Cattle skulls offer grave clues.

In 1986, archaeologists working at a British site known as Irthlingborough uncovered a burial pit containing the skeleton of a man surrounded by various signs of wealth, including a long-necked beaker, a flint dagger, an amber ring, and a boar's tusk. The finely crafted items, more than 4,000 years old, marked the decreased as a person of high status.

An examination of animal bones found among collapsed limestone bricks that once formed a mantle for the burial site now indicates that Late Stone Age and Bronze Age residents of the area invested cattle with great symbolic and ritual value.

The remains of at least 185 skulls and smaller numbers of lower jaws, shoulder blades, and thighbones of cattle were found in the rubble, report Simon Davis and Sebastian Payne of English Heritage, an archaeological exploration society in London, England. Only 40 of the 2,511 recovered bones and teeth came from animals other than cattle, such as horses, pigs, sheep, and an extinct species of wild oxen.

Radiocarbon dates for two cattle teeth, two oxen teeth, and a bone sample from the human skeleton extend to the third millennium B.C. and the early second millennium B.C., Davis and Payne assert in the March ANTIQUITY.

Large cheek teeth found at the site vastly outnumber smaller teeth from the front of the mouth, the researchers point out. Incisions on the shoulder blades probably resulted from butchery, and tooth features identify almost all the cattle as prime beef animals between 1 and 6 years old. Skeletal parts bearing the choicest cuts of meat do not show up at the burial site, perhaps because they were discarded during a ceremonial feast, the archaeologists say.

The loss of smaller teeth probably occurred during a delay of a month or more between slaughter and placement of skulls on the burial's stone roof, Davis and Payne contend. Spreading roots anchor the cheek teeth in their sockets, but smaller teeth fall out more easily after death, they say.

A similar burial pit, topped by the remains of about 100 oxen, was found in England 57 years ago, but its exact age is unknown, Davis and Payne note.

The researchers suggest that ancient Britons may have used cattle in funeral rites similar to those still observed among some groups living on the island of Madagascar. These Madagascans allow a deceased body to decompose in a temporary grave and then, at an elaborate feast, deposit the bones in a permanent tomb. The skulls of cattle slaughtered for the banquet are placed on or near the grave. Because skulls are considered emblems of virility and power, mourners gather large numbers of them for the tombs of important people.