Cattle are widely recognised as having important economic, social, symbolic and religious roles in Neolithic communities. This high status appears strongly linked with feasting and commensality, events during which a great number of cattle are slaughtered and their carcasses purposefully deposited. This paper presents details of an unusually large assemblage of cattle remains recovered from the ditches of a later 4th millennium BC enclosure at Kilshane, Co. Dublin, in eastern Ireland. Currently, Middle Neolithic ceramics and charcoal provide termini ante quos dates for the assemblage, and different strategies for directly radiocarbon dating the bones confirm the low preservation of biomolecules. Extensive osteological analysis identified some traditional markers of feasting activity alongside less commonly observed characteristics, such as the careful deposition of non-meat bearing elements. We consider the Kilshane assemblage in its wider northwest Europe and Neolithic context and highlight some additional considerations when identifying feasting in prehistory.

牛被广泛认为在新石器时代社区中具有重要的经济、社会、象征和宗教作用。这种高地位似乎与盛宴和共餐密切相关，在此期间，大量牛被屠宰并有目的地存放它们的尸体。本文详细介绍了从爱尔兰东部都柏林基尔沙内 (Kilshane, Co. Dublin) 的公元前 4 世纪后期围场的沟渠中发现的异常庞大的牛群遗骸。目前，新石器时代中期的陶瓷和木炭提供了终点组合的日期，以及直接对骨骼进行放射性碳测年的不同策略证实了生物分子的低保存性。广泛的骨学分析确定了一些传统的盛宴活动标记以及不太常见的特征，例如非肉类成分的仔细沉积。我们在更广泛的西北欧和新石器时代背景下考虑基尔尚组合，并在识别史前盛宴时强调一些额外的考虑因素。