Animal Bone Metrical Archive Project (ABMAP)
University of Southampton, 2003. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000350. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © Dale Serjeantson unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
Dale
Serjeantson
Research Fellow
Archaeology
University of Southampton
Avenue Campus
Highfield
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
England
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 348
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000350
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
The Animal Bone Metrical Archive (ABMAP) database contains 68010 measurements from 26984 bones of domestic animals from more than 100 archaeological assemblages from excavations in southern Britain. The mammals included are cattle, sheep/goat, sheep, goat, pig, horse and dog and the birds included are domestic fowl and goose. The assemblages are from all periods from Neolithic to modern, with most from the later periods.
The database gives zooarchaeologists and others the opportunity to find data with which to compare their own individual bone or assemblage and to research size change in domestic animals from prehistory to the present day.
The measurements and definitions follow those of Driesch (1976) A Guide to the Measurement of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites with a few from other sources. The sources for measurements are listed in the Overview.
How to use the database
From the Query page, you can search the database and download the results to your own computer. The Query page contains hints to help you formulate your queries and further assistance and information can be obtained by clicking on Help on the navigation bar. The Overview page also gives details of the data fields and has some hints and tips for the most efficient means of retrieving data.
Feedback
Try it out - and if you have found the data useful, please complete the Feedback form. If you have a large database of measurements from an assemblage which could usefully be made more widely available, we may eventually be able to add it to ABMAP. Please contact us if you have data - published or unpublished - which could be added, with a note of the period(s) and number of measured bones.
