עצמות בעלי החיים מבורות האשפה מהתקופה הכלקוליתית ביהוד

Three refuse pits were discovered on Zionist Congress Street in Yehud; they contained flints, pottery vessels and basalt vessels dating from the Late Chalcolithic period (see Jakoel, this volume; Brink, this volume). Two of the pits (Pit 1: L111, L151; Pit 2: L115, L136) also contained animal bones. The bone assemblage from the pits was quite small (NISP = 50; Table 1). The most common species were cattle (Bos taurus; n = 16, 62%), followed by sheep/goat (Ovis aries; 9.35%) and one pig bone (Sus scrofa). The distribution of the bone parts in sheep and cattle (Table 2) indicates a difference between the two species: the cattle (Fig. 1) is represented by trunk and head bones, whereas the sheep is represented by upper fore limbs (Fig. 2). The presence of butchery debris, such as head bones and metapodials, alongside bones rich in meat, provides evidence for slaughtering and initial cutting near the pits. The animal bone remains from the Chalcolithic refuse pits in Yehud probably represent only one individual of each species (cattle, sheep and pig). The finding of a fused bone fragment and the stage of tooth wear indicate that the cattle died in their first years into adulthood. The representation of all parts of the skeleton indicates that the slaughtering of the animals and their initial processing took place next to the pits. The food processing seems to have included bone breaking for extracting the bone marrow. Based on the meager wear signs on the bones, it seems that the remains were buried shortly after their disposal.