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Stratton, Biggleswade: 1,300 years of village life in eastern Bedfordshire from the 5th century AD presents the results of 12 hectares of archaeological excavation undertaken between 1990 and 2001. As well as uncovering roughly half of the medieval village, the investigations revealed that Stratton’s origins stretched back to the early Anglo-Saxon period, with the settlement remaining in continuous use through to c. 1700. In contrast to many of the other major excavations of Anglo-Saxon settlements, the evidence from Stratton provides insights into the lives of a low-status rural community, whose development can be traced over the course of more than a millennium. This book presents a chronological account of Stratton’s development; evidence for its economy, trading relations, industrial activities and agricultural landscape; and a discussion of how people lived and died there before the village was finally extinguished by the creation of the classic estate landscape of Stratton Park.

Poultry products are rarely considered when reconstructing pottery use through organic residue analysis, impinging upon our understanding of the changing role of these animals in the past. Here we evaluate an isotopic approach for distinguishing chicken fats from other animal products. We compare the carbon isotopes of fatty acids extracted from modern tissues and archaeological bones and demonstrate that archaeological bones from contexts associated with pottery provide suitable reference ranges for distinguishing omnivorous animal products (e.g. pigs vs. chickens) in pots. When applied to pottery from the Anglo-Saxon site of Flixborough, England, we succeeded in identifying residues derived from chicken fats that otherwise could not be distinguished from other monogastric and ruminant animals using modern reference values only. This provides the first direct evidence for the processing of poultry or their products in pottery. The results highlight the utility of ‘in-situ’ archaeological bone lipids to identify omnivorous animal-derived lipids in archaeological ceramic vessels.

Excavations in the medieval trading centre of Novgorod (NW Russia) have shown that horseflesh was consumed quite frequently and that horses were stabled in urban properties. Their carcasses were commonly utilized for the manufacture of skates and leather. Beaver meat was sometimes consumed in the town although their much greater importance as providers of pelts is not evidenced in the zooarchaeological evidence from Novgorod. Evidence can be found on sites deep within the forest zone of its expansive territory.

This chapter will review the contribution that commercial zooarchaeology has made in advancing our knowledge of the exploitation of animals in Romano-British towns. It will highlight studies on sites excavated after 1990 but will also incorporate analyses that were carried out on assemblages from earlier excavations that were rescue- rather than research-orientated. It will first summarise the information available from the various towns involved and then discuss some of the major trends that have emerged from such studies. It will conclude with a critical evaluation of the impact of commercial zooarchaeology.

Concentrating mainly on the zooarchaeological data, this chapter reviews the evidence for the exploitation of animals in Roman Britain. The review focuses initially on domestic mammals and their exploitation, with particular attention being paid to the species that contributed the most to the diet—cattle, pig, and sheep. This discussion is followed by a shorter summary of the evidence for the exploitation of other mammals, birds, and fish. The relative importance of the different species for their meat and other commodities is outlined, and reasons for variations in species abundance, mortality patterns, butchery methods, and the stature of domestic stock are discussed. Chronological, regional, settlement, and cultural factors all need to be taken into account when considering the complexities of human–animal relationships in Roman Britain.