POST-MEDIEVAL CATTLE BURIALS FROM ST GILES BY BROMPTON BRIDGE, NORTH YORKSHIRE
Author(s): S Stallibrass
This report has aimed to do two things (1): to investigate the nature of the burials of five cattle individuals from mid-eigteenth century deposits and (2): to use these 'complete' skeletons to test current methods of ascertaining age and sex from archaeological animal bones. The animals appear to have been well nourished and looked after during life but, after their deaths, their meat, and often their hides, were not considered fit for consumption. These facts, together with the unceremonious nature of their burials in three pits, suggest that the cattle died suddenly of some highly contagious disease. This may have been Rinderpest, which had a virulent epidemic in Britain from 1745-58. Whilst it is clear that all five individuals were young when they died (two very young, one juvenile and two just adult), and that their ages at death probably ranged from less than 6 months to approximately four years, precise ages cannot be calculated since it is apparent that two of the standard techniques for aging bones give very disparate results. These two techniques are: the sequence of tooth eruption and epiphyseal fusion (both using Silver's (1969) data for modern cattle). Tests of sexing methods also give ambiguous results. The main problems appear to relate to (a) small sample size and (b) a lack of relevant modern data.
- Report Number:
- 94/1993
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 67
- Keywords:
- Animal Bone Animal Remains
