It's an old aphorism that history is written by the winners; which implies a certain bias in the historical record. Of course, that's even assuming you have a written record at all. Archaeology is a means of learning about our past in ways that don't rely on the written word. While the popular imagination tends to fixate on images of tombs, mummies, and glittering artifacts, there are many different types of archaeology; including the study of animal remains. For instance, the people of Medieval England raised livestock, kept pets, hunted, and often lived with rodents, and studying the remains of those animals can tell us a lot about the lives of the humans that were around them.
This episode's guest, Dr. Naomi Sykes, reveals more about the study of zooarchaeology and some of the ways that she has used it to further our understanding of the Medieval world.
Papers on some of the research projects mentioned in the interview:
In search of the 'great horse': A zooarchaeological assessment of horses from England (AD 300-1650)
Into the Greenwood is produced by Thaddeus Papke
Theme music is by Plastic3
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