By contrast, another pit, located at the back of Building No.1, a public
structure alongside the main east–west road of Pistiros (Fig. 7.3, Sample
2), contained the complete heads and articulating joints of several sheep,
after butchering, as well as‘ordinary’waste from the consumption of
cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. Analysis of the entire bone assemblage
indicates that there were at least four and perhaps seven complete sheep
and/or goats (five sheep and one goat can be identified securely). The
sheep seem to have been selected in pairs; three were mature individuals
and three were juveniles, slaughtered in their second year. These animals
were slaughtered in a very similar way to other animals butchered
elsewhere on this site, but here the remains of a collective meal can be
identified more confidently. In addition, the discovery of a very deep pit,
outside the fortification walls, containing dozens of complete animals,
including cattle as well as sheep and pig, illustrates more ambitious
‘consumption events’, the waste of which probably had to be accommo-
dated well beyond the principal residential areas of the settlement.^59
What can we learn from the residues of meals at this inland site on the
middle Hebros? The anecdotesfilleted out of his various sources by
Athenaeus do not map over the material found in the small selection
of rubbish pits explored here; nor does the general epigraphic evidence
surveyed by McInerney for civic sacrifices cover the same ground. At
present there is a lack of comparative evidence, which might give us
some idea of whether the consumption profile at this inland site is at all
typical of the northern Aegean, although it may be close to the norm.^60
Perhaps the most significant element that emerges from the systematic
study of faunal remains at Pistiros is the category deemed‘ordinary’
waste.‘Ordinary’waste implies regular, non-festival, domestic meals,
and includes residues of cattle, sheep, goat, pig, hare, chicken, occasional
wild birds such as heron, molluscs, riverfish, wild boar, and even bear.
‘Ordinary’implies meat available for commercial purchase or small
hunted animals. The references to markets for animals in Xenophon’s
Anabasisimply that animals of different sizes were bought and sold
regularly, and there is no reason why there should not have been a cattle
market in central Thrace. This does not mean that a sacrifice did not take
place before the slaughter of the animals themselves. The general treat-
ment of carcasses implies that slaughter was always framed in terms of
ritual procedures, although disposal only sometimes was. The appear-
ance of‘associated bone groups’, or the reassembly of bones into joints
(^59) The material was briefly surveyed by Sue Stallibrass in 2012.
(^60) MacKinnon 2007 offers a survey of the range of evidence from Aegean sites in pre-
Roman times.
Dining cultures 293