Caves and ecofacts in Middle Bronze age central italy: new interpretive perspectives on economy and rituals of apennine communities

This paper aims to demonstrate the interpretive importance of ecofacts on ritual sites. Man has always had manifold relationships with animals: humans can be hunters and/or breeders. Animals can also act as guards, be kept as pets, or on the contrary, be natural enemies and competitors. Finally, animals in all the previous categories can be seen as symbolic representations of values, people, events, places, status. As symbols and as important agents in human everyday life, animals often played an essential role in rituals (Russell 2012). It is thus imperative to also consider this role when examining faunal assemblages from cult sites.