The archaeology of pig domestication and husbandry: approaches and case studies

The main aim of this thesis is to present the potential of an integrated analysis for the study of past relations between humans and pigs. In particular, the advent of pig domestication and patterns of early husbandry in southern Europe will be discussed on the basis of a multidisciplinary approach. The core method is represented by abiometrical analysis of pig teeth and bones from archaeological as well as modem collections. The study of recent material provides the opportunity to detect variation in wild boar size and shape across the whole range of distribution of the species. An archaeological baseline for domestic pigs is obtained through the study of a large Neolithic assemblage from England. With the adoption of a size index scaling technique this is then used as a 'standard' reference for the analysis of southern European material. In addition to this biometrical analysis, a historical approach to the study of pig husbandry in medieval England and ethnoarchaeological work in Sardinia and Corsica provide further opportunities to build up an interpretative framework for the archaeological evidence. A number of case studies from rehistoric and historic Portugal and prehistoric Italy are then resented. In Portugal abundant data collected from late prehistoric and historic assemblages are compared with Mesolithic and Neolithic evidence and provide the opportunity to study variations in patterns of pig hunting and husbandry through a long chronologicalsequence. The evidence for this country indicates that wild boars increased in size after the Mesolithic whereas no improvement in domestic pigs can be detected until the Middle Ages, which means that practices of free-range husbandry were probably adopted for the whole of the prehistoric and early historic periods. In Italy an even larger number of sites is used to illuminate the evolution of pig exploitation in that particular country. Like in Portugal a pattern of size increase in wild boars emerges after the Mesolithic, but in Italy it is also possible to detect size decrease in domestic pigs, with intensification in pig husbandry occurring probably sometime in the late Neolithic. The similarity in size between Mesolithic and Neolithic pigs confirms the suggestion brought about by genetic analysis that pigs were domesticated locally. The use of a diversity of approaches and the large chronological and geographic scale of this analysis provides us with a unique insight into the great variety of interactions that occurred between humans and pigs and the general importance of these animals in human history

Cattle management in an Iron Age/Roman settlement in the Netherlands : archaeozoological and stable isotope analysis

Cattle were the predominant domestic animal in the Iron Age and Roman Netherlands, yet their management is still incompletely understood. Some aspects of cattle management, such as birth season and the provision of fodder, have received little or no attention so far. This paper is the first to investigate these aspects for the Iron Age and Roman Netherlands, through a case study of the site of Houten-Castellum. The rural settlement of Houten-Castellum was inhabited from the Middle Iron Age to the Middle Roman period, allowing a comparison between the Iron Age and Roman period. Excavations at this site have yielded a large, well-preserved animal bone assemblage. This paper investigates cattle husbandry by using an integrated approach, combining a multi-isotope analysis (oxygen, carbon and strontium) with archaeozoological and archaeobotanical results from Houten-Castellum and comparing the results with archaeobotanical evidence for fodder and evidence for dairy use for the Iron Age and Roman Netherlands in general. While our data set is small and results must therefore be interpreted cautiously, there is convincing evidence for an extended birth season in the Middle Iron Age, as well as the use of fodder

An osteometrical method for sexing cattle bones: the metacarpals from 17th century Carnide, Lisbon, Portugal

Measurements taken on 47 complete and 44 distal fragments of cattle metacarpals from 17th century AD Carnide, Lisbon, separate into two groups. Comparison with 21 ancient DNA sexed specimens and modern specimens of known sex (seven Barrosã cows and a Barrosã bull), indicates that the Carnide metacarpals probably belonged to both cows and bulls/oxen. We use the 47 complete metacarpals as a “sexed reference sample” in order to find which measurements generally taken by zooarchaeologists on the distal metacarpal help separate males from females. Widths appear to be most useful. The modern Barrosã cattle in our collection, selected for their meat, have wider metacarpals than the ones from Carnide; the latter were perhaps more generalist animals.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Wild birds of the Italian Middle Ages: diet, environment and society

Wild birds are intrinsically associated with our perception of the Middle Ages. They often feature in heraldic designs, paintings, and books of hours; few human activities typify the medieval period better than falconry. Prominent in medieval iconography, wild birds feature less frequently in written sources (as they were rarely the subject of trade transactions or legal documents) but they can be abundant in archaeological sites. In this paper we highlight the nature of wild bird exploitation in Italian medieval societies, ranging from their role as food items to their status and symbolic importance. A survey of 13 Italian medieval sites corresponding to 19 ‘period sites’, dated from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, reveals the occurrence of more than 100 species (certainly an under-estimate of the actual number). Anseriformes and Columbiformes played a prominent role in the mid- and late medieval Italian diet, though Passeriformes and wild Galliformes were also important. In the late Middle Ages, there is an increase in species diversity and in the role of hunting as an important marker of social status

The 'long' 16th century : a key period of animal husbandry change in England

Although many historians have extensively discussed the agricultural history of England between the Late Middle Ages and the Modern Era, this period of crucial changes has received less attention by archaeologists. In this paper, zooarchaeological evidence dated between the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period is analysed to investigate changes in animal husbandry during the ‘long’ sixteenth century. The size and shape of the main domestic animals (cattle, sheep, pig and chicken) is explored through biometrical data and discussed in line with evidence of taxonomic frequencies, ageing and sex ratios. Data from 12 sites with relevant chronologies and located in different areas of the country are considered. The results show that, although a remarkable size increase of animals occurred in England throughout the post-medieval period, much of this improvement occurred as early as the sixteenth century. The nature and causes of such improvement are discussed, with the aim of understanding the development of Early Modern farming and the foundations of the so-called Agricultural Revolution

A morphometric system to distinguish sheep and goat postcranial bones.

Distinguishing between the bones of sheep and goat is a notorious challenge in zooarchaeology. Several methodological contributions have been published at different times and by various people to facilitate this task, largely relying on a macro-morphological approach. This is now routinely adopted by zooarchaeologists but, although it certainly has its value, has also been shown to have limitations. Morphological discriminant criteria can vary in different populations and correct identification is highly dependent upon a researcher's experience, availability of appropriate reference collections, and many other factors that are difficult to quantify. There is therefore a need to establish a more objective system, susceptible to scrutiny. In order to fulfil such a requirement, this paper offers a comprehensive morphometric method for the identification of sheep and goat postcranial bones, using a sample of more than 150 modern skeletons as a basis, and building on previous pioneering work. The proposed method is based on measurements-some newly created, others previously published-and its use is recommended in combination with the more traditional morphological approach. Measurement ratios, used to translate morphological traits into biometrical attributes, are demonstrated to have substantial diagnostic potential, with the vast majority of specimens correctly assigned to species. The efficacy of the new method is also tested with Discriminant Analysis, which provides a successful verification of the biometrical indices, a statistical means to select the most promising measurements, and an additional line of analysis to be used in conjunction with the others

A morphometric system to distinguish sheep and goat postcranial bones.

Distinguishing between the bones of sheep and goat is a notorious challenge in zooarchaeology. Several methodological contributions have been published at different times and by various people to facilitate this task, largely relying on a macro-morphological approach. This is now routinely adopted by zooarchaeologists but, although it certainly has its value, has also been shown to have limitations. Morphological discriminant criteria can vary in different populations and correct identification is highly dependent upon a researcher's experience, availability of appropriate reference collections, and many other factors that are difficult to quantify. There is therefore a need to establish a more objective system, susceptible to scrutiny. In order to fulfil such a requirement, this paper offers a comprehensive morphometric method for the identification of sheep and goat postcranial bones, using a sample of more than 150 modern skeletons as a basis, and building on previous pioneering work. The proposed method is based on measurements-some newly created, others previously published-and its use is recommended in combination with the more traditional morphological approach. Measurement ratios, used to translate morphological traits into biometrical attributes, are demonstrated to have substantial diagnostic potential, with the vast majority of specimens correctly assigned to species. The efficacy of the new method is also tested with Discriminant Analysis, which provides a successful verification of the biometrical indices, a statistical means to select the most promising measurements, and an additional line of analysis to be used in conjunction with the others

Pig Measurements from Durrington Walls (Wiltshire, England)

Excavations at the late Neolithic site of Durrington Walls, Wiltshire, in 1966-67 unearthed large numbers of well-preserved pig teeth and bones. This has provided the opportunity to build up a data set of measurements that can be of great use as a comparative baseline for other European material. Tables of measurements from 12 skeletal elements are available for download as ASCII comma separated value (.csv) files suitable for loading into spreadsheets or databases. Explanations of coding in the data are provided