Middens, massive prehistoric rubbish heaps which became part of the British landscape, are revealing the distances people travelled to feast together at the end of the Bronze Age.
In the largest study of its kind, archaeologists from Cardiff University used cutting-edge isotope analysis on material found within six middens in Wiltshire and the Thames Valley.
The results, which reveal where the animals that were feasted on were raised, shed light on the catchment of these vast feasts, arguably the largest to take place in Britain until the medieval period.
Middens are enormous mounds of debris left from these gatherings, some of which became hillocks in the landscape over time. The largest, Potterne in Wiltshire, covers an area of approximately five football pitches and is packed with feasting remains, including as many as 15 million bone fragments.
At Potterne, pork was the meat of choice, with pigs coming from a wide catchment, even as far as northern England. The breadth of results from this location indicates animals came from multiple regions – suggesting it was a meeting place for producers from locally and beyond. Similarly, Runnymede in Surrey was a major regional hub, but here it was cattle that were drawn from a distance.
In contrast, East Chisenbury, a monumental mound 10 miles from Stonehenge, estimated to contain the remains of hundreds of thousands of animals, was overwhelmingly dominated by sheep. Unlike the other middens studied, the new research shows that the majority of these animals came from the surrounding landscape.
Lead author Dr Carmen Esposito, who was based at Cardiff University's School of History, Archaeology and Religion when the research was carried out and is now at the University of Bologna, said: "Our findings show each midden had a distinct make up of animal remains, with some full of locally raised sheep and others with pigs or cattle from far and wide.
"We believe this demonstrates that each midden was a lynchpin in the landscape, key to sustaining specific regional economies, expressing identities and sustaining relations between communities during this turbulent period, when the value of bronze dropped and people turned to farming instead."
Multi-isotope analysis is a rapidly developing scientific method in archaeology. Each geographical area has a different chemical make-up, distinct to its environment and this permeates into the water and food grown there. As animals eat and drink, these regional markers remain locked in their bones, allowing researchers to trace where they were reared centuries later.
Co-author of the study, Professor Richard Madgwick, also based at the University's School of History, Archaeology and Religion, said: "At a time of climatic and economic instability, people in southern Britain turned to feasting – there was perhaps a feasting age between the Bronze and Iron Age. These events are powerful for building and consolidating relationships both within and between communities, today and in the past."
The scale of these accumulations of debris and their wide catchment is astonishing and points to communal consumption and social mobilisation on a scale that is arguably unparalleled in British prehistory.
"Overall, the research points to the dynamic networks that were anchored on feasting events during this period and the different, perhaps complementary, roles that each midden had at the Bronze Age-Iron Age transition."
The paper, Diverse feasting networks at the end of the Bronze Age in Britain (c. 900-500 BCE) evidenced by multi-isotope analysis is published in the journal iScience and available to view here.
