Food for thought: the potential and problems of faunal evidence for interpreting late antique society

Steve Roskams

doi:10.1163/22134522-12340018

Food for thought: the potential and problems of faunal evidence for interpreting late antique society

Steve Roskams

Archaeology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This article considers the use of animal bones as an aid to understanding social dynamics in Late Antiquity. Faunal evidence has been deployed to great effect in many aspects of archaeology but, I argue, remains under-exploited in Classical and Early Medieval contexts. Making the most of this material will require the development of new interpretative frameworks and an awareness of various methodological barriers. Nonetheless, patterning of data from Early Roman contexts provides a ready source of models to test and develop for later centuries. This process will be especially useful when groups of settlements can be compared (here, major towns in North Africa), and when faunal patterning can be related to contemporary developments in the landscapes where the breeding, husbandry and culling of livestock took place. Here I use the area around Wharram Percy, North Yorkshire as a case study.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	513-552
Number of pages	40
Journal	Late Antique Archaeology
Volume	9
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1163/22134522-12340018
Publication status	Published - 2012

Bibliographical note

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10.1163/22134522-12340018

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© 2012 Koninklijke Brill NV. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Late Antique Archaeology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
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© 2012 Koninklijke Brill NV. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Late Antique Archaeology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
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Cite this

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