Blog Carnival – Four Stone Hearth #35

The latest edition of the Four Stone Hearth blog carnival can now be found at Archaeoporn.

Royals weren’t only builders of Maya temples

An intrepid archaeologist is well on her way to dislodging the prevailing assumptions of scholars about the people who built and used Maya temples. From the grueling work of analyzing the “attributes,” the nitty-gritty physical details of six temples in Yalbac, a Maya center in the jungle of central Belize – and a popular target for antiquities looters – primary investigator Lisa Lucero is building her own theories about the politics of temple construction that began nearly two millennia ago. Her findings from the fill, the mortar and other remnants of jungle-wrapped structures lead her to believe that kings weren’t the only people building or sponsoring Late Classic period temples (from about 550 to 850), the stepped pyramids that rose like beacons out of the southern lowlands as early as 300 B.C.

More on this story can be found here.

Know Your Pathology: Leprosy

Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is “a chronic infectious disease of humans, affecting skin, nasal tissues, peripheral nerves and bones caused by Mycobacterium leprae” (Aufderheide and Rodríguez-Martín, 1998: 141). Co-existing with tuberculosis in many regions of the world today, the leprosy bacilli are transmitted either by inhalation or by direct contact into an open wound from an infected individual. Unlike tuberculosis, however, leprosy is not readily communicable. Those who acquire the condition have frequently been in prolonged contact with infected individuals (Larsen, 1997: 104). This perhaps explains the fact that today this is a disease with high rural incidence, clustering in families (Manchester and Roberts, 1989: 267).

Neurotrophic changes are commonly seen in advanced leprosy. Destruction of the sensory nerves with ensuing anaesthesia and circulatory alterations lead to slowly progressive atrophy of terminal phalanges, resorption progressing proximally, even as far as the metapodials in some instances. Severe degenerative arthritis and neuropathic arthropathy, similar to Charcot’s joint, can be seen in weight-bearing joints such as ankles and feet. In addition, the existing anaesthesia facilitates traumatic mutilations and secondary infections  (Ortner and Putschar, 1981: 177). Such paralysis also predisposes the individual to fractures caused by clumsiness or uncoordination (Judd and Roberts, 1998: 53).

If the affected individual has good immunological resistance the disease is confined to the nerves, producing what is known as the tuberculoid form of the disease. If resistance is poor then the lepromatous form occurs. Borderline cases can, and do, occur, however. Skeletal changes occur in both forms, but they are more frequent in the lepromatous form (Waldron, 2001: 101). Disruption of the muscles in the lower limbs and hands, as well as paralysis of the ulnar nerves, results in claw-hand deformities. Whilst such paralysis can be difficult to determine in archaeological specimens, in at least one instance a groove has been identified on the volar surface of the distal end of the proximal phalanx, a lesion also noted in the radiographs of modern patients (Andersen and Manchester, 1987: 78). Similar loss of motor function in the feet leads to the collapse of the longitudinal arch and the development of pes planus, or flat foot. The tensile stress this imparts to the ligaments is likely to be the cause of exostoses found at the sites of attachment (Andersen and Manchester, 1988: 52-54).

Facies leprosa of the skull shows atrophy of the anterior nasal spine, in most cases combined with central atrophy of the alveolar process. This is classified into three degrees (Møller-Christensen and Inkster, 1965: 11):

I° – in which there is a well-defined reduction of the spine;
II°- in which there is an advanced nasal spine atrophy although a distinct but very small nasal spine remains;
III° – in which there is a complete obliteration of the nasal spine.

The atrophy of the maxillary alveolar process and inflammatory changes of the superior surface of the hard palate are also classified into three degrees in a similar manner (Møller-Christensen and Inkster, 1965: 11). Further bone changes are set out in Møller-Christensen (1961).

The deformations associated with advanced leprosy led to sufferers being segregated, especially during the medieval period with theologians portraying the disease as the chastisement of God. The concept of the leper hospital did not really develop until the eleventh century AD, the third Lateran Council issuing orders for the isolation of lepers in 1179 (Rawcliffe, 1995: 14), at which point there was a sudden explosion in the numbers of these institutions. This suggests that either leprosy was becoming more common, that disease generally was becoming more common, or that society was becoming more charitable (Manchester and Roberts, 1989: 268). Alternatively, it may be viewed as part of a wider crusade against heretics, Jews, homosexuals, and anyone else whose behaviour was viewed as suspicious (Rawcliffe, 1995: 14).

The cross-immunity of leprosy and tuberculosis may explain the decline in leprosy towards the fourteenth century when there is a coincident rise in tuberculosis (Manchester and Roberts, 1989: 269). This relationship is not simple, nor universal, and appears to be affected by multiple variables. However, it may be this that explains the burial of two leprous males and tuberculous female from the Iron Age of South East Asia (Tayles and Buckley, 2004: 253).

A study aimed primarily at the epidemiological analysis of leprosy in medieval Denmark devised a simple recording form that allowed them to generate large amounts of data relatively quickly. In this the osteological changes were recorded in seven locations (Boldsen, 2001: 383):

1. the edge of the nasal aperture;
2. the anterior nasal spine;
3. the alveolar process on the premaxilla;
4. the palate;
5. subperiosteal exostoses on the fibula;
6. porotic hyperostosis on the fibula;
7. the fifth metatarsal

Whilst it is acknowledged that some symptoms are best described as a multi-stage sequence of events, for the sake of simplicity all were recorded simply as 1) present or 2) absent. Zero indicated the condition was unobservable in that skeletal element. This coding could then be analysed using statistical packages to describe the frequency and prevalence of the disease (Boldsen, 2001: 383). Such simplicity does make this recording system easy to apply, and also easy to duplicate by other researchers. Scoring changes merely as present or absent reduces the likelihood of inter-observer error, which, on the whole, is more likely to arise with examples of minor change. It does, however, possibly over-simplify the sequence of many of the symptoms, and has the effect of grouping together all sufferers with the condition regardless of the degree of advancement. This could mean that some more subtle nuances of patterning are lost.

Many skeletal changes are considered characteristic of leprosy, however, others such as tibial periostitis may be caused by several different infections. The identification of Mycobacterium leprae DNA can, therefore, be very useful in confirming a diagnosis (Wilson, 1999: 14), and this is an approach that is becoming more common as the techniques involved in the study of ancient DNA improve. An example of this is a case from Byzantine Israel where the presence of M. lepra was used to differentiate between leprosy and a condition known as Madura foot, or Mycetoma (Spigelman and Donoghue, 2001).

Palaeohistopathological analysis can help to differentiate diseases such as leprosy from other specific infections like treponemal disease and from non-specific conditions. For example in lepromatous periostitis polster-like structures that are rudimentarily developed and relatively flat can be observed, in contrast to those of treponematosis which tend to be well-developed (Schultz, 2001: 126). Furthermore, in contrast to chronic treponemal disease, there are no observable grenzstreifen in chronic leprosy (Schultz, 2001: 128).

References:

Andersen, J. G and Manchester, K. 1987. Grooving of the proximal phalanx in leprosy: a palaeopathological and radiological study. Journal of Archaeological Science 14: 77-82.

Andersen, J. G and Manchester, K. 1988. Dorsal tarsal exostoses in leprosy: a palaeopathological and radiological study. Journal of Archaeological Science 15: 51-56.

Aufderheide, A. C and Rodríguez-Martín, C. 1998. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Paleopathology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Boldsen, J.L. 2001. Epidemiological approach to the paleopathological diagnosis of leprosy. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 115: 380-387.

Judd, M. A, and Roberts, C. A. 1998. Fracture patterns at the medieval leper hospital in Chichester. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 105: 43-55.

Larsen, C. S. 1997. Bioarchaeology: Interpreting behavior from the human skeleton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Manchester, K, and Roberts, C. 1989. The palaeopathology of leprosy in Britain: a review. World Archaeology 21 (2): 265-272.

Møller-Christensen, V. 1961. Bone Changes In Leprosy. Bristol: John Wright & Son Limited.

Møller-Christensen, V, and Inkster, R.G. 1965. Cases of leprosy and syphilis in the osteological collection of the Department of Anatomy, University of Edinburgh. Danish Medical Bulletin 12 (1): 11-18.

Ortner, D. J, and Putschar, W. G. J. 1981. Identification of Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 28. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Rawcliffe, C. 1995. Medicine and Society in Later Medieval England. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.

Schultz, M. 2001. Paleohistopathology of bone: a new approach to the study of ancient diseases. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 44: 106-147.

Spigelman, M and Donoghue, H. D. 2001. Brief communication: unusual pathological condition in the lower extremities of a skeleton from ancient Israel. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 114: 92-93.

Tayles, N and Buckley, H. R. 2004. Leprosy and tuberculosis in Iron Age Southeast Asia? American Journal of Physical Anthropology 125: 239-256.

Waldron, T. 2001. Shadows in the Soil: Human Bones and Archaeology. Stroud: Tempus Publishing.

Wilson, L. E. 1999. Leprosy in Scotland. Unpublished MA dissertation. University of Leicester.

Giant frog jumps continents

A giant frog fossil from Madagascar dubbed Beelzebufo or ‘the frog from Hell’ has been identified by scientists from UCL (University College London) and Stony Brook University, New York. The discovery of the 70 million year-old fossil frog, of a kind once thought unique to South America, lends weight to a new theory that Madagascar, India and South America were linked until late in the Age of Dinosaurs.The new frog resembles living Horned toads (ceratophryines or ‘pac-man frogs’) in having a squat body, huge head and wide mouth. With a body length (not counting the legs) of up to 40 cm – longer than a rugby ball – and a weight of around four kilos (10 pounds), it is more than twice the size of its largest living relatives. The fossil, published in the journal PNAS, enters the Malagasy history books alongside meat-eating dinosaurs, plant-eating crocodiles and giant snakes, all very different from the present day animals of Madagascar.

Professor Susan Evans of the UCL Department of Cell & Developmental Biology says: “This frog, a relative of today’s Horned toads, would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball, with short legs and a big mouth. If it shared the aggressive temperament and ‘sit-and-wait’ ambush tactics of living Horned toads, it would have been a formidable predator on small animals. Its diet would most likely have consisted of insects and small vertebrates like lizards, but it’s not impossible that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs.

“Madagascar has a mainly endemic frog fauna whose history has generated intense debate, fuelled by recent phylogenetic studies and the near absence of a fossil record. Our discovery of a frog strikingly different from today’s Madagascan frogs, and akin to the Horned toads previously considered endemic to South America, lends weight to the controversial paleobiogeographical model suggesting that Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent and South America were linked well into the Late Cretaceous. It also suggests that the initial spread of such beasts began earlier than that proposed by recent estimates.”

Astragali through Time

The astragalus, or talus, is also known as the knucklebone. Worked and unworked astragali have formed part of non-food material culture in many societies, being used as divination tools, gaming pieces, amulets, ‘worry beads’, dice, and other things (Dandoy, 2006: 131). They are depicted on ceramics, in statuary, on medallions and coins, in oil paintings and in the comic pages of Sunday newspapers (Dandoy, 2006: 131). In short, they are ubiquitous.

Astragali occur over a wide spatial and temporal continuum (Dandoy, 2006: 131). They are found in sites ranging from northern Iraq to Belgium, and from Ethiopia and South Africa to the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys in the New World (Dandoy, 2006: 131). The reason for this is unclear, but proposed reasons include the sanctity of animal life, animal worship, and the stragalus’ distinctive look, feel and workability (Dandoy, 2006: 132). Amongst Bovidae, Cervidae and Camelidae, the six-sided rectangular shape of the astragalus makes it well-suited as a throwing or shooting piece (Dandoy, 2006: 132).

Divination:

Many astragali from the Fosse Temple at Lachish were used in astragalomancy, and those found at Enkomi, Tarnassos, Kourion and Kition (1225-1075 BC) have been interpreted the same way (Dandoy, 2006: 132). Pausanias described a classical Greek divination using five astragali and a tablet of results based upon the combination of numbers thrown (Dandoy, 2006: 132).

Gaming:

Gaming using astragali probably evolved from divination. One of the earliest game boards using astragali came from the tomb of Reny-Soube at Thebes (c. 1800 BC), which the excavators called ‘Hounds and Jackals’. It may have been similar to Snakes and Ladders (Dandoy, 2006: 132). Four sides of the six-sided astragalus can face up in a game without significant impediments. Each side could be assigned a numerical value in accordance with the frequency with which that side landed face up when thrown (Dandoy, 2006: 132). Other games give names to the sides. The lateral sides all had leaders’ names (Bey, King, Tsar, Judge), the medial side carries that of a second in command (Steward, Manager, Lieutenant), the dorsal was name for a free man or minor official (Peasant, Man, Berger) and the plantar for a devalued person (Thief, Slave). Such games can be found in both Near Eastern and European cultures (Dandoy, 2006: 133).

Skeuomorphs:

Representations of astragali made of non-bone materials are also known (Dandoy, 2006: 133). Two from Ephesus (Archaic Period) are of blue glass, whilst three in glass and one in bronze have been found in the Amanthus Tombs (Cypro-Archaix and Middle Cypriote Periods) (Dandoy, 2006: 133). Bronze, marble, glass and limestone examples have been found at Korykeion Cave and from Egypt there are green-glazed faience examples from Amarna and ivory examples from Tutankhamun’s tomb (Dandoy, 2006: 133). These, and other, examples would indicate that the astragalus had a cultural value exceeding that of a gaming piece, perhaps imbued with magical powers, a bearer of good luck or a religious artefact (Dandoy, 2006: 133).

Inscriptions and Decorations:

Astragali inscribed with the names of Nike, Hercules, Ajax and Achilles, as well as individual letters of the Greek alphabet are known from sites such as the Athenian Agora and Delos (Dandoy, 2006: 133). It has been surmised that these were created to honour gods or heroes and/or to bring good luck to the wearer or in games of chance (Dandoy, 2006: 133). Drilling of astragali is also commonplace. Some of these holes were then filled with lead, suggesting that the intention was to make them heavier or more accurate, however others have been with pierced with metal rings that might have therefore been strung on a chain (Dandoy, 2006: 133).

Reference: Dandoy, J. R. 2006. Astragali through Time, pp 131-137. Integrating Zooarchaeology. Maltby, M (ed). Oxbow Books: Oxford.

Archaeologists find human sacrifice site

French archaeologists in Sudan say they have uncovered the oldest proof of human sacrifice in Africa, hailing the discovery as the biggest Neolithic find on the continent for years. The tomb of a 5 500-year-old man surrounded by three sacrificed humans, two dogs and exquisite ceramics were exhumed north of Khartoum by Neolithic expert Jacques Reinhold and his 66-year-old Austrian wife.

”This is the oldest proof of human sacrifice in Sudan, in Egypt, in Africa,” Reinhold told reporters next to the remains in El Kadada village, a three-hour drive north of the Sudanese capital. “I don’t know of another example in Africa at this level…We don’t have anything as strong in other excavations in other countries,” said Reinhold, as villagers in traditional white robes carefully scrapped earth into buckets.

The archaeologist, who has led the excavation for several months, described the tomb as the most important Neolithic find in Africa since the 1990s. That period – which Reinhold calls the first global revolution – marks the period when man evolved from hunter gatherers into farmers and producers, forever changing the structure of human society. He says the find is nearly 1 000 years older what many consider Sudan’s most spectacular discoveries of human sacrifice – scores of bodies buried together. Close to the Nile and highly fertile, the El Kadada area north of the modern town of Shendi would have been highly favourable for Neolithic settlers.

The French team said that urns, materials used to grind wheat into flour, beeds and bracelets also uncovered at the site will be donated to the National Museum in Khartoum. 

Source: Independent Online

Blog Carnival – Four Stone Hearth #34

The 34th edition of the Four Stone Hearth blog carnival can now be found over at ‘Our Cultural World’.

The Potato

What is the Potato?

• The potato that is known as an important world crop is a single species, Solanum tuberosum, belonging to the family Solanaceae.
• Other well-known crops in that family are the tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), the aubergine (S. melongena), various species of chilli peppers (Capiscum) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum).

What is its Distribution?

• Seven cultivated species are recognised, of which Solanum tuberosum has a world-wide distribution in the form of its sub-species tuberosum. Another subspecies, andigena, is cultivated in the Andes of South America. The other cultivated potatoes are restricted to the high Andes in an area stretching roughly from central Peru to central Bolivia.
• The potato possesses more related wild species than any other crop plant, a recognised total of 228. These are widely distributed through the Americas.

The Potato in Prehistory:

• Ceramics showing human/potato hybrids from the Moche culture of Peru date to c. AD 1-600.
• Earlier evidence is found freeze-dried (chuno) or partly cooked in rubbish pits. Dating shows the crop has been cultivated from at least 7000 BP.

The Potato and Europe:

• The first recorded account of potatoes by Europeans dates to 1537 when a group of Spaniards led an expedition to the Opón Valley in Colombia.
• Sir Francis Drake saw potatoes in Chile in 1578.
• The potato arrived in Europe towards the end of the 16th century.
• It reached Spain c. 1570.
• It then spread to Italy and Portugal.
• Charles d’Ecluse, or Clusius, a herbalist, was a central figure in the spread of the potato through Germany, Low Countries, France and Switzerland.
• 1590 is a likely date for the potato’s arrival in England in the ships of John Gerard. Contrary to popular belief, it is unlikely that Sir Walter Raleigh was responsible for this, although he may have been instrumental in taking them to Ireland in the mid-17th century.
• The first botanical description was that of Caspar Bauhin in 1596.
• Bauhin sent potatoes to France c. 1600.
• Taken to Norway, and thence Sweden and Denmark from Scotland by mid 18th century.
• General adoption in Eastern Europe from Germany in late 18th – early 19th century.

The Potato and the Rest of the World:

• Directly introduced to Canary Islands from Peru c. 1622.
• Taken to India and China by British missionaries in late 17th century and known in Japan and parts of Africa by same period.
• New Zealand c. 1769 and adopted by Maoris c. 1840.

The Irish Potato Famine:

• In 1845 Ireland was struck by an epidemic of the fungal disease Phytophthora infestans, commonly known as potato blight or potato murrain.
• There had been shortages prior to then due to bad weather or less destructive diseases.
• A likely source for the blight was the eastern United States, where blight had largely destroyed the potato crops of 1843 and 1844.
• Once introduced diffusion was rapid. By late summer and early autumn of 1845 it had spread throughout the greater part of northern and central Europe; an area stretching from Switzerland to Scandinavia and Scotland, and from Poland to the west coast of Ireland.
• For the tenant farmers, or cottiers, the blight destroyed their winter stores, imperilled their seed for the coming year, and reduced them to killing and eating the pig by which they paid the rent because they had no potatoes on which to feed it.
• The crop of 1846 was also almost completely destroyed.
• By 1847 the traditional relationship between farmer and labourer was thoroughly disrupted. There was also an enormous deficiency of potato seed and prices of Indian meal were such that people were reduced to eating those potatoes they would have used for seed.
• Mass death and emigration reduced the population from almost 8.2 million in 1841 to fewer than 6.6 million in 1851.

Why is the Potato so important?

• Important source of carbohydrates
• Useful amounts of vitamins and minerals e.g. 1lb cooked new potatoes = 75 mg vitamin C.
• Deficient in vitamins A and D, although this was made good by drinking milk in 18th century Ireland or pre-war Poland.

References:

Donnelly, Jr. J.S. 2001. The Great Irish Potato Famine. Sutton Publishing: Stroud.

Hawkes, J.G. 1990. The Potato: Evolution, Biodiversity and Genetic Resources. Belhaven Press: London.

Salaman, R.N. 1949. The History and Social Influence of the Potato. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Bone Kickers

Brean Down was transformed into a film set over the weekend when a BBC film crew recorded scenes for a major new TV drama series. The six-part, primetime BBC One series Bone Kickers is is based around a Bath University archaeology team who are brought together to unearth bodies, books, weapons and other historical artefacts that lead them to various investigations. The series – from the writers of the hit series Life On Mars – will be broadcast in April and includes an episode in which a cave on Brean Down is searched. 

See HERE for more of this story.

Red Deer in Early Medieval Ireland

The theory of materialism asserts that artefacts have ‘biographies’ or lives of their own. Objects become more than a set of tools for adapting to an environment. Instead, their production, exchange, use and reuse becomes integral to the construction of social realities. Artefacts become ‘networks of significant’ that enable and constrain the practices of individuals and communities. In short, people make themselves and others through objects. In his paper Soderberg (2004) explores this theory in relation to animals, specifically red deer (Cervus elaphus). As he notes, with animals there is “nothing metaphorical about the fact that the material world is alive,” (Soderberg, 2004: 168). He hypothesises, therefore, that the relationships between people and deer in medieval Ireland should give access to the social dynamics of the period, in particular those associated with monasteries.

One key aspect of those dynamics is evident in the Old Irish term for red deer: ag allaid, which is translated as wild bovine. This and classifications of animals in texts such as the Betha Comaithchesa lead to the suggestion that red deer and cattle are conceptually linked (Soderberg, 2004: 168). However, this in itself would give red deer a liminal status; they would be of the social domain as cattle, the archetypal domestic animal, and yet also outside it, being wild (Soderberg, 2004: 168).

Monasteries were also cast in liminal terms, and it has been proposed that a link between the two exists on the basis that some monastic sites have produced unusually high concentrations of red deer skeletal material and also on the basis that dietary regimens of some monasteries identify venison and other wild meats as legitimate food (Soderberg, 2004: 168).

Ireland had only a single species of cervid, red deer, between the beginning of the Holocene and c. AD 1200 when both texts and archaeology show the importation of a second species, fallow deer (Dama dama). In 1213 the archbishop of Dublin was given fallow dder from Coventry, whilst in 1244 80 fallow deer were stocked at Glencree in Co. Wicklow (Soderberg, 2004: 171). The earliest archaeological fallow deer are from thirteenth and fourteenth century contexts at Norman castles in Wexford and Meath, as well as urban contexts in Waterford (Soderberg, 2004: 171). That importation is part of the social upheaval of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and represents the most significant faunal change in Ireland since the Neolithic (Soderberg, 2004: 171).

Red deer and fallow deer have significantly different physical and social characteristics. Red deer are larger and have more complex and rigid dietary preferences than fallow deer. Their social organisation is less variable, and male red deer and considerably more territorial. In addition, red deer engage in seasonal migrations and prefer a large home range (Soderberg, 2004: 172). These differences contribute to how the two species interact with humans. The spread of fallow deer from the Continent to Britain to Ireland is linked with the spread of hunting preserves and numerous scholars have concluded that this happened because fallow deer are more suited to confinement in parks than other available cervid species (Soderberg, 2004: 172). The essential features of deer parks were ownership of land and exercising rights over resources in that land. Fallow deer is, therefore, a marker for this process and the species becomes linked to the establishment of a more highly centralised social organisation (Soderberg, 2004: 172).

Red deer are, as well as one of the only cervid species in Ireland prior to the thirteenth century, also one of the few animals that appear commonly on high crosses (Soderberg, 2004: 173). This provides support for the suggestion that the crosses map out social relationships (Soderberg, 2004: 173). The majority of crosses featuring red deer depict hunting. These fall into two types. The first depict the pursuit of deer. The second type depict a lone deer, both those marked as captured and those simply shown in isolation (Soderberg, 2004: 173).

Early medieval texts provide another source of information about deer and human society. In particular, they provide a means of considering if the conceptualisation of red deer as found on the crosses appears in a different medium (Soderberg, 2004: 177). It is noted that several stories show kings and saints gaining necessary products from deer when their domestic counterparts – cattle – are unable to plough or provide milk (Soderberg, 2004: 177-178). The Life of Ciaran, the founding saint of Clonmacnoise, shows a stag visiting the youthful Ciaran and offering his antlers as a book stand. Later in life, a stag is used to transport his books (Soderberg, 2004: 178). Such stories are part of the corpus that connects sovereignty of king or saint with power over the normally uncontrolled (Soderberg, 2004: 178). Ecclesisatical texts emphasise the opposition of the wilderness to the domestic realm at the same time as emphasising the association of deer, monasteries and the wilderness (Soderberg, 2004: 178).

The texts and iconography amplify the notion that monasteries and deer were closely associated with one another in a manner that identifies monasteries with a realm beyond royal or secular control. This contextualises archaeozoological data from excavations at sites such as Clonmacnoise and encourages us to ask questions about the shifts in skeletal frequency and how this was associated with the role of such sites as monastic settlements as opposed to monastic towns (Soderberg, 2004: 181).

Reference: Soderberg, J. 2004. Wild Cattle: Red Deer in the Religious Texts, Iconography and Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 8 (3): 167-183