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Colchester Archaeological Report 12

Animal bones from excavations in Colchester, 1971-85, by Rosemary Luff, is an account of the analysis of the large volume of animal bone recovered during excavations in Colchester between 1971 and 1985. Sixty-six thousand mammal bones were identified and recorded from Roman and medieval contexts. Most of the material derives from domestic mammalian stock (mainly cattle, sheep, goat, and pig) which were slaughtered for human consumption, but the large number of bones (over 5,000) of the domestic fowl provides some indication of the relative importance of chicken and eggs in the local diet. Finds of hare, woodcock, partridge, and pheasant indicate the occasional snaring and trapping of game, although the hunting of deer never contributed significantly to the food supply.

Chapter 1 is an outline of some of the problems in understanding the nature of different kinds of settlement in early historic Britain and the differences between them especially in relation to agricultural activities in town and country. The methodology used in analyses of the Colchester bones is described in Chapter 2. The subsequent three chapters contain analyses of the raw data from the Colchester study together with the results of analyses into taphonomy, the economic exploitation of domestic livestock, and the utilisation of poultry and game. The health and welfare of the Colchester beasts is dealt with in Chapter 6, which is a collaboration with Don Brothwell. Farm stock wild beasts and pets are covered. There have been very few palaeopathological publications on zoo-archaeological material, and hence much space is given to addressing the implications of palaeopathology to faunal studies. Various arthropic lesions and hunting injuries are also described. Chapter 7 provides a comparison of the faunal results from Colchester with those from other sites in Essex as well as major Roman and medieval assemblages from elsewhere. Finally, in Chapter 8, an overview is given of all the faunal and floral data from Colchester, including fish remains.

The book includes a microfiche supplement containing much of the raw data used in the analysis.

Publication of the report was made possible by a generous grant from English Heritage.

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