Pam Crabtree

Production and consumption in an early complex society: Animal use in Middle Saxon East Anglia

Abstract This paper examines the relationships between urban consumers and rural producers of animal products during the period when the earliest post‐Roman urban sites first appear in eastern England. The mammal and bird faunas from a Middle Saxon emporium (Ipswich), two Middle Saxon rural sites (Brandon and Wicken Bonhunt) and an Early Anglo‐Saxon village (West Stow) are examined in order to determine how early urban sites were supplied with animal products and the effect that this early urban growth had on systems of rural animal production. The data indicate that the urban emporium of Ipswich was provisioned with meat from a limited range of domestic animal species. Contemporary rural sites show evidence for increasing specialization in some aspects of animal production – pork production at Wicken Bonhunt and wool production at Brandon – when compared with the faunai remains from the Early Saxon village of West Stow. The data suggest that there is a integral relationship between the development of the...

Labor Control and Emergent Stratification in Prehistoric Europe [and Comments and Reply]

Prevailing theories on the emergence of stratified societies in prehistoric Europe, which focus on the differential control of material wealth and resources by an elite minority, are deficient in failing to define the socioenvironmental circumstances under which the differential control of resources might initially have been established. An altemative model is offered that generates stratification from the patron-client relationships known to occur ethnographically incertain circumscribed, high-risk environmental settings. Implications of the model find partial support in an examination of settlement and sociopolitical trends during the European Neolithic.

Prostitutes, a Rabbi, and a Carpenter—Dinner at the Five Points in the 1830s

Three deposits from two separate shaft-features on Manhattan’s Block 160 yielded a total of 14,502 bones and bone fragments. Located in the middle of a working-class neighborhood, this block made up one-fifth of New York’s notorious Five Points. Analysis of the faunal assemblages, in tandem with the extensive historical record, provides an opportunity to explore working-class diet in a changing urban marketplace. Specific to Five Points, this is an examination of some of the disparate lifestyles present in this infamous neighborhood.

Agricultural innovation and socio-economic change in early medieval Europe: evidence from Britain and France

Abstract Historical and archaeological data suggest that the Middle Saxon period (c. 650–850 ce) in eastern England was an era of substantial social, political and economic change. This paper argues that it was also a period of substantial innovation in animal husbandry practices. Zooarchaeological data demonstrate a shift from a non-specialized system designed to meet local subsistence needs to more specialized animal husbandry, focused on specific animal products – wool production, but at some sites also pork production – and designed to produce a surplus in agricultural commodities. A similar pattern can be observed in early medieval France. Several possible explanations are examined, including its relation to state formation, the rise of the emporia (the first towns of the post-Roman West), the spread of monasticism and the possibility that this represents a bottom-up innovation pioneered at rural estate centres. The zooarchaeological data suggest that both monastic centres and secular estate centres played a critical role in agricultural innovation in the early medieval period.

Human ( Homo sapiens )

The human skeleton is illustrated in this chapter. Inferior and lateral views of the adult and infant human cranium are depicted. These are followed by anterior and posterior views of the limb bones of both adult and juvenile individuals. Selected vertebrae of both adult and juvenile humans are also illustrated, as are metacarpals, metatarsals, tarsals, pelvis, scapula, and sternum.

A Geophysical Survey at Dún Ailinne, County Kildare, Ireland

Abstract Dun Ailinne, in County Kildare was an important center of ceremonial and ritual activity in the Irish Iron Age (600 B.C.–A.D. 400). The site is located on a hill and is surrounded by an earthen bank and ditch. Excavation of the summit 35 years ago revealed a series of timber structures that were arguably the focus of the sites Iron Age use. This early research examined only ca. 10% of the sites interior; so from 2006 to 2008 a new program of research employed a targeted topographic survey and a magnetometer survey to determine if there was evidence of additional features inside the bank and ditch, or whether the rest of the site beyond the summit was empty. The results show that the area outside of the excavated summit was characterized by many and varied features of archaeological interest, including additional enclosures and likely structures of the Iron Age and both earlier and later periods. These data allow us to better understand the use of Dún Ailinne during its Iron Age florescence and provide us with directions for future archaeological research.

Agro-Pastoral Strategies and Food Production on the Achaemenid Frontier in Central Asia: A Case Study of Kyzyltepa in Southern Uzbekistan

Abstract This article discusses aspects of the agro-pastoral economy of Kyzyltepa, a late Iron Age or Achaemenid period (sixth-fourth century BC) site in the Surkhandarya region of southern Uzbekistan. The analysis integrates archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological analyses with textual references to food production and provisioning in order to examine local agro-pastoral strategies. Preliminary results suggest an economy that included both an intensive agricultural component, with summer irrigation of millet, and a wider-ranging market-oriented pastoral component that provided meat to the settlement.

Opossum ( Didelphis virginiana )

In this chapter, the postcranial skeleton of an opossum is compared to that of a newborn human. The chapter begins with lateral and ventral views of the opossum’s cranium and images of the maxillary and mandibular dentition. The opossum’s limb bones are then compared to those of a newborn human, including both cranial (anterior) and caudal (posterior) views. The chapter concludes with images of the scapula, pelvis, and selected vertebrae.

Comparative skeletal anatomy

Comparative skeletal anatomy : , Comparative skeletal anatomy : , کتابخانه دیجیتال جندی شاپور اهواز

Historic zooarchaeology: Some methodological considerations

The methods and techniques used in quantitative faunal analysis are commonly misunderstood. This article attempts to clarify some of the advantages and limitations of commonly used zooarchaeological techniques including the calculation of the number of species present, the Minimum Number of Individuals, and the relative dietary contributions of different animal species.