There are about 12,000 animal bones from the excavations that took place at Pompeii in advance of cable laying to bring a new electricity supply to some of the administrative buildings near the cafe. These excavations were directed by Dr Paul Arthur, on behalf of the Soprintendenza alle Antichita responsible for Pompei Scavi (Arthur 1986). The cable trench had to traverse the Via Marina, passing the Temple of Apollo and the Basilica, and continued up the west side of the Forum (i.e. within the colonnade, as in the photo above) and behind the Temple of Jupiter in order to reach its destination. The associated excavations uncovered stratigraphic levels running from the 6th century BC up to the time of the eruption in AD 79. Most of the material, however, dates to the 2nd-1st century BC, and of particular importance are the 2nd century BC bones from the precinct of the Temple of Apollo (before it was truncated by the enlargement of the Forum).
At the time of writing, phasing of the excavations has not been completed, due to logistical problems. However, enough contexts have been phased to allow a good sample of the animal bone assemblage to be assigned to phases, which forms the substance of this interim report.
Mammal Bones from Trenches O, I, IB, II and IIB
This part of the excavation has been completed in terms of phasing, and it is possible to give a reasonably full account. It is focused on material from trenches adjacent to the north entrance to the forum.
1179 mammal bones were recovered from stratified contexts in trenches O - IIB, representing approximately a tenth of the total assemblage from the excavations. Table 1 gives the total number of fragments attributable to each species, subdivided by layer and phase, together with the number of fragments that were not allocated to species. These last were divided into vertebrae, ribs, 1ong-bone fragments and other fragments according to the size categories large (cattle size) and small (pig size and smaller).
The most significant section of Table 1 is the representation of the domestic animals. The three main food species - ox, sheep/goat and pig - were present to the virtua1 exclusion of all other meat sources. Goat was only definitely present in layer I 20 (late 1st century BC), a1though it must be pointed out that some of the bones allocated to sheep may in fact be goat, but come from parts of the skeleton for which it is impossible to differentiate the two species. Of wild species, only roe deer (from IB 33, 1ate 1st century BC) and hare (from O 5, late 1st century BC, and O 2, 1st century AD) were present. Both of these species were food sources.
Pig was the most common of the three main species, both on the basis of bone numbers (BN) and minimum numbers of individuals (MN). It increases in popularity through time, as the percentages in Table 2 make clear. By the 1st century AD pork must have been the most popular meat consumed, while at the same time beef appears to have become less common. Sheep (and goat) meat formed roughly a third of the meat supply in earlier phases, dropping to about a quarter by the 1st century AD, to the benefit of pork consumption.
The only domesticate present that did not form part of the food supply was dog, which appears to be more strongly represented in the early groups (a,c,d) than the later ones (e,f). Cat and horse were absent, but do appear in other groups from the excavations as a whole.
Of the individua1 phases and layers within the assemblage, it is worth singling out the 6th century BC group, and layer O 31 in the 1st century AD group. The former is the only group of this early date from the excavation. Although the total number of bones is small, not permitting any extended analysis, it can be suggested that a pig-dominant pattern (in terms of bone numbers), with fairly strong and equal representation of ox and sheep/goat was established in the 6th century. For the meat supply, this would imply that beef was the most significant in weight contribution. Elsewhere in the excavation, rather larger numbers of 4th and 3rd century BC bones give greater dominance to cattle, and hence to beef in the diet. The early period of the town therefore appears to have had a dietary pattern that laid greater emphasis on beef than was to be the case after the establishment of the Sullan colony (Table 3).
The presence of wood mouse in the 6th-century levels is interesting, since this species inhabits buildings as well as more natura1 habitats, and may have taken a role similar to that of house mouse (Mus musculus). It is not certain whether house mouse was present in Italy at this period, since the earliest known record of the species is from trench VII in these excavations, dating to the late 2nd/early 1st century BC
Layer O 31 is unusual because of the complete absence of ox bones, all the remains coming from sheep/goat and pig. The great majority of the bones were from juvenile or sub-adult individuals, the main exceptions being sheep/goat jaws. One of these jaws, a mandible, had heavy calculus deposits on the cheek teeth (Table 5). The layer appears to have been a specialised deposit of food bones, with the admixture of a few waste bones, such as the jaws.
As far as more detailed observations on the mammal bones are concerned, there is little that can be presented en the basis of the O-IIB bones alone. Comments on ages at death, butchery, parts of the carcass, fragmentation and pathology are best reserved for consideration when the data for all parts of the excavation have been published. Tables of parts of the carcass (Table 4), pathology (Table 5) and measurements (Table 6) are given here, in order to make the basic information available in advance of discussion of these aspects of the assemblage.
[more to come when I have written it!]
Arthur, P. 1986 'Problems of the urbanisation
of Pompeii: excavations 1980-1981', Antiquaries Journal 66, 29-44.