A Review of Animal Bone Evidence from Southern England
Ellen Hambleton, 2009. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000102. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © Dr Ellen Hambleton unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
Dr
Ellen
Hambleton
School of Conservation Sciences
Bournemouth University
Talbot Campus
Fern Barrow
Poole
BH12 5BB
UK
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 883
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000102
- How to cite using this DOI
Overview
In total, the database summarises information from 108 animal bone reports (many dealing with several assemblages of animal bone from different phases of occupation), yielding 154 animal bone assemblages from 101 sites.
The dataset can be queried online (see Query) by site name or location (i.e. county or locality), by site type (according to pre-defined categories), by period, or by taxon. Searches may also be carried out on any part of a bibliographic reference. Any or all of these categories may be included in the search: for instance, it is possible to search for all the Bronze Age sites in Dorset and Hampshire, or to locate one particular site report by author and site name.
Any such query will initially produce a list of records, each of which corresponds to a site report. Clicking on each record will then produce details of that site, according to the database.
Firstly, summary information is given about the site as a whole, including geographical and bibliographic data, general information about the period of occupation of the site and very general information about the methods of recovery and state of preservation of the entitity of animal bone material from the site. The different phases of animal bone assemblages are also listed; clicking on a phase will call up full details of the asemblage for that phase. In many cases, stratigraphic phases as defined in the original reports were combined for the purposes of data analysis into broader categories.
Clicking on a phased assemblage will provide access to further information, including lists of taxa present and quantitative and descriptive information. Information on subjects such as ageing, have been summarised from the site report according to pre-defined categories (for instance, noting 'mostly adults' based on any quantitative discussion of ageing data in the text of the report). Further details of information available for each phased assemblage (e.g. quantitative ageing data, butchery information, availability of metrical data, and presence of Associated Bone Groups) are available by downloading the relevant elements of the database.
Querying the database online allows the user to view details of multiple sites in turn, selected according to the criteria described above. Where more complex searches are required, it may be more useful to download the elements of the database (see Downloads), for which documentation and support is available.
