摘要：This report describes an assemblage comprising some 3000 vertebrate bones
(mainly mammals, but also birds and fish), and molluscs from a Moslem period rubbish pit
(lixeira). The mammal bones are mostly sheep and goat in approximately equal numbers,
and some cattle. Equids, both horse and donkey, as well as red deer, hare, rabbit, dog, cat,
whale and many birds (most chicken and some partridge) are also present. The probable
absence of pig is noteworthy and must reflect religious taboos although two large Sus bones
may have belonged to wild boar — an animal sometimes consumed today in the Maghreb.
Most of the fish are sparids, the sea breams, and two molluscs, the clam Ruditapes and the
cockle Cerastoderma, are especially common. While most of the cattle were slaughtered when
old, the sheep and especially the goat remains include many juveniles. Butchery patterns on
the bones appear to be rather crude and there are chop and knife marks on horse and dog
bones respectively. The cattle were extremely small. In contrast, the sheep were larger than
those from earlier periods in southern Portugal and their size increase, presumably due to
“improvement”, may represent part of the ‘Arab Agricultural Revolution’ in the Iberian
Peninsula of the 11th and 12th centuries. Osteometric methods are presented which aid in
separating species of equid proximal phalanges, rabbit from hare bones and domestic from
wild cat carnassials and mandibles.
