The Festival of British Archaeology at Fishbourne Roman Palace

The Festival of British Archaeology at Fishbourne Roman 

Palace

This year will be my fourth consecutive year helping out at Fishbourne Roman Palace’s Festival of British Archaeology Event (FOBA), so I thought what better way to celebrate this then write about what makes this event so much fun to work on, and why I would urge anyone to come along!

The festival’s main selling point is the archaeological dig at the palace which anyone can join in. The excavation takes place on top of the spoil heaps at the site which are the two large mounds visible near the car park. The spoil heaps were chosen as the best area to excavate to help identify what was missed in the original excavations at the site. From the last four years of working on the spoil heaps, the excavations have shown that roof tile and oyster shells were very commonly ‘missed’ however some smaller finds were also missed as well.

Figure 1: Roman Tesserae found at Fishbourne’s FOBA event. Rare anywhere else in Britain, but if you have a good eye you are likely to find one here!

Over the past 4 years, as well as copious amounts of roof tile and oyster shell, I have seen people unearth building stone used in the palace (Very commonly), pottery and samian ware (quite commonly), Roman Tessearae (Also quite commonly), and animal bone and roman metalwork (A bit rarer). However my top finds from the past working there have to be one of the few Roman coins we have found in the spoil heaps, and my personal favourite which was 5 or 6 tesserae which were still mortared together, a chunk of a now lost mosaic.

As well as having the a large amount of finds, another positive of excavating the spoil heaps is that there is no ‘stratigraphy’ or contexts to record, meaning any levels of experience can come and have a go at digging without worrying about going through anything too important!

The excavation aspect of FOBA can go on for as long or little time as you want, however other activities are available at the site as well. Previous activities have included practicing archaeological drawing (See figure 2), using archaeological equipment such as dumpy levels (See figure 3) and geophysics and finally washing and recording your finds to take to an expert to identify!

Figure 2: Our planning grid/archaeological drawing activity at FOBA.

Figure 3: Our survey equipment/dumpy level activity at FOBA.

Although I can’t say for sure what activities will be available this year, I have been promised that the excavation is going to go ahead and will be one of the biggest yet. So if you fancy a day out excavating one of the most famous archaeological sites in Britain, this is a great opportunity to do so, and have a fun family day out at the same time!

I will be there every day that is not a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. So if you are around one of the days I am there and find something exciting (Preferably bone), remember to bring it to me first!

Fishbourne Roman Palace’s Festival of British Archaeology Event Runs from the 19 – 29^th July. The event is free to all paying visitors to the museum, however there is a suggested donation of £1 per digger to help pay for all the equipment etc that is used by the event.

Ageing Bones through Butchery Methods #1: The Iron Age

Ageing Bones through Butchery Methods #1: The Iron Age

As part of my course in Msc Osteoarchaeology, I have been researching a site called Westward House near Fishbourne. As part of this research I have been looking at identifying who occupied the site from the way they butchered animals which can be seen on the surviving animal bone. The way an animal is butchered varies from period to period. This was first recognised by Maltby (2007) who noted distinct patterns of Roman style butchery, that was unique to the period due to the appearance of specialist butchers for the first time. 

                  For this blog I have looked at the most common type of butchery found on bones from the Iron Age period. To do this I took the most detailed Iron Age butchery analysis available (Wilson 1978) and looked at whether the patterns noted, were reflected on other Iron Age sites, to create a few ‘tell-tale’ signs of an Iron Age butcher. 

Note: The following ‘signs’ have been developed for Cattle due to that being what my research at Westward House is focusing on. I haven’t tested this on other species yet! Some of these signs may also apply to other periods, however if a lot of these signs are occurring they do give a good indication that they are e.g. more likely to be Iron Age than Roman.

Sign #1: The Skull

                               The skull is commonly found in Iron Age deposits due to complete inhumations often being placed at the bottom of pits and ditches. The Iron Age hillfort of Battlesbury Bowl found a number of skulls, a number of which contained evidence of butchery. Cut marks were found around the cranium, eye socket/zygomatic and below the horn cores. This pattern was also found on skulls from Abingdon and Maiden Castle. This has been interpreted as the skinning of the skull to be used as decoration, e.g pole axed or hung.

                               Another sign to look out for on the skull is transverse cuts below the condyles of the mandible and cuts on the maxilla which were used to remove the tongue and cheek meat. This is different from the Roman period, were large cleaver marks are more commonly seen in these areas.

Sign #2: The Scapula

                               The scapula/shoulder blade is often a  focal point of butchery due to it often being used to disarticulate the upper limbs. The analysis of the Abingdon Iron Age material showed that small cut marks were common just behind the glenoid cavity in Iron Age remains. This is a pattern also seen at Maiden Castle and Battlesbury Bowl.

Figure 1: Scapula showing where the small precise cut marks were noted from the Abingdon assemblage. Wilson 1978.

     Sign #3: The Long Bones

                            

                             Long bones show a similar pattern to the scapula, with small fine cut marks being seen around the articulations of bones, for the purpose of disarticulation and meat removal. Common areas where fine knife cuts are seen are the distal Humerus (See figure 2), the Proximal Ulna and Radius (See figure 3) and proximal Metapodials. This method of butchery also appears on Iron Age animal bone assemblages such as Abingdon, Maiden Castle, Norse Road and Battlesbury Bowl. 

Figure 2: Diagram of the Distal Humerus showing where the small precise cut marks were noted from the Abingdon assemblage. Wilson 1978.

Figure 3: Diagram of the Proximal Ulna showing where the cut marks were noted from the Abingdon assemblage. Wilson 1978.

Figure 4: Diagram of Proximal Metapodials showing where the cut marks were noted from the Abingdon assemblage. Wilson 1978.

Sign #4: The Astragalus and Calcaneus

                          The final, and one of the most distinct, Iron Age butchery marks is from the Astragalus and Calcaneus bones. When the Astragalus and Calcaneus are articulated (as shown in figure 5), a large number of transverse cut marks are seen, particularly on the anterior Astragalus. This is a pattern seen on Iron Age sites such as Maiden Castle and Abingdon where they were noted as being ‘prolific’ (Wilson 1978). 

Figure 4: Diagram of the Astragalus and Calcaneus showing where the cut marks were noted from the Abingdon assemblage. Wilson 1978.

Other Iron Age butchery methods have been noted and are worth a mention such as the trimming of the vertebral column and cut marks around the articular areas of vertebrae. However the few ‘Signs’ outlined give a good indication of where typical Iron Age butchery can be seen, and shows how the analysis of butchery can be used to date a bone assemblage.

 Although it is possible that e.g. cut marks on the astragalus can be from the Roman or Medieval periods, when a large assemblage contains a lot of these signs it is likely to be Iron Age. Furthermore, another interesting aspect about Iron Age butchery is the lack of chop and cleaver marks, with small cut marks often being the only type of butchery being seen, almost being as distinctive as the signs outlined above.

Bibliography/Further Reading

Armour-Chelu, M., 1991.  The Faunal Remains.  In: Sharples, N. Maiden Castle: Excavations and Field Survey 1985-1986.  London: English Heritage Archaeological Report. 19, 139-151.

Maltby, M., 2007. Chop and Change: Specialist Cattle Carcass Processing In Roman Britain. In: Croxford, B., Ray, N., Roth, R. and White, N. (Eds.) TRAC 2006: Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Wilson, B., 1978. Methods and Results of Bone Analysis. In: Parrington, M.,1978. The Excavation of an Iron Age Settlement, Bronze Age Ring Ditches and Roman Features at Ashville Trading Estate Abingdon. Oxfordshire: Oxfordshire Archaeological Unit Report 1.