maybesbabies t1_jd1j4wm wrote on March 21, 2023 at 3:47 AM

Reply to comment by ArchaeoHugh in Saudi Arabia stone ruins were pilgrimage sites, where an ancient cult gathered to sacrifice animals about 7,000 years ago by marketrent

Hi there, would it seem plausible that the remains being just skull remnants would imply a sort of slaughterhouse? With how prolific they are, and there being a Green Arabia at the time that could support large herds/flocks, I'm curious as to what they would have done with the rest of the remains, if none were recovered on sites. Was there somewhere else they brought the remains, or were the skulls brought there? These almost seem like pens and sluices at large slaughterhouses.

ArchaeoHugh t1_jd1lf2u wrote on March 21, 2023 at 4:09 AM

They did slaughter them, just not inside the structure. Where exactly, we aren't sure. We find cut marks on a number of the horns/teeth, so we can see evidence of butchering. But the non-cranial parts of the body haven't been found and were presumably part of a feast somewhere else. Some of the horns we have found appear like they may have been 'treated' as a way to remove the keratin horn sheath from the bone core. So that could indicate they have come from further away and the horn core was removed in order to be transpored.

They definitely had large herds, we can tell that from the rock art and the fact that they are sacrificing bulls that are more mature.

So over the course of the next 2 years, we are going to excavation a mustatil that is in close association with a nearby Neolithic settlement. The idea being to see whether the animal remains in the mustatil match those in the houses.

Important to state, we have identified 1600 mustatil and have excavated 5. So still a LOT more research to go.

maybesbabies t1_jd1ll28 wrote on March 21, 2023 at 4:10 AM

That is so fascinating, thanks for responding!

maybesbabies t1_jd1lztk wrote on March 21, 2023 at 4:15 AM

And I'm sorry, one more question if I may. Does this in some way imply large scale processing? If the horns had been treated, perhaps they were used in another application, these were brought here for some other application, the meat was used elsewhere, etc. Would this imply a larger population using the end products of these sacrifices then, like a sort of religious factory work? I'm of limited understanding, but weren't there many bull cults/horned cults in the region at the time?

ArchaeoHugh t1_jd2cawi wrote on March 21, 2023 at 10:10 AM

Yep, cattle cults are common around the world. You can see them in places like Yemen or the corbeilles in Saharan Africa. All I can say is we know one of the horns appears to have burning inside- almost like it was a torch. But we also find little hearths inside the mustatil, so that could be why. Unfortunately, we can’t answer the question as to whether the horns were used elsewhere first. I’d doubt it but you can’t discount it. We just gotta dig more!!!