ANIMAL BONES FROM EXCAVATIONS IN 1972 AT CATTERICK SITE 434, NORTH YORKSHIRE.
Author(s): Sebastian Payne
The site produced a small collection of animal bones from a Roman second-century military occupation and a slightly larger collection from a fourth-century civilian occupation. In both periods beef was the main meat supply, with smaller amounts of pork and young mutton and a little venison and poultry; more young mutton and poultry appear to have been eaten during the military occupation than during the later civilian occupation. Whether horse was eaten is uncertain. In neither period is there evidence that the inhabitants of the site engaged in animal husbandry; instead, animals were probably bought from producers, then killed and butchered on-site. There are no obvious differences between the military and civilian bone assemblages in butchery and carcass disposal, in the size and type of the animals, which show little indication of the size increases that happened elsewhere in Roman Britain, or in the ages at which the animals were killed. Meat production was probably only a subsidiary aim in local cattle husbandry, but of greater importance in sheep and pig husbandry. A Saxon bone assemblage is too small to come to any useful conclusion except that beef was again the main meat supply.
- Report Number:
- 5/1990
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 30
- Keywords:
- Animal Bone Animal Remains Bird Bone
