On the 2nd of April,
the UCD Archaeological Society were host to Dr Julia Best from Bournemouth University. Her talk, “Matters
Most Fowl: Investigating Chickens in the Archaeological Record” was part of a
wider project “Cultural and Scientific Perceptions of Human – Chicken Interactions.”
Various universities are working together on this project, including the
universities of Bournemouth, Cardiff, Southampton, Oxford, York, Nottingham,
Leicester and Roehampton. I have to say I never knew there was so much to know
about chickens!
Today there are approximately 20
billion chickens on earth, and they serve a variety of purposes. They are food,
pets and even in some places have religious importance! However, their role in
the past has been overlooked, partially because of the difficulties involved in
recovering and identifying chicken remains.
Chickens were domesticated in
South East Asia, from jungle fowl. There is a lively debate surrounding their
exact origins, but it most likely took place in China in 8000BC and spread
westwards. There are remains in India dating to the 3rd millennium
BC, and the first reliable European dates are found in Bulgaria, in 1000BC.
They reach Britain by 100BC, although there are some rare remains before this.
Chickens are also represented in
the archaeological record by material culture. A chicken brooch has been found
in Reinhem Hesse dating to the 4th century BC. It was included in a
high status burial. In Britain, a collection bronze coins dating to the Late
Iron Age are inscribed with chicken imagery. These objects give us an insight
into the importance of chickens in ritual and cosmology. In West Deeping, a
whole bird was recovered from under a doorway, it has been hypothesised that
this is linked to fertility. Chickens have also been recovered from mortuary
contexts, and sometimes represent exotic trade links.
In Roman Britain, chickens were
hugely important. They are frequently included in burials, either on platters
to serve as food, cremated or whole in pots. In other burials chicken ornaments
are included rather than the chicken itself. The cockerel is linked to Mercury
in Roman mythology. Mercury helped people to move from life to the otherworld,
and is also connected with the coming of the day. This may explain the presence
of chickens in burials. In Uley there was a Roman temple dedicated to Mercury,
and significant amounts of male chicken bone has been recovered from the site,
possibly linked to ritual activities.
Chickens in the past had
different morphology from modern chickens, as they were not bred to be as large
as chickens today. The osteological remains show that morphology also changed
in the past, which can tell us about disease and living conditions. Following
domestication, there are higher levels of osteopetrosis, as chickens were kept
in close proximity and disease spread quickly. At a site in Lyminge, Kent,
chicken remains show evidence for viral arthritis, probably a result of the
marshy living conditions. At a Roman site in Belgium, hundreds of broken bones
have been found, that may represent a cockfighting arena.
Osteological features can also
tell us about what features were important in the past. Crested skulls , five
toed legs and yellow legs were all seen as rare and therefore important. Today
these traits are more common as they were bred for in the past. Indeed it is
rare to see a chicken with grey or red legs, which were originally the norm.
The presence of a spur, in either
male or female chickens was seen as high status. Larger spurs were preferable,
and was related to display and prestige. However, it may also be related to the
advantages it presented in cockfighting.
Scientific analysis of the
composition of bone can also reveal a lot. A burial site in Vienna dating to
the 7th century AD, shows that chickens with higher levels of
protein were associated with higher status burials. The people they were buried
with also had higher levels of protein. This suggests the chickens were fed
scraps off the table.
When talking about chickens it is
important not to forget eggs. A wild jungle fowl will have a clutch of 4-7 eggs
per year. However, this was increased due to selective breeding during and
after domestication. Originally eggs probably played a small part in diet,
however that increased significantly under the Romans. The Chester Amphitheatre
in Britain (70-80AD) shows that eggs
were sold as snacks during plays and were important in the diet.
The medullary bone in hens is
made of calcium for the eggshell, which depletes and replenishes as the hen
goes through the different stages of laying eggs. This can allow the bird to be
sexed, as well as revealing how important eggs were in the diet. An assemblage
with high levels of medullary bone represents a society that used eggs
regularly, lower levels suggests eggs were less important.
An interesting study in the Outer
and Inner Hebrides Islands, Scotland compares the levels of wild seabird and
chicken bones. A settlement at Bornais shows a gradual increase in chicken
following their introduction at 400-800AD. However, there was still a reliance
on wild seabirds. Following analyses, it was found that 40% of the chicken bone
was medullary. This suggests that chicken were exploited for eggs, while
seabirds were used for meet.
This seminar covered a wide
geographical and chronological range, with a focus on the osteology. The
project covers many other areas, including material culture, genetics and many
others.
If you are interested in finding out more, they can be found at
scicultchickens.org or on Twitter @Chicken_project.
Many thanks to Dr Julia Best for
a truly egg-cellent seminar.
By Patricia Kenny
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