For those who enquired about the rabbit and ferret info here is a very, very brief summary….
All of the information I have been able to gather is that the rabbit was an indigenous species in Britain prior to the last ice age however they became extinct. Regarding their re-introduction there appears to be a controversy – while it is implied that they were unsuccessfully introduced by the Romans and then thrived following the Norman Conquest (Williamson 2006) there is some evidence to the contrary.
Albarella and Pirnie (2008) list sites from earlier periods which demonstrate the presence of rabbits in Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, Anglo Saxon sites through to the Medieval sites reviewed.
Recent work by Sykes and Curl (forthcoming publication) raise issues about the integrity of the finds from many sites but also discuss recent evidence of butchered rabbit bones discovered in Lynford, Norfolk from an undisturbed pit which contained pottery dating from the mid to late Iron Age.
As you know ferrets are domesticated polecats therefore I believe that their remains would be difficult to distinguish and evidence of polecats/ferrets have been identified throughout the Iron Age in Hambleton’s (2009) review and from the Roman to Medieval periods by Albarella and Pirnie (2008).
References
Albarella, U. and Pirnie, T., 2008. A review of animal bone evidence from central England.
Hambleton, E., 2009 A review of animal bone evidence from Southern England.
Williamson, T., 2006. The archaeology of rabbit warrens. Bucks : Shire Publications Ltd.
Hope this helps
Steph
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