Bones Chewed by Canids as Evidence of Human Excarnation: A British Case Study

Journal: Antiquity

Volume: 80

Pages: 671-685

ISSN: 0003-598X

Abstract:

Excarnation – the exposure of a corpse for stripping and possible dispersal by birds and animals – is a burial rite known from ethnographic analogy. Detecting its occurrence in the past is another matter. Here the author proposes the marking of bones by dogs and other canids as evidence of excarnation, using a British Neolithic case study.

Source: Manual

Preferred by: Martin Smith