The utilisation of carnivore scavenging evidence in the interpretation of a protohistoric French pit burial

Abstract

Scavenging is one of the main taphonomic changes that bone assemblages undergo. This paper presents specific taphonomic data on bone modification by canids from the French archaeological site of Duisans ‘La Sèche-Epée,’ dating from the ‘La Tène A' period (500–400 BC). Anthropological description and analysis of two incomplete male skeletons found in a pit allows us to document the postmortem alteration of bodies by canid scavengers and poses several questions about the nature of the deposit. The morphology of these marks, which are sometimes similar to antemortem lesions, and the disarticulation and dispersal of anatomical parts are crucial elements that need to be accurately described and accounted for in archaeological or forensic contexts. The evidence of violent death and the secondary treatment of the cadavers can be interpreted as either an opportunistic votive burial, an actual sacrifice with a specific ritual pattern, or more traditionally, a deviant deposit in which the individuals were deprived of funerals and exposed to scavengers.