Bones from the General Accident Site, Tanner Row

This is a fascicule ( A section within a book that is being published in installments)
 from Volume 15 (Anima Bones) of the book series "The Archeology of York" (General Editor, .P. V. Addyman; Coordinating Editor, V. E. Black).
Nearly 20 000 bones dating  from the Roman and medieval periods, recovered from 24-30 Tanner Row were studied, including samples obtained by sieving. They give evidence of systematic butchery on a commercial scale during late 2nd - early 3rd century. The pattern of butchering was consistent with the preparation of shoulders of beef for smoking or curing. Beef dominated the meat supply of the Roman town. Very young lambs and piglets were also slaughtered.House mouse and black rat began appearing as infestations in the 2nd Century.  Samples of the garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus L), probably imported from the Continent as a delicacy, were found for the first time in Britain.
Medieval bones were mixed domestic and craft/industrial debris, with goat horncores prominent. A large assemblage of frog bones was studied biometrically. A late Roman deposit of fish bones would suggest the production of fish sauce at St. Mary Bishophill Junior, while the Rougier St. medieval deposits showed a concentration on cod and similar fish.