The Animal Bones and Human Remains From the Late La Tène/Early Roman Sanctuary at Reinheim-“Horres”

Wolf-Rüdiger Teegen (1)

1 LMU - Ludwig Maximilian University [Munich] = Ludwig Maximilians Universität München

An octagonal timber building with an surrounding ditch was discovered during rescue excavations at Reinheim-“Horres” (Sarre). The ditch contained 345 bone fragments with a weight of 1769.6 g. For 96 of them (27.8 %) the species could be determined. The following species are represented: domestic animals: cattle, ovicaprines, swine and dog; domestic fowl: chicken and probably goose and duck. Wild mammals include red deer and hare; wild fowl include dove. In addition, four oyster shells and one eel bone are present. The oysters are indicating a certain degree of Romanization. The Logarithmic Size Index (LSI) calculated for cattle from the Reinheim sanctuary, the settlement Acy-Romance, and the oppidum Kastel-Staadt gave a very slight, not significant trend towards more robust cattle from the Iron Age to the early Roman period. Multivariate analyses of the sample composition shows similarities to other late La Tène/early Roman animal complexes from the later civitates Mediomatricorum et Treverorum (Oppidum Kastell-Staadt, Nahekopf and Sanctuary in the Titelberg Oppidum). Furthermore, several human remains are present. Also, if radiocarbon dates are still pending, the preservation of the human remains is quite different from the animals. Early La Tène burials in the vicinity are indicating disturbances of an early La Tène cemetery by late La Tène building activities.

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Wolf-Rüdiger Teegen. The Animal Bones and Human Remains From the Late La Tène/Early Roman Sanctuary at Reinheim-“Horres”. Philippe Barral; Matthieu Thivet. Sanctuaires de l’âge du Fer. Actes du 41e colloque international de l’Association française pour l’étude de l’âge du Fer (Dole, 25-28 mai 2017), Collection AFEAF (1), AFEAF, pp.405-410, 2019, 978-2-9567407-0-4. ⟨hal-02891855⟩