Martyn Allen

New animals, new landscapes and new worldviews: the Iron Age to Roman transition at Fishbourne

Anthropologists and cultural geographers have long accepted that animals play an important role in the creation of human cultures. However, such beliefs are yet to be embraced by archaeologists, who seldom give zooarchaeological data much consideration beyond the occasional economic or environmental reconstruction. In an attempt to highlight animal remains as a source of cultural information, this paper examines the evidence for the changing relationship between people and wild animals in Iron Age and Roman southern England. Special attention is given to ‘exotic’ species — in particular fallow deer, domestic fowl and the hare — whose management increased around AD 43. In Iron Age Britain the concept of wild game reserves was seemingly absent, but the post-Conquest appearance of new landscape features such as vivaria, leporaria and piscinae indicates a change in worldview from a situation where people seemingly negotiated with the ‘wilderness’ and ‘wild things’ to one where people felt they had the right or the responsibility to bring them to order. Using Fishbourne Roman Palace as a case study, we argue that wild and exotic animals represented far more than gastronomic treats or symbols of Roman identity, instead influencing the way in which people engaged with, traversed and experienced their surroundings.

The re-identification of great bustard (Otis tarda) from Fishbourne Roman Palace, Chichester, West Sussex, as common crane (Grus grus)

Abstract This paper details the results of recent reanalysis of the animal remains from the 1960s excavations at Fishbourne Roman Palace, West Sussex. It argues that specimens originally identified as belonging to the great bustard are, in fact, misidentified remains of common crane. This discovery has important connotations. First, these findings need to be reported so that the avian archaeological record can be updated to avoid future syntheses of Romano-British faunal remains incorrectly including great bustard. Secondly, interpretations of the zooarchaeological remains at Fishbourne Palace will alter, due to the differing ecological histories of bustards and cranes.

Fluxgate gradiometry survey at North Leigh Roman Villa, Oxfordshire

North Leigh Roman villa ranks as one of the largest known courtyard villas of Roman Britain. 1 Situated just above the floodplain of the river Evenlode, which loops around the site, the villa lies c. 2 miles north of North Leigh village and 10 miles west of Oxford (SP 397 154). The building developed within the Late Iron Age earthwork complex of the North Oxfordshire Grims Ditch, a discontinuous bank and ditch which partly encloses a 22-square mile area of this landscape. 2 The villa is under English Heritage guardianship (Scheduled Ancient Monument no. 334573) and a programme of geophysical survey was conducted at their request to assist in management of the site. 3