Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis and Romano-British animal management along the Ridgeway, Oxfordshire

Abstract

The beginning of the Romano-British period in the 1st century AD was marked by changes in agriculture, economy and material culture at varying rates. Rural areas such as Oxfordshire may have been slower to incorporate Roman agriculture practices, possibly as a result of limited demand from urban centres or local conditions. In order to gauge the scope of agricultural continuity in rural areas, this study uses stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of bone and tooth dentine collagen from forty cattle and sheep from five sites from the Chalk Downs of the Ridgeway and the adjacent Vale of the White Horse to determine where these animals grazed. While no significant differences in δ13C are present, the data show a clear distinction in δ15N values, suggesting that herds from the Downs and the Vale were largely kept separately, while a small number of outliers also suggest that some individual animals were moved between different pastures earlier in their lives. This mirrors very similar findings from the Early-Middle Iron Age in the same study area (Schulting et al., 2019), suggesting long-term continuity in at least some aspects of animal husbandry. The results of this study suggest that local environment and the identities of rural communities may have had a major impact in determining which agricultural practices were adopted or rejected.