Different enclosures appear to emphasize different animal species, and the specific configuration of which animals appear on which pillars in which enclosures shows a degree of patterning that may be meaningful.

If specific animal species are associated with specific social groups — if the fox is the symbol of one kin group and the boar of another, for example — then the distribution of species across enclosures might reflect the social identities of the groups that built or used specific spaces.

This kind of “totemism” — the association of social groups with specific animal species or other natural categories — is widespread in human cultures and is particularly well-documented in hunter-gatherer societies across the world.

The specific forms that totemic relationships take vary enormously, from the recognition of an ancestral or protective relationship with a specific species to more complex symbolic systems in which the characteristics of the animal are seen as embodied in the characteristics of the associated group.