe were more fragmented than at other Srubnaya sites because screens were used for 100% of excavated soils (an unusual practice for most Russian excavations), preserving many small fragments that normally were not kept.

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