Preliminary results from the investigation of the vertebrate remains from Castagna , Sicily ( site code : CA 94 )

This report gives preliminary results of the investigation of the vertebrate assemblage from Castagna, Sicily. As the assemblage is so small the results should be treated with due caution. The assemblage yielded little information about the occupation of the site. However, the assemblage contained an unusually high proportion of deer bones, of which three were possibly the first identifications of fallow deer (cf. Dama dama L.) remains from Roman Sicily (and one of very few from Italy as a whole). Deer hunting was perhaps a high status activity, which seems to contradict the evidence from the main domesticated species indicating (on very limited evidence)that this was a lower status producer site (i.e. farmstead).