Autumn Killing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3286257 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eric Higgs (0000-0003-4298-0134), E S Higgs, J Peter White |
| Year | 1963 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 148 |
| Pages | 282-289 |
| Publication date | 1963-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Antiquity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-598X • E-ISSN: 1745-1744 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0003598x00030210 |
| OpenAlex | W4251919871 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
It is commonly held in the existing literature that prehistoric peoples were compelled to kill off an abnormally high proportion of their livestock in autumn because of a lack of winter fodder. There is literary evidence for autumn killing in several European localities (n. 1). It is therefore a plausible assumption that earlier cultures are hardly less likely to have been more successful in overcoming this difficulty. This article is concerned to examine whether this assumption is valid.The inference generally made about autumn killing rests almost entirely on Watson's report on the Skara Brae bones (n. 2). By the use of Watson's method such a claim may also be made for the Old Sleaford sheep, and this is shown here. But there are grounds for supposing that such a claim is methodologically unjustified, and we have endeavoured to set out a method by which such claims may be tested
Archaeology · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Inference · Prehistory · Set (abstract data type · Watson · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Computer Science · History · Philosophy · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
On the Difficulty of Detecting Seasonal Slaughtering of Sheep
Animal husbandry in Neolithic Greece. New evidence from the lakeside settlement of Dispilio (Western Macedonia)
Trial excavations on Pictish and Viking settlements at Saevar Howe, Birsay, Orkney
The zooarchaeology of exclusion and expropriation
On the Difficulty of Detecting Seasonal Slaughtering of Sheep
The interpretation of a group of Saxon pits in Southampton
Sheep in the Iron Age
An Iron Age Hill-Fort at Grimthorpe, Yorkshire, England
Animals in Archaeology
The ethnography of the Cyclops
The logic of the herd
| Citations per year | 0.18 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1964 - 2026 (63) |
| Highly cited | No |