In an urban medieval context it is not uncommon to find large waste deposits—the majority of which can be termed general household waste—that consist of a mixture of waste such as, pottery shards, glass, animal bone and other organic material (Evans 2010: 269). However, frequently waste deposits may have a specific content, such as those built up entirely of animal bone. Often these bones appear to represent the selection of one or more animal species or specific body-parts. Usually these are interpreted as the remains of the medieval meat processing, or other related crafts, e.g. tanners’ waste (Baxter 1998: 59).

The excavation at Burgstraat in Ghent was conducted in 2011 by BAAC Vlaanderen bvba (BAAC Flanders Ltd.) and lead by Robrecht Van Overbeke. The site itself is located just outside the tenth century AD, city wall in the northeast part of the town. The earliest structures/deposits at the Burgstraat date back to the twelfth century. After the thirteenth century the site was incorporated into the heart of the medieval town, it was at this time that the second defence wall was built. The site has been continuously occupied since.

The excavated structure called S141 dates to the thirteenth century AD and contained a remarkable amount of cranial and mandibular fragments, most of which were identified as cattle. This deposit was interpreted as a type of artisan waste, based on similarities between the waste deposit (S141) on this particular site and similar ones in other cities (Alen & Ervynck 2005: 193; Fondrillon & Marot 2013: 210).

During excavation the finds from S141 were all hand collected. Unfortunately, not the entire deposit could be collected for further study, nevertheless, the excavated sample was determined to be sufficiently representative of the assemblage. The sample was further reduced during zooarchaeological analysis, as only three-fifths of the collected sample could be investigated, this was due to time constraints. Despite the analysed sample being considerably smaller than the initial deposit, it is still possible for the assemblage to help answer questions related to medieval crafts and industries in general and in the case of the Burgstraat, specific questions such as: Can certain butchery or age patterns be recognised? If so, what is the bigger picture around these patterns? Do these cattle bones merit further investigation and could they yield further insights?

A total of 2626 bones and bone fragments, of which 506 could not be determined (body part, nor type of animal), were excavated and analysed from S141. The quantity of non-cattle bone is nearly negligible, with 27 fragments (1% of the total sample) were identified as sheep/goat. One fragment was identified as pig, representing only 0.04% of the entire sample.

The remaining bones (2093) and bone fragments were identified as cattle, an overview of the number of different skeletal parts is provided in Table 1. Cranial bones dominate the collection, although two horn cores were present in the assemblage. None of the crania were complete, even the maxilla and the mandibles are highly fragmented, which accounts for the vast number of loose teeth in the assemblage.

Both the mandibles and the maxilla appear to have been divided in a systematic way. For the purposes of recording the assemblage, they are divided into anterior, medial and posterior categories. In total, the most frequently occurring fragment was the medial part, which includes the dental row. This was both the most frequent occurring part on both the left as for the right side.

The part of the mandible and maxilla, which occurred least frequently among the analysed sample, was the anterior portion. When considering the posterior part, it was determined that preservation differed between mandibles and maxilla, which a higher prevalence of posterior mandibles compared to maxilla. It is considered that this differential preservation is the result of the higher degree of fragmentation of the crania, and subsequently the maxilla. Nevertheless as illustrated in Table 1 no significant side differences were recorded in the preservation of the mandible or maxilla, and no significant differences was noted in absolute number of mandible versus maxilla parts.

Only 224 fragments were identified as post cranial element, the most frequently recorded post-cranial remains were shaft fragments from the metapodi (metacarpals and metatarsals). There were 506 or (19.3%) unidentified fragments in the assemblage. Based on their shape and size, it can be assumed that these were also from large mammals, probably cattle, potentially bringing the total number of cattle bones to 2626.

The metapodial and cranial bones of an animal are considered non-meat bearing, and are usually removed immediately after the animal has been killed (Ervynck 2011: 106). The meat bearing bones may travel from the medieval slaughterhouse to butcher shops and possibly on to marketplaces where they find their way to the consumers’ house.

Analysis of the skeletal assemblage excavated from structure S141 appears to be a deposit primarily consisting of non-meat bearing cattle parts. This does not, however, mean that it was waste material, as these elements may have contributed to the medieval economy, as will be explained later. The few bones from sheep/goat and pig that are found in the deposit are probably part of an ‘accidental’ deposit of household waste.

One of the aims of this research was to determine the age at which the animals were butchered. Age estimation was conducted using the method established by O’Connor (O’ Connor 1989: 161), which uses five stages of dental wear and eruption of the molars (Groot 2010: 61). O’Connor’s method was chosen instead of Higham’s method, which uses 23 dental stages, due to the efficiency of O’Connor’s method and the limited time available for analysis (Higham 1967: 105–106; Groot 2010: 53). Eruption/wear stages were then linked to absolute age at death, however, these ages are an estimation as tooth eruption and especially the wear can be influenced by many factors, such as health and nutrition. There were only 131 (69 right and 62 left) suitable mandible fragments, where enough teeth were present for age estimation methods.

As indicated in table 2 (see also figure 2), a large proportion of the assemblage were young individuals with immature and sub-adult individuals comprising 60% of the sample. More importantly, the sub-adult category forms just under 40% of the total. The second most frequent group is the ‘old’ group, which contains 30 fragments representing 22.9% of the sample. The smallest of all age groups is the adult group making up only 15.3% of the sample. It is clear that the proportion of young animals butchered in Ghent is higher than at other thirteenth -fourteenth century sites in Leicester or Malines (Gidney 2000: 176; Allen & Ervynck 2005: 169). On the other hand, the percentage of older animals in Ghent is much lower than the 50% of four to five-year-old specimens found in Malines. It is important to keep in mind that the age-estimation methods differ between Ghent and Malines, therefore the results may be subject to slight variation.

It has been argued by Allen and Ervynck (2010: 169, 199) that marrow from young animals is not desirable since it will contain too much blood, compared to the amount of marrow. The higher proportion of younger animals in Ghent might be explained by different economic factors. In modern cattle breeds it is considered optimal to butcher the animals when they are younger than 36 months since they have an optimal balance between fat and meat at that point (S.N. 2013: FAO). This is consistent with the age profile of the Ghent assemblage. The FAO of the United Nations also indicates that cattle older than four or five years are still good for consumption and they can be used as draft- or dairy animals as well (S.N. 2013: FAO). Therefore it is possible for the age distribution in the Burgstraat assemblage reflects the animals entering the abattoir at the optimal time in terms of their meat. It has also been argued that the differences in age profile between these sites, is the result of sex differences.

Younger butchered cattle assemblage have argued to be more likely to be comprised predominantly of males. This is because cattle reach an optimal muscle mass between the age of 19 to 36 months. Around this age their growth speed will decrease due to the fact that they reach their adult size and weight (McGrory & Svensson et al. 2012: 3328). Older cattle groups are suggested to include both male and female animals, perhaps with a skew towards the females, this is to maintain the herd and provide draft animals, while only the females will be kept as dairy producers. This is most likely why the females are kept longer (McGrory & Svensson et al. 2012: 3329). Unfortunately, since it is not possible to estimate sex from this assemblage, due to poor preservation of metapodials and the horn cores, and insufficient funds for DNA-analysis, further interpretation is not possible at this time.

Analysis of the thirteenth century animal assemblage in Ghent indicates systematic processing cattle crania. In this assemblage, the lack of post-cranial fragments is most striking—especially from the ‘meatier’ parts of the skeleton. Conversely, the cranial bones are abundant, even compared to the metapodia. Systematic butchery of mandibles and maxilla can be seen as one of the steps in an economic chain, that begins with the breeding of the animal, butchery, consumption of the meat and the entrails; parallel to this there is the preparation of the hide for leather, remodelling of the horn, and lastly extraction of marrow and marrow oil from the bones.

The age profile developed using O’Connor’s method identified a high prevalence of young animals in the assemblage (17 till 38 months), with a second large group of older individuals (age 50 months or over). The large amount of younger animals (immature and sub-adults) is not consistent with existing literature where it is considered that mainly older animals were consumed in medieval times (Davis 1995: 187–188).

The cattle bone deposit from S141 in the Burgstraat in Ghent has further research potential. Firstly, the entire assemblage has not been investigated. Secondly, more investigation into potential pathological lesions or the systematic way of post-mortem processing, could be done, e.g. looking at the presence of DEHP or other lesions, as well as the presence of burn marks, chop-, cut- and shear marks, as well as the general taphonomy of this structure compared to nearby deposits. Thirdly, the relationship between the age groups and the sex ratio should be investigated further, which would require DNA analysis (Pigière 2009: 247). DNA analysis, would be the most valuable addition to our knowledge of medieval cattle breeding and processing in an urban area like high medieval northwest Belgium.