Archaeozoology

Edinburgh, Blackfriars Street

SUAT was commissioned to write the report on the well-preserved animal bone assemblage from an excavation undertaken by GUARD on the site of the former Blackfriars Monastery, Edinburgh.

For many years, the only available published faunal report for Edinburgh dealt with sites excavated south of the High Street in the 1970s. Two decades passed before the Holyrood Parliament site was excavated; currently this report is at press. Work carried out in the Cowgate by Headland Archaeology also produced a substantial faunal assemblage, derived from extensive midden deposits, also written up by SUAT, but as yet unpublished. The animal bone assemblage from Blackfriars is a thus very useful and important addition to the corpus of knowledge regarding the environment of medieval Edinburgh.

Most of the animal bone collections recovered in Scotland come from the north-eastern seaboard, from the medieval burghs of Perth, Aberdeen, Elgin, Inverness and St Andrews. Sites in the Lothians and Borders either do not preserve animal bones, or remain largely unpublished. Because of this lack of comparable sites, it has been easy to assume that livestock husbandry models based on north-easterly burghs would hold true for the rest of Scotland. While the medieval economy was heavily reliant on animal-based resources for its primary products, for example meat, hides, wool, woolfells and other skins, the proportion of cattle has always been judged to be higher than that from sheep/goats. However, it appears that at the more southerly sites of Edinburgh and Peebles in the Scottish Borders, sheep remains may be more numerous than cattle, perhaps because of the influence of the great Borders religious houses.

In the later medieval period, an important trade took place between Edinburgh and Bruges in the Low Countries, involving hides, wool, woollen cloth and skins. On the evidence of the Exchequer Rolls, Edinburgh raised more revenue on wool, woolfells (sheepskins) and woollen cloth between 1460 and 1599 than any other Scottish burgh. Bones from medieval sites in Edinburgh, including the Holyrood Parliament site, the Cowgate and Blackfriars Street may provide the physical evidence of this trade.

A further notable difference between animal bone assemblages from Edinburgh and elsewhere in Scotland is the high proportion of polled, or naturally hornless sheep encountered. Elsewhere in the north-east of Scotland, most of the sheep bore fairly large horns, and further north, particularly at Perth and Aberdeen, four-horned (polycerate) sheep are occasionally encountered.

Polled sheep skulls from Blackfriars, Edinburgh

The occurrence of rabbits at Blackfriars Street is also notable since there are few known Scottish sites of medieval or late medieval date from which their bones have been recovered, although their presence is attested by documentary records, for example from Coupar Angus Abbey. The earliest rabbit warren in Scotland is recorded at Crail, in 1262-6. Their introduction to Britain from Spain or southern France was not without difficulties, as rabbits took some time to adapt to the colder, damp environmental conditions prevailing in Scotland. Rabbit bones have been recovered in later and post-medieval deposits elsewhere in Edinburgh and the Canongate, but there is very little undisputed evidence of their presence at earlier medieval sites in the north-east of Scotland (due to the animals’ habit of burrowing through archaeological deposits). In 16th century Edinburgh, rabbits seem to have become more widely available: in the year 1553, the price of the best quality ‘cunnyng’ (rabbit) was eighteen pence.

Horse skull from barrel well, Blackfriars, Edinburgh

Warren Field, Crathes

A small assemblage of Neolithic date from Warren Field, Crathes was submitted for analysis by Murray Archaeological Services. Although the bone collection consisted of only four samples, it is one of a very few assemblages of this date from mainland Scotland and is thus of some interest. Possible sheep remains were amongst the bones found in what may have been a foundation deposit, indicating not only that animal husbandry was practised at the site, but the remains may have some ritual significance.

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