The Human Skeletal Remains from Fishmonger's Swallet, Alveston, Gloucestershire: Evidence for Anthropogenic Modification (UBSS Proceedings v.29(1))

Abstract: Human skeletal remains have been recovered from an area of mud and rock sediment in Fishmonger's Swallet, Alveston, Gloucestershire (ST 6331 8720) on several occasions. This report examines those excavated by the Hades Caving Club (HCC), up to and including the visit by the Time Team in August 2000. These disarticulated and fragmented bones have all been assessed macroscopically (2001), and the single bone clearly exhibiting indications of deliberate human modification was subject to more recent microscopic analysis (2005). The percentage of the deposit that has been examined for human remains is unknown. Dating from the late Iron Age, this assemblage comprises disarticulated and fragmentary remains from adults. No juveniles are represented. The minimum number of individuals represented by non-repeated diagnostic fragments of the left femur is five. There are indicators suggesting that there are possibly six females and five males represented by the assemblage. However, with commingled remains it is impossible to be sure as some of the diagnostic skeletal elements could be from the same individual. Evidence suggests that one probable female died below the age of twenty-five years and one adult in old age. Evidence of peri-mortem trauma is present in the cranial remains of a young adult female. She would appear to have been victim to at least one blunt force blow to the head with further blows from a bladed weapon. Recent damage to the skeletal remains prevents a more confident diagnosis. No evidence of dental disease was observed in the limited dentition represented, however, a partial mandible exhibited signs of a healed dental abscess. Other evidence of disease in this assemblage was limited with one cervical vertebral body showing signs of severe degenerative joint disease and a possible case of Paget's disease. The condition of all the human bones is fragmentary and some are eroded. Many exhibit evidence of breakages occurring at some stage in antiquity, others of more recent damage, possibly incurred during recovery. Ten bones exhibit indications of animal scavenging and one of anthropogenic peri-mortem modification (a partial femoral shaft) which suggests the bone was deliberately defleshed and split. Some fragments were stained black externally. The cause of this has not been explored scientifically but it is possible that this could be manganese staining or bacterial change arising from recent contamination.