The introduction of the brown hare to Britain and its bio-cultural impact: zooarchaeological and morphometric approaches

The introduction of new fauna is almost without exception not solely about enriching human diet. Instead, non-native fauna can be linked with the arrival new cultural phenomena, especially in the realm of religion. The religious and secular festival of Easter provides a case study with which to expl...

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Main Author: Fowler, Thomas
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/63763/
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author Fowler, Thomas
author_facet Fowler, Thomas
author_sort Fowler, Thomas
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The introduction of new fauna is almost without exception not solely about enriching human diet. Instead, non-native fauna can be linked with the arrival new cultural phenomena, especially in the realm of religion. The religious and secular festival of Easter provides a case study with which to explore this phenomenon in the British archaeological and historical record, as its three associated animals - the brown hare, European rabbit, and chicken - are all not native to Britain. But, the circumstances and timing of the introduction of the brown hare (Lepus europaeus) to Britain have never been tackled with the aid of zooarchaeological evidence because zooarchaeologists have lacked the methods necessary to securely separate zooarchaeological brown hare remains from those of Britain’s native lagomorph, the Scottish mountain hare (Lepus timidus). This thesis establishes a zooarchaeological baseline for the timing and cultural impact of the brown hare’s introduction to Britain. It develops an identification method using traditional, linear morphometrics to separate brown and mountain hares in British populations and applies this to method to archaeological hare remains.
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language English
English
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publishDate 2020
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spelling nottingham-637632025-02-28T15:06:55Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/63763/ The introduction of the brown hare to Britain and its bio-cultural impact: zooarchaeological and morphometric approaches Fowler, Thomas The introduction of new fauna is almost without exception not solely about enriching human diet. Instead, non-native fauna can be linked with the arrival new cultural phenomena, especially in the realm of religion. The religious and secular festival of Easter provides a case study with which to explore this phenomenon in the British archaeological and historical record, as its three associated animals - the brown hare, European rabbit, and chicken - are all not native to Britain. But, the circumstances and timing of the introduction of the brown hare (Lepus europaeus) to Britain have never been tackled with the aid of zooarchaeological evidence because zooarchaeologists have lacked the methods necessary to securely separate zooarchaeological brown hare remains from those of Britain’s native lagomorph, the Scottish mountain hare (Lepus timidus). This thesis establishes a zooarchaeological baseline for the timing and cultural impact of the brown hare’s introduction to Britain. It develops an identification method using traditional, linear morphometrics to separate brown and mountain hares in British populations and applies this to method to archaeological hare remains. 2020-12-11 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc_nd https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/63763/1/fowler-t-2020-introduction-brown-hare-britain.pdf application/pdf en cc_by_nc_sa https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/63763/3/appendix.zip Fowler, Thomas (2020) The introduction of the brown hare to Britain and its bio-cultural impact: zooarchaeological and morphometric approaches. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Easter osteometrics place-names zooarchaeology non-native introduction brown hare
spellingShingle Easter
osteometrics
place-names
zooarchaeology
non-native
introduction
brown hare
Fowler, Thomas
The introduction of the brown hare to Britain and its bio-cultural impact: zooarchaeological and morphometric approaches
title The introduction of the brown hare to Britain and its bio-cultural impact: zooarchaeological and morphometric approaches
title_full The introduction of the brown hare to Britain and its bio-cultural impact: zooarchaeological and morphometric approaches
title_fullStr The introduction of the brown hare to Britain and its bio-cultural impact: zooarchaeological and morphometric approaches
title_full_unstemmed The introduction of the brown hare to Britain and its bio-cultural impact: zooarchaeological and morphometric approaches
title_short The introduction of the brown hare to Britain and its bio-cultural impact: zooarchaeological and morphometric approaches
title_sort introduction of the brown hare to britain and its bio-cultural impact: zooarchaeological and morphometric approaches
topic Easter
osteometrics
place-names
zooarchaeology
non-native
introduction
brown hare
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/63763/