Apologies to non British readers of zooarch for airing a
specifically British - i ndeed English - query.
Chris Woolgar, the medieval historian, recently wrote a
paper for a meeting on the consumption of wild birds in
medieval England. There is quite good correspondence with
the birds referred to most often and caught in largest
numbers (which include mallard, teal, woodcock and some
others), but there are some which are described which - as
far as I know - have never or hardly ever been recorded.
The species are: "bittern", "quail", "egret", "pheasant",
"spoonbill", "bustard" and "stork" and "rees"
Has anyone identied any of these, and what do others think
about possible reasons?
Possible reasons are
1. misidentification. This I think is rather unlikely
(except perhaps for pheasant), since so many of the major
collections were identified at Tring, but I would be
interested to know what others think.
2. bones too small for hand retrieval. Of the list, only
quail falls into this category. quail Coturnix is sparse
in sieved samples too.
3. the medieval steward used a term which we would now
apply to another bird. Examples:
"rees". This ought to be (?ruff +) reeve Philomachus
pugnax , but perhaps applies to all middle size waders.
"Spoonbill" may have been used for shoveller, according to
some. Shovellers Anas clypeata might fall into the category
of middle size ducks.
What do others think about the discrepancies?
Dale Serjeantson
Department of Archaeology
University of Southampton
Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Tel: (44) (0)23 8059 3210
Email: [log in to unmask]
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