The acquisition of domestic equids in Roman Britain : the identification of domestic equids and case study with isotopic analyses
Domestic equids, namely, horses (Equus caballus), donkeys (Equus asinus), and their hybrid offspring, mules (Equus caballus x Equus asinus), played an essential role in the Roman world. As pack animals, they served in both public and private sectors in the Roman daily life. According to written sources, mules in particular were used predominantly as pack animals by the military and enabled the transport of troops, the transport of supplies, and large weaponry to every corner of the empire. The production of mules requires the presence of both male donkey and female horse, and thus mule breeding in northern Europe would necessitate the importation of donkeys to regions outside of their natural distribution and/or the import of mules from elsewhere. The importation and export of domestic equids has indeed been described in historical sources but not recognised in the zooarchaeological record. As a result, the significant predominance of horses over donkeys and mules in Roman Britain is not currently well understood. This is mainly due to the issue of species identification. The thesis aims to refine the existing methods and develop new techniques to more accurately distinguish between different domestic equid
Chuang, Richard
The acquisition of domestic equids in Roman Britain : the identification of domestic equids and case study with isotopic analyses. Domestic equids, namely, horses (Equus caballus), donkeys (Equus asinus), and their hybrid offspring, mules (Equus caballus x Equus asinus), played an essential role in the Roman world. As pack animals, they served in both public and private sectors in the Roman daily life. According to written sources, mules in particular were used predominantly as pack animals by the military and enabled the transport of troops, the transport of supplies, and large weaponry to every corner of the empire. The production of mules requires the presence of both male donkey and female horse, and thus mule breeding in northern Europe would necessitate the importation of donkeys to regions outside of their natural distribution and/or the import of mules from elsewhere. The importation and export of domestic equids has indeed been described in historical sources but not recognised in the zooarchaeological record. As a result, the significant predominance of horses over donkeys and mules in Roman Britain is not currently well understood. This is mainly due to the issue of species identification. The thesis aims to refine the existing methods and develop new techniques to more accurately distinguish between different domestic equid
acquisition domestic roman_britain identification domestic case_study isotopic_analysis domestic namely horse hybrid offspring play essential role roman_world pack animal serve public_private sector roman daily_life according write_source particular use predominantly pack animal military enable transport troop transport supply large weaponry every corner empire production require presence male female horse thus breed northern_europe would necessitate importation region outside natural distribution and import elsewhere importation export domestic indeed describe historical_source recognise zooarchaeological record significant predominance horse roman_britain currently well_understood mainly_due issue specie_identification aim refine exist method develop_new technique accurately distinguish_different domestic