West Stow West Zooarchaeology

Introduction

These faunal remains were collected from excavations conducted in advance of the construction of a new Visitors' Centre at West Stow. The excavations uncovered early Anglo-Saxon structures as well as a substantial quantity of animal remains. These are part of the same site that was excavated by Stanley West from 1965-72. The new data suggest that the site was far larger than was originally thought.

Data from West Stow West are also included in the publication: Crabtree, P. J. And Campana, D. V., 2014: "Wool Production, Wealth and Trade in Middle Saxon England" In Arbuckle, B. S. and McCarty, S., eds. Animals and Inequality in the Ancient World. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, pp. 335-351. Available for purchase at: https://upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/1996-animals-and-inequality-in-the-ancient-world

A preliminary report has been submitted to the Suffolk County Archaeological Unit, and we expect that the final publication will be included in a future volume of East Anglian Archaeology.

Methodology

The methods used are the same as those that were used to describe the original West Stow faunal assemblage. These are described in detail in Crabtree (1990, see below). Ribs and vertebrae (except for atlas, axis, and sacrum) were excluded from the calculations of species ratios in the published data in order to make these results comparable to those from the original West Stow excavations.

Potential Applications of Data

These data add to the increasing body of evidence for early Anglo-Saxon animal husbandry and hunting.

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