Ravens and crows in Iron Age Britain: the Danebury corvids reconsidered

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Description/Abstract

Several skeletons and part-skeletons of ravens and crows or rooks were excavated from pits at the Iron Age hillfort of Danebury in southern Britain, together with some articulated wings and disarticulated bones. Re-analysis of the skeletal elements and taphonomy showed that wing and leg bones survived in approximately equal proportions. All or most had originally been complete birds. They had no butchery marks, but the wings had been snapped off three. Some had been gnawed by a small carnivore, probably after rather than before deposition. Two birds had signs of old age. The condition of the skeletons, their context, and the associated finds make it
clear that these were deliberate burials, probably one element in the propitiatory offerings in the Danebury pits.