Great 'meat feasts' brought people together 3,000 years ago in the British Bronze Age

Ancient festivals usually leave an archaeological trail of pottery and beads, while celebratory feasts are easy to spot from the mountain of bones from butchered meat.

A new study traces those leftovers to show how people gathered for huge meat-centered events in southern Britain between about 900 and 500 BCE.

These gatherings drew crowds and animals from far away. The debris from those meals now sits in great mounds that archaeologists call middens.

Trash from British meat feasts

Carmen Esposito of the University of Bologna led the investigation that decoded where the animals were raised and why the sites mattered.

Researchers described a midden the size of about five football fields, with as many as 15 million bone fragments. That scale signals repeated, organized events rather than a few village dinners.

Each site favored different meats. Potterne leaned toward pork, Runnymede in Surrey leaned toward beef, and East Chisenbury near Stonehenge shows a heavy tilt toward sheep.

Chemistry traces animal journeys

To track the animals, the team used multi-isotope analysis (MIA), a set of techniques that read chemical fingerprints locked in teeth and bones.

Those fingerprints reflect local water, plants, and geology that animals consume while growing.

The method works best when paired with a national isotope map that shows where particular chemical values are likely in Great Britain. That map helps separate locals from arrivals hauled in from distant pastures.

Signals from strontium, sulfur, and oxygen isotopes tell different parts of the story. Strontium tracks bedrock, oxygen tracks climate and drinking water, and sulfur can flag coastal or wetland grazing.

Three British meat feast hubs

Potterne’s pigs point to a wide catchment. Many were raised far to the west and north, then driven many dozens or even hundreds of miles to a single gathering point.

Runnymede looks like a cattle hub. Its herds also came from varied places, showing that beef took center stage at that riverside site.

East Chisenbury reads differently. Its sheep mostly came from nearby chalk downs, suggesting a more local economy focused on wool, milk, and mutton.

“Our findings show each midden had a distinct make up of animal remains, with some full of locally raised sheep and others with pigs or cattle from far and wide. We believe this demonstrates that each midden was a lynchpin in the landscape,” said Dr. Esposito.

This slice of prehistory saw shifting weather, unstable trade, and a move away from bronze. Those forces pushed people to rework farming and social life, as outlined in a 2023 review.

Feasts answered that pressure by binding groups together, sharing resources, and spreading work. The trash heaps show that strategy in action without romanticizing it.

Deciphering the numbers

Across six middens, the team analyzed 254 animals with paired chemical measures, the largest faunal dataset of its kind for this period. The results show some sites acted as regional hubs while others served as specialist producers.

Very low sulfur values often signal wetland pastures on sulfur mapping and wetland signatures.

That clue helps explain why some animals at sites like Potterne and Runnymede likely grazed in marshy lowlands before the long walk to a feast.

The strontium patterns are equally telling. Highly radiogenic values are rare in eastern England, so the few animals with those values likely came from more radiogenic terrains, including parts of the west and north.

British Bronze Age and meat feasts

Potterne’s broad animal origins point to a network that reached across multiple regions. Pigs are quick to raise and easy to cure, which fits a feast economy that needs lots of meat on schedule.

Runnymede’s cattle emphasis signals different priorities. Cattle carry status and labor value, so choosing beef suggests a distinct social script for that gathering.

East Chisenbury’s local sheep economy shows stability in one landscape. That choice kept production close to home and may have buffered the community when trade faltered.

Isotopes allow researchers to map movement without written records. The approach works because faunal remains preserve local chemistry long after soft tissues decay.

Pairing strontium with oxygen and sulfur reduces false matches. The combination helps sort locals from visitors with more confidence than any single measure.

Meat feasts and prehistoric Britain

These sites were not just trash piles. They were long lived meeting places where food, labor, and identity were managed in public.

They also show that communities responded to the same pressures in different ways. Some opened their doors wide to far travelers, and some doubled down on local production.

Human groups often solve stress with shared rituals and shared meals. These mounds show that strategy at scale across southern Britain.

They also remind us that food systems can be flexible when conditions change. People moved animals, knowledge, and trust along with the meat.

The study is published in iScience.

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