Casual or ritual: The Bell Beaker deposit of La Calzadilla (Valladolid, Spain)

The aim of this paper is to examine a Chalcolithic deposit found within a pit. The deposit contains a significant amount of Beaker pottery, amongst other artefacts, as well as a few human bones and a peculiar faunal assemblage. The singularity of the faunal remains found made it necessary to carry out a detailed taphonomic study, since the deliberate selection of the anatomical parts of many species has been documented. The presence of pig foetal bones, possibly corresponding to different litters, is also noteworthy. The assemblage reveals diverse predepositional origins, also confirmed by radiocarbon dating: The cranial bone of an aurochs, which has undergone lengthy exposure, is the only finding in this pit with intensive weathering surface modification. This bone was probably introduced as a token at a later date, and is several hundred years older than the other dated sample from the pit.