Again, thank you for all your great responses. I seems that this may remain a
big enigma. The very large example from Mary's feature was extraordinary,
and would bring butchering waste to mind, but even this was made up of
meal-sized
elements from a variety of animals. Virtually ALL of our “house cleaning”
features from urban areas (in excess of 100 in Los Angeles and Oakland)
have substantial amounts of food-waste bone. The bone is from many
different animals (cow, sheep, pig, chicken, fish, etc.) and represents
many different meals. It is not whole, slaughtered animals, but
commercially prepared butchered cuts of meat. The fauna are clearly not
from a single feast, but from what looks like weeks or months of steak,
roast, soup, or chicken dinners.
 
The idea that it was not uncommon to stockpile bones until they became a
“nuisance” is intriguing (and seemingly fits our evidence), but the bones
rarely show signs of having been weathered through long-term exposure or
gnawed by marauding rodents. If Los Angeles and Oakland residents were
stockpiling their bones, they must have been doing it in a securely covered
place.
 
Did the other house-cleaning deposits mentioned on this Histarch exchange have
faunal material? Was it also table waste? Any more ponderings on this will be
very welcome either on or off list. When we write up this draft essay for the
upcoming report, we’ll post it to the list for final comment.
 
Thank-you,
 
Grace Ziesing
Anthropological Studies Center
Sonoma State University Academic Foundation, Inc.
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Julia Costello
Foothill Resources, Ltd.
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