Bones from Anglo-Scandinavian Levels at 16-22 Coppergate
Item
- list of authors
- T. P. O'Connor
- list of contributors
- R. A. Hall
- Is Part Of
- The Archaeology of York [Series]
- The Animal Bones [Volume]
- volume
- 15
- issue
- 03
- Publisher
- Council for British Archaeology for York Archaeological Trust
- Date Copyrighted
- 1989
- Date Available
- Digitally available on 21 July 2023
- Abstract
-
Results are presented from a study of 33 groups of hand-collected bones dated to the mid 9th-mid 11th century and directly associated with Anglo-Scandinavian structures and activity on the 16-22 Coppergate site. A preponderance of cattle bones was found, with lesser quantities of sheep and pig, and low frequencies of wild species. It is argued that most of the groups of bones examined are a mixture of debris from the butchering of stock and from domestic activity. The predominance of cattle is most marked in the earliest groups (mid 9th-early lOth century), with the latest groups (late lOth-mid 11th century) being characterised by an increased diversity of wild birds and a higher proportion of pig bones. In all, 32 bird taxa were recorded, with domestic fowl and goose predominating. Most of the wild birds were clearly species which were taken for food or which scavenged
among the urban refuse.
Recovery of bones by sieving gave substantial samples of fish bones, which showed a heavy concentration on eel and herring, with more offshore marine taxa towards the end of the period. Of the mammalian and amphibian taxa, frog was particularly common, although not present in hand-collected groups, with black rat and house mouse consistently present. Other small mammals were only common in samples which were dated to the earliest period of Anglo-Scandinavian settlement. Comparison is made with bone assemblages from other sites in northern Europe, and it is concluded that no distinctly Scandinavian traits can be determined in the results. - Rights Holder
- York Archaeological Trust
- Rights
- CC BY 4.0
- Format
- Portable Document Format (PDF)
- Is Format Of
- Paper publication
- Identifier
- GB2837-PUB-AY-15-3
- oclcnum
- 22198844
- Relation
- University of York Library
- isbn10
- 0906780837
- isbn13
- 9780906780831
- Type
- Text
- Language
- English
- page start
- 137
- page end
- 207
- number of pages
- 71
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