A dental microwear study of pig diet and management in Iron Age, Romano-British, Anglo-Scandinavian, and medieval contexts in England

Insight into the diet of domestic animals in the archaeological record can elucidate diverse activities pertaining to ancient agricultural systems, including the utilization of the landscape by livestock and their herders (Bocherens et al. 2001; Bentley et al. 2003; Charles & Bogaard 2005), the impact of livestock farming on the environment (Amorosi et al. 1998; Witt et al. 2000; Mainland 2001), seasonality in husbandry practices (Akeret et al. 1999; Akeret & Rentzel 2001; Charles & Bogaard 2005), animal productivity (Amorosi et al. 1998) and the role of animals in society (Moens & Wetterstom 1988; Mainland & Halstead 2004). Research into the diet of domestic livestock has, however, largely focused on cattle, sheep, and goats (see for example all the references cited above) and it is only relatively recently that palaeodietary studies have begun to consider suid diet/nutrition and its potential value for elucidating the socio-economics of pig husbandry (e.g. Ervynck et al. this volume). This article presents one further such study: an analysis of dental microwear patterning in domestic pigs from selected Late Iron Age to medieval contexts in England, undertaken as part of a wider project into the potential application of dental microwear analysis to the question of pig diet and management in the prehistoric and historic past (Mainland et al. in prep.). Dental microwear analysis, although still primarily used within palaeontology (Teaford 1994; Rose & Ungar 1998), is increasingly being applied in archaeology to reconstruct both human (Rose & Ungar 1998; Schmidt 2001) and animal diet (Beuls et al. 2000; Mainland & Halstead 2004). In common with many other palaeodietary techniques (e.g. Schwarcz & Schoeninger 1991), dental microwear will not identify the consumption of individual foodstuffs but rather reflects broad functional and/or dietary adaptations (Rose & Ungar 1998); for example, browsing vs grazing (Solounias & Hayek 1993), folivory vs frugivory (Teaford & Walker 1984), hard vs soft diet (Teaford & Oyen 1989). Preliminary studies in modern suid populations have indicated that one basic axis of variation in pig diet/management is potentially identifiable using dental microwear, namely the separation of indoor-reared/stall-fed and outdoor reared/rooting populations (Ward & Mainland 1999).