Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T01:54:02.832Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tracking animals using strontium isotopes in teeth: the role of fallow deer (Dama dama) in Roman Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Naomi J. Sykes ,
Judith White ,
Tina E. Hayes  and
Martin R. Palmer
Naomi J. Sykes
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Judith White
Affiliation:
2English Heritage, Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth PO4 9LD, UK
Tina E. Hayes
Affiliation:
3School of Ocean & Earth Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
Martin R. Palmer
Affiliation:
3School of Ocean & Earth Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Using strontium isotope measurements on the teeth of fallow deer found at Fishbourne, the authors argue that these elegant creatures were first introduced into Britain as a gift to the Romanised aristocracy. Kept and bred in a special enclosure at the palace, they provided more than a status symbol and gastronomic treat: the fallow deer was an emblem of Empire.

Keywords

Roman EmpireBritanniaanimal husbandryfallow deerDama damaparkstrontium isotopes
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 310 , 1 December 2006 , pp. 948 - 959
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, J.K. 1985. Hunting in the Ancient World. London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Armitage, P.L. 1994. Unwelcome companions: ancient rats reviewed. Antiquity 68: 231–40.Google Scholar
Ashby, S.P. 2004. Understanding human movement and interaction through the movement of animals and animal products, in Mondini, M., Muñoz, S. & Wickler, S. (ed.) Colonisation, migration, and marginal areas: a zooarchaeological approach: 4–9. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Baker, P. 1998. The vertebrate remains from Scole-Dickleburgh, excavated in 1993 (Norfolk and Suffolk) A140 and A143 road improvement project. Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report 29/98.Google Scholar
Bendrey, R. 2003. The identification of fallow deer (Dama dama) remains from Roman Monkton, the Isle of Thanet, Kent, in Riddler, I.D. (ed.) Materials of manufacture: the choice of materials in the working of bone and antler in northern and central Europe during the first millennium AD. (B.A.R. International Series S1193) Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Bentley, R.A., Krause, R., Price, T.D. & Kaufmann, B.. 2003. Human mobility at the early Neolithic settlement of Vaihingen, Germany: evidence from strontium isotope analysis. Archeometery 45 (3): 471–86.Google Scholar
Brown, W.A.B. & Chapman, N.G.. 1990. Development of the teeth and mandibles of fallow deer (Dama dama). Acta Theriol 15: 111–31.Google Scholar
Budd, P., Montgomery, J., Barreiro, B. & Thomas, R.G.. 2000. Differential diagenesis of strontium in archaeological human dental tissues. Applied Geochemistry 15: 687–94.Google Scholar
Callou, C. 2003. De la garenne au clapier: étude archéozoologique du lapin en Europe occidentale (Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Tome 189). Paris: Publications Scientifiques du Muséum.Google Scholar
Carandini, A. 1985. Settefinestre. Una villa schiavistica nell'Etruria romana, III. Modena: Panini Editore.Google Scholar
Cartmill, M. 1993. A view to a death in the morning: hunting and nature through history. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, N. & Chapman, D.. 1975. Fallow deer: their history, distribution and biology. Lavenham: Terence Dalton.Google Scholar
Columella, L.J.M. (ed. & trans. by Forester, E.S. & Heffner, E.H.). 1955. On Agriculture (Loeb Classical Library 361). London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Coy, J. 1989. Animal bones, in G.G. Astill & S.J. Lobb (ed.) Excavations of Prehistoric, Roman and Saxon deposits at Wraysbury, Berkshire. Archaeological Journal 146: 111–134.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B. 1971a. Excavations at Fishbourne 1961–1969, Vol. I, The Site (Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of the Antiquaries of London 26). Leeds: The Society of Antiquaries.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B. 1971b. Excavations at Fishbourne 1961–1969, Vol. I, The Finds (Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of the Antiquaries of London 27). Leeds: The Society of Antiquaries.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B. 1998. Fishbourne Roman Palace. Stroud: Tempus.Google Scholar
Davis, S.J.M. 1997. Animal bones from the Roman site Redlands Farm, Stanwick, Northamptonshire, 1990 excavations. Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report 106/97.Google Scholar
Ervynck, A., Van Neer, W. & Lentacker, A.. 1999. Introduction and extinction of wild animal species in historic times: the evidence from Belgium: 399–407, in Benecke, N. (ed.)The Holocene history of the European vertebrate fauna. Modern aspects of research workshop, 6-9th April 1998. Berlin: Rahden/Wesft.Google Scholar
Gardeisen, A.. (ed.) 2002. Mouvements ou déplacements de populations animales en Méditerranée au cours de l'Holocène (BAR International Series 1017). Oxford: John and Erica Hedges.Google Scholar
Goody, J. 1982. Cooking, cuisine and class: a study in comparative sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Grant, A. 1975. The faunal remains, in Cunliffe, B. (ed.) Excavations at Portchester Castle 1: Roman (Reports of the Research Committee, Society of Antiquaries of London 32): 378–408. London: Society of Antiquaries.Google Scholar
Grant, A. 1978. Animal bones, 32-36, in R. Bradley (ed.) Rescue excavations in Dorchester-on-Thames 1972. Oxoniensia 43: 17–39.Google Scholar
Haynes, S., Jaarola, M., Searle, J. & Dobney, K.. 2004. The origin of the Orkney vole: a proxy for reconstructing human movements, in Housley, R. & Coles, G. (ed.) Atlantic connections and adaptions: economies, environments and subsistences in the north Atlantic realm: 114–9. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Helms, M. 1993. Craft and the kingley ideal: art, trade and power. Austin: Texas University Press.Google Scholar
Herring, P. 2003. Cornish medieval deer parks, in Wilson-North, R. (ed.) The lie of the land: aspects of the archaeology and history of the designed landscape in the south west of England: 34–50. Exeter: The Mint Press.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G.W.I. 1976. The animals of Vindolanda. Haltwhistle: Barcombe Publications.Google Scholar
King, A.C. 1985. I resti animali: I mammiferi, I rettili e gli anfibi, in Carandini, A. (ed.) Settefinestre. Una villa schiavistica nell'Etruria romana, III: 278–300. Modena: Panini Editore.Google Scholar
King, A.C. 2002. Mammals: evidence from wall paintings, sculpture, mosaics, faunal remains and ancient literary sources, in Feemster Jashemski, W. & Meyer, F.G. (ed.) The Natural History of Pompeii: 401–50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lepetz, S. & Yvinec, J.H.. 2002. Présence d'espèces animales d'origine méditerranéennes en France du nord aux périodes romaine et médiévale: actions anthropiques et mouvements naturels, in Gardeisen, A. (ed.) Mouvements ou déplacements de populations animales en Méditerranée au cours de l'Holocène (BAR International Series 1017): 33–42. Oxford: John and Erica Hedges.Google Scholar
Lever, C. 1979. The naturalised animals of the British Isles. St Albans: Granada Publishing.Google Scholar
Liddiard, R. 2003. The deer parks of Domesday Book. Landscape 4 (1): 4–23.Google Scholar
Lister, A.M. 1996. The morphological distinction between bones and teeth of fallow deer (Dama dama) and red deer (Cervus elaphus). Journal of Osteoarchaeology 6: 119–43.Google Scholar
Mackinnon, M. 2004. Production and consumption of animals in Roman Italy: Integrating the Zooarchaeological and Textual Evidence (Journal of Roman Archaeology. Supplementary series no. 54). Portsmouth: Journal of Roman Archaeology.Google Scholar
Maltby, M. 1983. The animal bone, 191, in M. Millett & S. James (ed.) Excavations at Cowdery's Down, Basingstoke, Hampshire 1978-81. Archaeological Journal 140: 151–280.Google Scholar
Manley, J. & Rudkin, D.. 2005. Facing the Palace: excavations in front of the Roman palace at Fishbourne (Sussex, UK) 1995-99. Sussex Archaeological Collections 141.Google Scholar
Meddens, B. 1990. Animal bones from Catterick Bridge (CEU 240) a Roman town (North Yorkshire) excavated in 1983. Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report 98/90.Google Scholar
Meddens, B. 2000. The animal bone: 315–355, in Ellis, P. (ed.) The Roman Baths at Wroxeter: Excavations by Graham Webster 1955–85 (English Heritage Archaeological Report 9). London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Melville, R.V. & Freshney, E.C.. 1982. British Regional Geology: The Hampshire Basin and adjoining areas. London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office.Google Scholar
Mondini, M., Muñoz, S. & Wickler, S.. 2004. Colonisation, migration, and marginal areas: a zooarchaeological approach. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Noddle, B.A. 1985. The animal bones, 82-97, in G. Webster, P. Fowler, B. Noddle & L. Smith (ed.) The excavations of a Romano-British rural establishment at Barnsley Park, Gloucestershire 1961–1979: 3. Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 103: 73–100.Google Scholar
O'Neil, H.E. 1945. The Roman Villa at Park Street near St Albans, Herts. Report on the Excavations of 1943–45. Archaeological Journal 102: 21–110.Google Scholar
O'Regan, H.J. 2002. From bear pits to zoos. British Archaeology 68: 12–9.Google Scholar
Pandini, W. & Cesaris, C.. 1997. Home range and habitat use of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) reared in captivity and released in the wild. Hystrix 9 (1-2): 45–50.Google Scholar
Elder, Pliny the (trans. by Rackham, H.) 1967. Natural History III, Books VIII-XI. (Loeb Classical Library 353) London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Poplin, F. 1984. Contribution osteo-archéologique à la connaissance des astragales de l'Antre corycien. Bulletin de Correspondences Helléniques Supplément 9: 381–93.Google Scholar
Price, T.D., Burton, J.H. & Bentley, R.A.. 2002. The characterization of biologically available strontium isotope ratios for the study of prehistoric migration. Archeometery 44 (1): 117–35.Google Scholar
Prummel, W. 1975. Some reflections on the faunal remains of the Roman castellum Valkenburg, excavations 1962, in Clason, A.T. (ed.) Archaeozoological Studies: 225–9. Amsterdam: State University of Groningen.Google Scholar
Rackham, O. 1986. The history of the countryside: the classic history of Britain's landscape, flora and fauna. London: Phoenix.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, P.R. 1984. Population dynamics of red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Scottish commercial forests. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 82 (B): 291–302.Google Scholar
Reinken, G. 1997. Weider-Verbreitung. Verwendung und Namensgebung des Damhirsches Cervus dama l. in Europa. Zeitschrift der Jagdwissenschaft 43: 197–206.Google Scholar
Ritvo, H. 1987. The animal estate: the English and other creatures in the Victorian age. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schibler, J. 1988. Die Tierknochenfunde aus Augusta Raurica (Grabungen 1955–1974). Augst: Römermuseum.Google Scholar
Stalibrass, S. 1992. Animal bone from excavations at Annetwell Street, Carlisle, 1982–4. Period 3: the earlier timber fort. Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report, New Series No. 132/91.Google Scholar
Starr, R.J. 1992. Silvia's deer (Virgil, Aeneid 7.479-502): game parks and Roman law. The American Journal of Philology 113 (3): 435–9.Google Scholar
Sykes, N.J. 2004. The introduction of fallow deer (Dama dama): a zooarchaeological perspective. Environmental Archaeology 9: 75–83.Google Scholar
Toynbee, J.M.C. 1973. Animals in Roman Life and Art. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Varro, M.T. (trans. by William Davis Hooper) 1934. On Agriculture (Loeb Classical Library 233). London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Virgil, (trans. by Fairclough, H.R.) 1969. Aeneid VII-XII: the minor poems (Loeb Classical Library 64). London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Welch, D., Carss, D.N., Gornall, J., Manchester, S.J., Marquiss, M., Preston, C.D., Telfer, M.G., Arnold, H. & Holbrook, J.. 2001. An audit of alien species in Scotland (Scottish Natural Heritage Review 139) Perth: Scottish Natural Heritage.Google Scholar
West, B. 1983. The Roman buildings west of the Walbrook Project: human, animal and bird bones, Level III. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Urban Archaeology, Museum of London.Google Scholar
Whitehead, K.G. 1972. Deer of the World. London: Constable.Google Scholar
Yalden, D. 1999. A history of British mammals. London: T. & A. Poyser.Google Scholar
Yannouli, E & Trantalidou, K.. 1999. The fallow deer (Dama dama Linnaeus, 1758): archaeological presence and representation in Greece, in Benecke, N. (ed.)The Holocene history of the European vertebrate fauna: 247–77. Berlin: Rahden.Google Scholar