Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Apéritif
- Chapter 2 The food itself
- Chapter 3 The packaging
- Chapter 4 The human remains
- Chapter 5 Written evidence
- Chapter 6 Kitchen and dining basics: techniques and utensils
- Chapter 7 The store cupboard
- Chapter 8 Staples
- Chapter 9 Meat
- Chapter 10 Dairy products
- Chapter 11 Poultry and eggs
- Chapter 12 Fish and shellfish
- Chapter 13 Game
- Chapter 14 Greengrocery
- Chapter 15 Drink
- Chapter 16 The end of independence
- Chapter 17 A brand-new province
- Chapter 18 Coming of age
- Chapter 19 A different world
- Chapter 20 Digestif
- Appendix: Data sources for tables
- References
- Index
Chapter 9 - Meat
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Apéritif
- Chapter 2 The food itself
- Chapter 3 The packaging
- Chapter 4 The human remains
- Chapter 5 Written evidence
- Chapter 6 Kitchen and dining basics: techniques and utensils
- Chapter 7 The store cupboard
- Chapter 8 Staples
- Chapter 9 Meat
- Chapter 10 Dairy products
- Chapter 11 Poultry and eggs
- Chapter 12 Fish and shellfish
- Chapter 13 Game
- Chapter 14 Greengrocery
- Chapter 15 Drink
- Chapter 16 The end of independence
- Chapter 17 A brand-new province
- Chapter 18 Coming of age
- Chapter 19 A different world
- Chapter 20 Digestif
- Appendix: Data sources for tables
- References
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Domesticated animals can be kept for reasons other than to provide food. In addition to meat and milk, cattle (or more specifically oxen) were important beasts of burden; pulling carts and farm machinery. Sheep provide wool in addition to meat and milk; and it is only pigs that are solely raised for meat. Judging from the butchery marks seen on cattle and sheep bones, their role in providing meat was important. Nearly all the meat consumed in late Iron Age and Roman Britain came from cattle, sheep and pigs; and virtually all our information about this comes from the animal bone evidence. Using the animal bones to map consumption patterns is fraught with difficulties, some of which have been outlined in Chapter 2, but certain broad patterns do emerge; and it is clear that the meat eaten by different communities depended on spatial, chronological and social factors.
BEEF, LAMB OR PORK?
The study of animal bone from Romano-British sites only became standard practice in the 1970s; prior to that it was not unusual for them to be ignored and discarded. As the number of such studies grew, it became apparent that the proportions of cattle, sheep and pigs present varied in a systematic way on different types of site.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Eating and Drinking in Roman Britain , pp. 80 - 92Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006