Birds Beasts And Burials A Study Of The Human Animal Relationship In Romano British St Albans

Birds, Beasts and Burials examines human-animal relationships as found in the mortuary record within the area of Verulamium that is now situated in the modern town of St. Albans.

The Archaeology of Wild Birds in Britain and Ireland tells the story of human engagement with birds from the end of the last Ice Age to about AD 1650. It is based on archaeological bird remains integrated with ethnography and the history of birds and avian biology. In addition to their food value, the book examines birds in ritual activities and their capture and role in falconry and as companion animals. It is an essential guide for archaeologists and zooarchaeologists and will interest historians and naturalists concerned with the history and former distribution of birds.

This book explores the place of birds in Roman myth and everyday life, focusing primarily on the transitional period of 100 BCE to 100 CE within the Italian peninsula. A diverse range of topics is considered in order to build a broad overview of the subject. Beginning with an appraisal of omens, augury, and auspices – including the ‘sacred chickens’ consulted by generals before battle – it goes on to examine how Romans farmed birds, hunted them, and kept them as pets. It demonstrates how the ownership and consumption of birds were used to communicate status and prestige, and how bird consumption mirrored wider economic and social trends. Each topic adopts an interdisciplinary approach, considering literary evidence alongside art, material culture, zooarchaeology, and modern ornithological knowledge. The inclusion of zooarchaeology adds another dimension to the work and highlights the value of using animals and faunal remains to interpret the past. Studying the Roman view of birds offers great insight into how they conceived of their relationship with the gods and how they stratified and organised their society. This book is a valuable resource for bird lovers and researchers alike, particularly those studying animals in the ancient world.

Lavishly illustrated, this book examines both written and archaeological sources, particularly visual evidence in the form of sculptures, coins, mosaics, wall paintings and decorated everyday items in order to shed light on animals in Roman culture.

Birds is the first book to examine bird remains in archaeology and anthropology. Providing a thorough review of the literature on this topic, it also serves as a guide to the methods of study of bird remains from the past and covers a wide range of topics, including anatomy and osteology, taphonomy, eggs, feathers, and, bone tools. It examines the myriad ways in which people have interacted with birds in the past. The volume also includes discussion on the consumption of wild birds, the domestication of birds, cockfighting and falconry, birds in ritual and religion, and the role of birds in ecological reconstruction, providing an up-to-date survey of current knowledge on these topics. Birds will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate students interested in zooarchaeology and human-animal relations, as well as professional zooarchaeologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists interested in birds and people of the past.

In this book an analysis of over 300 animal bone assemblages from English Saxon and Scandinavian sites is presented. The data set is summarised in extensive tables for use as comparanda for future archaeozoological studies. Animals in Saxon and Scandinavian England takes as its core four broad areas of analysis. The first is an investigation of the diet of the population, and how food was used to establish social boundaries. Increasingly diverse diets are recognised, with high-status populations distinguishing themselves from other social sectors through the way food was redistributed and the diversity of taxa consumed. Secondly, the role of animals in the economy is considered, looking at how animal husbandry feeds into underlying modes of production throughout the Saxon period. From the largely self-sufficient early Saxon phase animal husbandry becomes more specialised to supply increasingly urban settlements. The ensuing third deliberation takes into account the foodways and interactions between producer and consumer sites, considering the distribution of food and raw materials between farm, table and craft worker. Fundamental changes in the nature of the Saxon economy distinguish a move away from food renders in the middle Saxon phase to market-based provisioning; opening the way for greater autonomy of supply and demand. Finally, the role of wics and burhs as centres of production is investigated, particularly the organisation of manufacture and provisioning with raw materials.