Food to the gods: animal consumption and ritual activities in the early Bronze Age Sicily PECUS. Man and animal in antiquity. Proceedings of the conference at the Swedish Institute in Rome, September 9-12, 2002. Ed. Barbro Santillo Frizell. Rome 2004. www.svenska-institutet-rom.org/pecus by Massimo Cultraro Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate the faunal assemblages recorded from ritual deposits in Early Bronze Age Sicily. The recent discovering in the Castelluccian sanctuary at Monte Grande, in south-western coast of island, permits to examine a specific aspect of offering practices in ritual contexts. The faunal remains, which include ovicaprines, pigs and cattle are referred predominantly to adult specimens: the sheep/goats are more numerous, followed from pig and cattle. The same trend is attested in the “sanctuary” at La Muculufa, where a place connected to ceremonial purposes has been identified. In both sanctuaries, the percentage of sheep and goats is heavily high: according to mortal- ity patterns, these animal were slaughtered at two or three year old, probably reflecting specific ritual observances and also a small-scale mixed farming, with specialized herding. The faunal material from these places related to ceremonial activities can be considered “con- sumption offal”, and may reflect ritual feasting and meat consumption. A more specific analysis on the selected parts of animal body leads to conclude that some ritual prescriptions played a significant role in defining ritual ceremonies and meat consumption. This evidence also reinforces the interpretation of these open-air sanctuaries as loci of more specialized ritual activities, notably suggested from deposits of terracotta figurines. This evidence can Cécile Michel be compared to the ani- mal offering practice attested in the EBA Southern Italy, where predominance of ovicaprines and selection of species well il- lustrate an economic model based on meat consumption. 1. Introduction In recent years significant advances in fieldwork archae- ology in Bronze Age Sicily have provided greater oppor- tunities to examine the social and economic dynamics in local communities. The Castelluccio group represents the most widespread and the best-known cultural assem- blage of the Sicilian EBA, which it has been formerly dated at first half of second millennium B.C. (2200-1600 BC). 1 During this long period the local settlement system shows a marked diversity in terms of duration of occupa- tion, community size and domestic space organization; 2 the typical farming settlement is a stable village in the fertile and naturally wooded lowlands of the river valleys, which were also favoured for winter grazing under a re- gime of extensive cultivation and fallowing. Each village, given its small size (50-100 inhabitants) and close spac- ing (estimated around 3-5 km apart), could has subsisted on small-scale cultivation or large-scale animal husband- ry with extensive clearance. The number of these sites distributed around the island is disproportionately high and suggests either a large, mobile or dispersed popula- tion of a few families located in short-lived “hamlets”. 3 In terms of settlement organisation, the reference point of this dynamic system is represented by the emergence of wide open-air sites related to ritual or ceremonial ac- tivities, conventionally named as “sanctuaries”. 4 For nearly two decades the site at Monte San Giuliano, near Caltanisetta, stood alone as the only known sanctuary in the Early Bronze Age Sicily. 5 Recently two new sites have been identified as intra-settlement places for ceremonial activities: Monte Grande (Agrigento) and La Muculufa, above the Salso valley (Fig. 1). In both sites the material assemblages are quite unusual in composition, includ- ing fine quality painted pottery, terracotta figurines and a heavy concentration of animal bones: these sites provide the settings for ritual activities which result in the use and discard of a wide variety of artefacts and ecofacts. This paper seeks to address the issue of animal sac- rifices and their social or political significance in un- derstanding ritual activities in complex societies. In particular, the focus is on the temporal, spatial and con- textual variation in the relationships between ceremonial feasting and ritualized exploitation of animals, in order Fig. 1 Map of EBA Sicily with references to sites mentioned.