PRUDHOE CASTLE: A REPORT ON THE ANIMAL REMAINS.
Author(s): Simon Davis
This report describes animal remains from the eleventh to nineteenth centuries AD at Prudhoe Castle, Northumberland, England. Most are cattle, sheep, and pig and are probably kitchen/ butchery waste. Sheep became more common during and after the mid-sixteenth - 1630 and pig "apparently" declined in importance after the late fourteenth - late fifteenth century. There was an unexplained abundance of pig heads throughout, and of cattle ankle bones in the early periods at Prudhoe. A lack of sheep foot bones is also noteworthy. Many of the cattle were probably retired work/ milk animals, and several deformed distal metatarsals reflect the excessive stress to which these animals had been put. The proportion of young cattle slaughtered increased slightly in the sixteenth century and afterwards, while in the later periods the number of older sheep increased- perhaps ( together with their increased numbers)reflecting the growth of the wool industry in England.The sheep at Prudhoe were small, and together with thepigs, did not undergo any average size change. However, between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries cattle increased in size.
- Report Number:
- 162/1987
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 60
- Keywords:
- Animal Bone Animal Remains
