Animal Bones from Medieval Russia
I have been involved with the Novgorod project since 1993 as the co-ordinator for animal bone assessment and research in the medieval town and on sites in its immediate hinterland including the fortified settlement at Gorodishche. Results from the assessment of these sites and others are being prepared for publication (Maltby forthcoming). Preliminary results of some aspects of this work are already published (see below).
The project has demonstrated that there is great potential in studying animal bones from the town and the results are beginning to demonstrate changes and continuity in how intensively different species were being exploited for meat, milk, fur and other products in Novgorod. Comparisons with assemblages from Gorodishche and at Minino, a site inhabited by those directly involved with the fur trade, are also producing very interesting results and are displaying some significant variations with the material being obtained from Novgorod itself.
One exciting find from this project has been that of a macaque found in medieval levels at Gorodishche, the first discovery of this species in Russia. This find gives a further indication of the wide links that Novgorod had with other parts of Europe, evidence that has in the past been restricted to artefactual and documentary evidence.
Publications
Maltby, M. and Hamilton-Dyer, S. (2001) Animal bone studies in Novgorod and its hinterland. In M. Brisbane and D. Gaimster (eds.), Novgorod: the Archaeology of a Medieval Russian City and its Hinterland. London: British Museum Occasional Paper 141: 119-126.
Brisbane, M. and Maltby, M. (2002) Love letters to bare bones: a comparison of two types of evidence for the use of animals in medieval Novgorod. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 18, 99-119.
Brisbane M, Hambleton E, Maltby M, Nosov, E. 2007, A Monkey’s Tale: The Skull of a Macaque found at Ryurik Gorodishche, near Novgorod, Medieval Archaeology, 51, 185-91.
