Mackay, Helen and Davies, Kimberley L. and Robertson, Jack and Roy, Lynne and Bull, Ian D. and Whitehouse, Nicki J. and Crone, Anne and Cavers, Graeme and McCormick, Finbar and Brown, Antony G. and Henderson, Andrew C.G. (2020) 'Characterising life in settlements and structures: Incorporating faecal lipid biomarkers within a multiproxy case study of a wetland village.', Journal of archaeological science., 121 . p. 105202.
Abstract
Roundhouses are ubiquitous features of Iron Age landscapes across North West Europe, yet the way they were used internally is not well understood. We demonstrate how spatial analyses of steroid lipid biomarkers advances our understanding of household activities, living conditions and animal management associated with a well-preserved 5th century BCE roundhouse from Scotland's first Iron Age wetland village, Black Loch of Myrton, especially when combined with more traditional archaeological approaches. Faecal steroids (5β-stanols and bile acids) are well preserved within the wetland roundhouse floor deposits. Diffuse faecal inputs are identified within these deposits, limiting the resolution of faecal source discrimination compared with studies of concentrated faecal remains. However, analysis of both 5β-stanols and bile acids enables discrimination between ruminant (sheep, goat and cattle), pig and horse/human faecal remains. By integrating faunal data and entomological dung indicators we are able to characterise the on-site presence of animals associated with these archaeological structures. Steroids indicate short-lived and/or temporary pulses of dung deposition within the Iron Age roundhouse case study structure, which can be very difficult to determine using other archaeological proxies. Furthermore, our multiproxy results demonstrate the molecular preservation of steroids within deposits that have been subjected to regular floor cleaning, which is associated with the removal macrofossil proxies. Comparisons of multiproxy faecal signatures of the inner and outer sections of the structure show temporal and spatial heterogeneity in usage and living conditions. The faecal signature points to temporary sheltering of animals within the inner section of the structure. The multi-use and division of different activities within the roundhouse, determined by steroids, marks an important contribution to broader archaeological debates surrounding structures, their functions and re-use.
Item Type: | Article |
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Full text: | (VoR) Version of Record Available under License - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download PDF (11841Kb) |
Status: | Peer-reviewed |
Publisher Web site: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105202 |
Publisher statement: | © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
Date accepted: | 08 July 2020 |
Date deposited: | 22 October 2021 |
Date of first online publication: | 25 July 2020 |
Date first made open access: | 22 October 2021 |
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