Papers by Ingrid Mainland
Global Vision, Local Action: Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship
Background In the autumn of 2009, the Higher Education Academy's Education for Sustainable D... more Background In the autumn of 2009, the Higher Education Academy's Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Project announced funding for a new tranche of small grant projects. It was stipulated that proposals had to include more than one academic discipline and the maximum amount of funding for each project was£ 5K. We received 96 expressions of interest and invited 25 applicants to submit full applications. Of these, seven were funded and the standard of applications was very high.
ABSTRACT No Until recently, osteological studies into ancient diet and health have primarily focu... more ABSTRACT No Until recently, osteological studies into ancient diet and health have primarily focused upon human remains. As a result, these areas of research are still in their infancy in the field zoo-archaeology. Animals have paid a heavy price for many major human advances, such as those in agriculture and transport. This use (and often abuse) of animals has left many tell-tale signs in their teeth and bones. Along with the many advantages in animal exploitation have also come major problems for humans. Thus, infectious diseases passed from animals to humans must have long played a significant evolutionary role in the development of society. The zooarchaeological record could provide an extremely important temporal framework for exploring and understanding past and current issues of human health and animal welfare. This volume provides one of the first contributions to the field, and may stimulate many more.
Journal of Archaeological Science 2011 Vol 38 Pp 1858 1868 Peer Reviewed Journal, Aug 1, 2011
Abstract The Early Bronze Age barrows at Irthlingborough and Gayhurst in central England are nota... more Abstract The Early Bronze Age barrows at Irthlingborough and Gayhurst in central England are notable for the large number of cattle (Bos taurus) remains associated with their human Beaker burials. Previous work using strontium isotope analysis has indicated that most of the cattle analysed, and one aurochs (Bos primigenius), were of local origin [Towers, J., Montgomery, J., Evans, J., Jay, M., Parker Pearson, M., 2010. An investigation of the origins of cattle and aurochs deposited in the Early Bronze Age barrows at Gayhurst and ...
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 00665983 2011 11020828, Dec 20, 2014
Journal of Archaeological Science, Dec 1, 1998
In recent years, dental microwear analysis has attracted considerable interest as a potential met... more In recent years, dental microwear analysis has attracted considerable interest as a potential method for reconstructing ancient diet. This article presents results from research exploring the potential of dental microwear analysis in the reconstruction of domestic ungulate diet through the quantitative analysis of diet-microwear relationships in modern grazing and fodder-fed sheep and goats. Diet-related microwear patterning is identified in the modern populations examined and it is concluded that with investigation of a wider range of modern diets, dental microwear analysis will emerge as a valuable and insightful approach for the investigation of diet in ancient livestock.
Anthropozoologica, 2007
ABSTRACT It is known that since the beginnings of domestication human communities have, in one wa... more ABSTRACT It is known that since the beginnings of domestication human communities have, in one way or another, restricted the activity of their livestock in order to gain better control of the animal management process. The exact nature of this human-animal relationship, ...
Arctic Anthropol, 2005
Insight into the relative importance of sheep and goat herding and of the economic significance o... more Insight into the relative importance of sheep and goat herding and of the economic significance of each species (i.e., milk vs. meat vs. wool) in Medieval Greenland is obtained through the application of Halstead et al.'s (2002) criteria for the identification of adult ovicaprine mandibles to faunal assemblages from three Norse farmsteads: Sandnes, V52a, and Ø71S. The economic strategies identified are broadly comparable between the two species and the Eastern and Western Settlement sites examined, and are suggestive of the subsistence production of meat and milk. Comparison with farmsteads elsewhere in Greenland indicates that socio-economic status and/or farmstead size interacted with geographical location in determining the economic strategies employed by the Norse farmers. A broader use of resources and a more varied diet are evident at larger farmsteads in Greenland and this paper suggests that such sites would have been better able than their smaller counterparts to withstand environmental deterioration during the early Middle Ages. These analyses have also confirmed that goats were relatively more common in Norse sites in Greenland than in Norse sites in Iceland, Orkney, or Shetland.
Environmental Archaeology, 2016
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2015
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2000
The potential of dental microwear for recognizing the use of seaweed as fodder in the past is exp... more The potential of dental microwear for recognizing the use of seaweed as fodder in the past is explored through the analysis of microwear patterning in modern seaweed-eating and grazing sheep from Orkney. Seaweed-eating and grazing sheep are clearly distinguished on the ...
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2005
Archaeological Journal, 2011
Evolution; international journal of organic evolution, 2014
Island evolution may be expected to involve fast initial morphological divergence followed by sta... more Island evolution may be expected to involve fast initial morphological divergence followed by stasis. We tested this model using the dental phenotype of modern and ancient common voles (Microtus arvalis), introduced onto the Orkney archipelago (Scotland) from continental Europe some 5000 years ago. First, we investigated phenotypic divergence of Orkney and continental European populations and assessed climatic influences. Second, phenotypic differentiation among Orkney populations was tested against geography, time, and neutral genetic patterns. Finally, we examined evolutionary change along a time series for the Orkney Mainland. Molar gigantism and anterior-lobe hypertrophy evolved rapidly in Orkney voles following introduction, without any transitional forms detected. Founder events and adaptation appear to explain this initial rapid evolution. Idiosyncrasy in dental features among different island populations of Orkney voles is also likely the result of local founder events follo...
Science, 2009
The domestication of livestock represented a crucial step in human history. By using endogenous r... more The domestication of livestock represented a crucial step in human history. By using endogenous retroviruses as genetic markers, we found that sheep differentiated on the basis of their "retrotype" and morphological traits dispersed across Eurasia and Africa via separate migratory episodes. Relicts of the first migrations include the Mouflon, as well as breeds previously recognized as…
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2006
The management of ovicaprines by the Medieval Norse farmers in Greenland is explored using dental... more The management of ovicaprines by the Medieval Norse farmers in Greenland is explored using dental microwear analysis. Adult and juvenile ovicaprines from Norse contexts in Greenland are shown to exhibit microwear patterns very different to those in modern ...
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2011
Abstract The Early Bronze Age barrows at Irthlingborough and Gayhurst in central England are nota... more Abstract The Early Bronze Age barrows at Irthlingborough and Gayhurst in central England are notable for the large number of cattle (Bos taurus) remains associated with their human Beaker burials. Previous work using strontium isotope analysis has indicated that most of the cattle analysed, and one aurochs (Bos primigenius), were of local origin [Towers, J., Montgomery, J., Evans, J., Jay, M., Parker Pearson, M., 2010. An investigation of the origins of cattle and aurochs deposited in the Early Bronze Age barrows at Gayhurst and ...
Journal of Archaeological Science, 1998
In recent years, dental microwear analysis has attracted considerable interest as a potential met... more In recent years, dental microwear analysis has attracted considerable interest as a potential method for reconstructing ancient diet. This article presents results from research exploring the potential of dental microwear analysis in the reconstruction of domestic ungulate diet through the quantitative analysis of diet-microwear relationships in modern grazing and fodder-fed sheep and goats. Diet-related microwear patterning is identified in the modern populations examined and it is concluded that with investigation of a wider range of modern diets, dental microwear analysis will emerge as a valuable and insightful approach for the investigation of diet in ancient livestock.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2003
Microwear patterns and formation processes are examined in modern browsing and grazing Gotland sh... more Microwear patterns and formation processes are examined in modern browsing and grazing Gotland sheep from Denmark. Clear differences in microwear patterning are identified between Gotland sheep, which included a high proportion of leaves, bark and twigs of deciduous trees and shrubs in their diet, and those which primarily had access to graze species, with the browsing group exhibiting enamel surfaces dominated by pitted microwear features, the grazers a predominance of striations. Analysis of abrasives in dung suggests that these trends can be attributed to higher levels of soil ingestion in the grazing population and are a consequence both of grassland management practices and height of feeding within the vegetation canopy. These findings question previous interpretations of microwear patterning in browsing and grazing ungulates, which have equated striated enamel features with the ingestion of high levels of opal phytoliths, and thus have significant implications for palaeodietary reconstruction in such species, both within archaeological and palaeontological contexts. To address further the implications of these results, comparison is made between the Gotland sheep and modern grazing and fodder-fed sheep and goats from elsewhere in Europe. It is concluded that dental microwear analysis has the potential to address questions relating to grassland management practices and the use of certain fodders, such as leafy-hay, but that it may ultimately prove more difficult to distinguish 'fresh' browsing sheep from some grazing populations, specifically those in which levels of soil ingestion are reduced.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2014
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Papers by Ingrid Mainland