Barreled Meat: Examining Decisions at the Intersection of Butchery, Storage, and Transport

Abstract Food preservation, including salting and barreling meat, has played a significant role in human history; however, it remains challenging to identify cases of salting in the archaeological record. Most studies have relied on limited datasets and focus on body-part profiles observed in faunal assemblages. Known and suspected cases of barreled meat and on-site butchery, drawn from six shipwrecks and seven fur trade posts, provide a means of identifying body-part profiles for salted pork and beef. Modeled body-part profiles based on these data reveal differences in expected body-part frequency between salted and locally butchered beef, although the patterning is less obvious for pork. Comparing these models against 26 military forts reveals that, despite the prominence of salted beef and pork in historic records, many forts exhibit patterns consistent with on-site butchery of live animals.