Overview

• Cardiff University-led archaeologists analyzed material from six large middens in Wiltshire and the Thames Valley, with findings published Sept. 9 in iScience.
• Multi-isotope measurements of bone collagen linked livestock to distant rearing areas, with some animals coming from as far as northern England.
• Potterne in Wiltshire was dominated by pigs and contains up to about 15 million bone fragments across an area roughly the size of five football pitches.
• Runnymede showed cattle drawn from wide catchments, whereas East Chisenbury near Stonehenge was overwhelmingly supplied by locally raised sheep.
• The team interprets these sites as economic and social lynchpins during climatic and material shifts, proposing a possible “feasting age” before the Iron Age.