“The Everyday Ritual: Social Practice and the Animalscape”
Clare Rainsford (University of Bradford) and David Roberts (Historic England)

Participation confirmed. Paper abstract not currently available.

“How animals co-created the Romano-British countryside – towards archaeologies of animality”
Adrian M. Chadwick (University of Leicester)

The later Iron Age and Romano-British rural landscape was often divided up into extensive field systems and trackways, with areas of open, unenclosed land on slopes and higher ground, but also in lowland river floodplains; areas which may have seen seasonal movements of people and livestock. Recent theories of relational agency, meshworks and assemblages emphasise significance of non-human actants in the lived-in world, and how the movements and practices of people and animals are intimately interlinked. People and animals were co-creators of these agricultural landscapes, and in turn assemblages of materials and agencies affected them, and their shared movements and memories. Animals would have remembered the same fields, pastures and trackways, and animals too partly shaped trackways, fields, funnels, enclosures and pens through their behaviour.

Agency co-emerged through continuous, subtle shifts in relationships with companion animals such as dogs and horses, and with older, trusted herd leaders that decided which paths to take. People would have been alert to the movements, moods and motivations of their beastly charges, matching their pace and bodily dispositions to those of livestock.

Such close shared experiences with humans are all part of an active, agential culture of the herd, where older sheep may have ‘hefted’ younger animals, cattle and goats brought themselves in from fields or pastures for milking, and pigs followed people attentively around settlements. This paper is a first step towards such embodied, agential archaeologies of animality.

“The Consumption and Ritual Treatment of Animals in Northern Gallic Sanctuaries”
David Rose

Animal bones have been found at the heart of many sanctuaries in northern Gaul in large quantities, and reflect the central role that animals played in the ritual practices of the Gauls. The bones display evidence of various interactions with animals: consumption in communal banquets, chthonic offerings, and the display of sacrificial practice, among other rituals. This paper proposes to trace the differentcourses animals followed from their slaughter to their final deposition in order to understand the nature and purpose of therituals practiced by the Gauls on sacred sites in the late Iron Age and Roman period.

Discussion will address the swine, cattle, sheep, and horse bones from a number of sites, examining the multi-stage treatments of carcasses, the processing and division of remains, and the nature of their final deposition. It will illustrate what the percentages of each species and their variable treatment can tell us about the practices at each site, and the status and uses of the various species. It will also place animal sacrificewithin the context of other ritual practices, such as human sacrifice and weapon dedication, where they inform the significance of rituals involving animals.

This paper will address the considerable variance of practices across sites in northern Gaul, and argue thata number of parallels and patterns may be observed, which reveal shared ritual practices among the Gauls. It will also demonstrate that examination of animal remains can reveal the multifaceted nature of sacrificial practice and ritual treatment, and the ways in which interactions with animals in religious practice changed over time.

“Hunting scenes on mosaics from Roman Africa”
Anna Mech (University of Warsaw)

In 2nd century AD in Roman Africa appeared figural mosaics-a special form of Roman provincial art. They depicted mythological or everyday life scenes and were displayed either in the context of public buildings, such as amphitheatres, or private estates (villae) of influential landlords. Among all the mosaics, those with hunting scenes draw particular attention. The mosaics with hunting scenes contain somewhat general scenes, but with inclusion of original elements of local landscapes and portraits of particular persons. Landlords and their companions hunt for several species of animals which are quite easy to distinguish. They were for example rabbits, boars or lions.The hunters and their horses were also often surrounded by different types of dogs. We can suppose that the hunts took place in further parts of the estates of landlords or in the woods which were in the neighbourhood. The aim of this paper is a comparisonbetween the representations of animals on mosaics from Roman Africa and reality which is known from ancient literary sources or zooarchaeological and biological researches. Moreover, I would like to show how the images of animals influenced the representations of landlords and decided about the hierarchy in ancient African society.

‘This land is your land, this land is my land’. Ownership, attitudes, and animal management systems in northern Britannia
Sue Stallibrass

Studies of Romano-British sites in northern England have noted different types of landuse, land division, animal management systems and cultural practices. The differences tend to be geographically distributed. The eastern lowlands show a greater emphasis on mixed farming, where arable production played an important role alongside livestock management. Some nucleated settlements and some high status sites (villas) are known alongside individual farmsteads; field systems and enclosures are common; and the presence of coinage and ceramics is routine. In the upland areas of central and western areas, livestock management played a much greater role (although still within a mixed farming regime); known settlements are small and dispersed; field systems and enclosures are less well represented; and the use of coinage and ceramics was minimal except around military sites.

These different patterns of landuse and agriculture are still visible in the 21st Century, partly influenced by local differences in agricultural potential that relate to variables of climate, soils and topography. Cultural factorssuch as technology, transport and economics are also important.

The Lake District National Park in northwest England is a rugged area of upland moors, deep lakes and rocky outcrops. Its bid for World Heritage Site status highlights the fact that it contains the largest concentration of Common Land in Britain, with a continuing tradition of collective management. Nationally, Common Land (where many people hold rights of access to specified resources, such as livestock grazing) is declining in Britain, with the largest surviving areas concentrated in the north and west. Historically, the Common Lands can be traced back easily to the 17th Century, but documents earlier than that are scarce.

This paper explores the possibility that livestock management in Romano-British northern Britain can contribute to studies of land ownership, access to resources, and social organisation.

Session Discussant
Terry O’Connor (University of York)

Participation confirmed.