Imports and Isotopes: A Modern Baseline Study for Interpreting Iron Age and Roman Trade in Fallow Deer Antlers

David Osborne

doi:10.5334/pia-482

Abstract

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"> <span>The European Fallow deer (<em>Dama dama dama</em>) became extinct in the British Isles and most of continental Europe at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, with the species becoming restricted to an Anatolian refugium (Masseti <em>et al</em>. 2008). Human-mediated reintroductions resulted in fallow populations in Rhodes, Sicily, Mallorca, Iberia and other parts of western Europe (Sykes<em> et al.</em> 2013). Eventually, the species was brought to Britain by the Romans during the 1st century AD, with a breeding population being established at Fishbourne Roman Palace (Sykes <em>et al. </em></span><span>2011). The human influence on the present-day distribution of the species makes </span><span>it particularly interesting from a zooarchaeological perspective. </span> <span>This paper describes my MSc research, as part of the AHRC-funded project <em>Dama International: Fallow Deer and European Society 6000 BC–AD 1600</em>, looking at ant- lers from Iron Age and Roman sites in Britain for evidence of trade in body parts and whether this can be elucidated by a parallel stable isotope study of modern fallow antlers of known provenance. </span> </div></div></div>

Highlights

Of all cervids, the European fallow deer (Dama dama dama L.) is of particular interest from a zooarchaeological perspective because it owes its present-day distribution mainly to human influence
Prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (Devensian, Weichselian) fallow deer were widespread across northern Europe but evidence indicates that their range became restricted to refugia in Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham, GB david.osborne@nottingham.ac.uk southern and south-eastern Europe (Stuart 1977; Provan and Bennett 2008; Stewart et al 2010; Stewart and Lister 2001)
Summary The analysis of modern antlers described in this paper has provided some interesting information and comparisons

Summary

Introduction

The European fallow deer (Dama dama dama L.) is of particular interest from a zooarchaeological perspective because it owes its present-day distribution mainly to human influence. Two jaw bones from the site were analysed in detail through a combination of AMS radiocarbon dating and strontium isotope analysis From this it was possible to identify a first generation import (dated to 60 ± 40 cal AD: Beta-201535) while the slightly laterdated mandible (90 ± 40 cal AD: Beta-201534) provided strontium isotope ratios indicative of having been born and raised at Fishbourne: evidence that a breeding population had been established in the Fishbourne area by this time (Sykes 2004; Sykes et al 2006). It seems likely that breeding populations were established here, on the Roman island of Thanet Beyond these two sites, the extent to which fallow deer were managed in Roman Britain has been obscured by the potential trade in body parts, especially since many Roman ( some Iron Age) sites have purported the presence of shed antlers, elements that could have been traded in their own right (see Osborne 2013 and Miller et al 2016)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion