Roman Butchery

Excavations in advance of redevelopment for a prestigious office building in the east of the City revealed 10 broad phases of activity, ranging between the pre-Roman and post-medieval periods, with a focus on the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.

Roman Fenchurch Street follows the line of earlier ditches. For the first time, the entire width of the Roman road has been exposed, permitting adjustment of its course in the street plan of Londinium. Iron pipe collars demonstrate water management along the street and to the rear of the 2 plots identified on site. The 17 Roman buildings (later 1st–3rd century AD) show mixed domestic and commercial/industrial uses, including metalworking and butchery.

Although disturbed by modern buildings, later Roman finds recovered from medieval and post-medieval pits indicate continuity of activity, but there is a genuine lack of Saxon occupation. A peculiar deposition of animal bone in a medieval pit may provide evidence for ritual/magic practices.

Comparison with the adjacent site of Lloyd’s Register demonstrates the considerable differences that can occur in the occupation history of two adjacent sites. The volume includes reports on the finds and environmental assemblages.

The collapse of the Roman world-system in the 5th century AD implied major political, socio-cultural, and economic changes in the territories of the former Empire and beyond. Animal remains are very well-placed to inform on such developments, due to the importance of specialised food production and distribution practices within the Roman Empire, and to the very different strategies of food provision that characterised early post-Roman Europe. This paper focusses on changes in cattle husbandry during the late Roman-early Anglo-Saxon transition in Britain; this species played a key role in the Roman economy and maintained its importance in the early post-Roman period, alongside the other main domestic animals. In particular, biometrical analyses are employed to assess the fate of Roman improved cattle types, which appeared in these regions as the Empire expanded northwards. The results reveal a size reduction during the early Anglo-Saxon period; this is interpreted in light of the different role and scale of cattle exploitation, and contextualised within the changing political and socio-economic conditions of north-west Europe. Changes in cattle exploitation are also revealed by culling profiles, that suggest a greater focus on meat and dairy products in the early Anglo-Saxon period while, for Roman times, ageing data highlight the importance of cattle in agricultural works. Finally, different approaches to carcass processing have been detected for the two periods; such differences do not only reflect the contrasting scales and objectives of food production, but also reveal the presence of distinctive butchery traditions.