9.5.6 Medieval

This period is most conveniently considered in two parts: the urban sphere of the burgh, and its rural hinterland.

Urban

While animal bone can be a frequent find on excavations, in Scotland their survival depends on factors such as soil acidity, and waterlogging. Perth, an urban area with a high water table and a local river with a propensity to flood, has excellent conditions for the preservation of organic materials in, for example middens, which can retain their characteristic smell after centuries have passed. The Tay and its tributaries have flooded the burgh repeatedly over the medieval period and since (Bowler 2004). Substantial animal bone and molluscan assemblages have been retrieved from excavations here. The most abundant which was 75–77 High Street, one of the earliest to be investigated and carried out in advance of development in the 1970s (Hodgson et al 2011). Leather remains, textiles and textile working tools, themselves evidence of activities involving animal products, were also abundant finds (Dransart 2012; Thomas 2012).

Similar assemblages have been recovered through subsequent archaeological work in Perth. Being led by urban development the location of the sites excavated has not been driven by specific research questions such as targeting the foci of animal-based activities. Industries which produced noxious smells (tanning, skinning) or were fire hazards (tallow rendering) were likely to be located on the edges of the burgh. An example is the area around Curfew Row which was historically known for tanning due to its proximity to the town lade where water could be sourced and effluent disposed of. Opportunities to excavate have tended to be on sites within the core of the burgh, with only a few, such as Whitefriars (Tullilum) outwith its bounds. Notable sites where large, well-stratified animal bone assemblages have been recovered include 80–86 High Street (Moloney and Coleman 1997), King Edward Street, and Mill Street (Bowler et al 1995), Kirk Close (Holdsworth 1987), and Scott Street and Meal Vennel (Cox 1996). Notably South Street remains relatively unexplored with only one major development leading to full scale excavation within recent decades (Stronach 2003). Canal Street and South Methven Street on the outer edges of the burgh have also seen investigation and the retrieval of useful bone assemblages (Blanchard 1983; Holdsworth 1987; Coleman 1996). Smaller but still important assemblages are associated with the friaries of Perth including Blackfriars (Bowler et al 1995) and Whitefriars (Stones 1989; Hall forthcoming).

Bone assemblages from such sites are not without interpretation problems. The results can raise as many questions as are answered, partly due to the ad hoc nature of excavation in response to development. An extended watching brief in St John’s Square produced abundant animal remains, along with other finds, from piling holes and trenches (Perry and Coleman 2016). The faunal remains provided glimpses of antler- and leather-working (Perry and Coleman 2016). 

Skinnergate, once the main access route to the medieval town via the North Port, has seen significant development over the last two decades. This area is known from documentary sources and its name to have been the focus of the Glover Incorporation’s activities. It is one example of the clustering of members of particular crafts or callings. The Fleshers were located mainly in South Street, which as noted has not seen the same level of recent development and therefore archaeological investigation as the High Street. A map of watching briefs carried out in Perth shows how few small-scale interventions have been recorded in South Street (Smith et al 2016). We might look in future to this area for answers to questions about the fleshing craft. Other small-scale industries based on animal resources were carried out by workers not yet admitted to the Glover craft. For example, we know that there are foci for the skinning of small animals, mainly cats and dogs, for their pelts in the High Street (Hodgson et al 2011) and that antler working took place in St John Street (Smith 2016). Deposits of cattle horn cores are abundant at sites in the High Street, and associated with both skinning and leather-working (recognised crafts later associated with the glovers) and the less prestigious working of horns and antlers. Other significant deposits of horn cores have been found at sites further from the core of the burgh, at Canal Street and South Methven Street. This may imply the flitting of what must have been a noxious industry to the outskirts of the burgh (Smith 1996, 812–3; Smith and Hodgson 1987, 197).

The most abundant bone remains in Perth are those of cattle, and while sheep/goats are always present, and plentiful, the proportion of these two domesticates to each other is not always the same at every site. This may be due to retrieval bias, or to the methods used to calculate abundance. For example, large fragments are easier to see and recover, therefore there is an assumed bias towards larger animals. Also, the bones of younger animals are less densely mineralised and therefore may survive less well.

Taking factors such as differential survival into account, a picture of Perth in the 12th–15th centuries has emerged which reveals an economy firmly based on primary products derived from domestic animals, principally cattle and sheep. Documentary sources such as the Exchequer Rolls confirm these products as hides, wool and woolfells while the Perth Guildry Book (Stavert 1993, 216) confirms the exportation of the skins of smaller animals. Horses and pigs were an important part of the faunal economy, but their use could be considered as domestic rather than commercial. The species which generated revenue in the forms of taxes and customs were cattle and sheep. The role of goats is poorly understood but they played a small but significant part in both the domestic sphere (milk and meat) and the commercial (suppliers of skins). Animals raised in the hinterlands of the burghs were therefore of prime importance to the economy not only of our area but of Scotland as a whole. A smaller number, which we can surmise by the presence of byres and enclosures or stockpens, were kept in the Perth backlands themselves (Coleman 2004, 312).

Synthetic accounts of Perth assemblages have formed part of the concluding chapter of the 75–77 High Street environmental report (Smith 2011, 81–94) and of specific animals within medieval burghs – dogs, cats and horses (Smith 1998) and pigs (Smith 2000). Recent reworking of past morphological data from 75–77 High Street has shown that previous conclusions regarding the small stature of domestic livestock in the late medieval period of Perth still hold up in the face of statistical testing (Nevin 2018). There is some scope for revisiting past animal bone assemblages and adding to the original dataset of morphological measurements made at the time of initial analysis and recording.

Besides mammal and fish bones, which are indicative of local and national trade, bird bones and mollusc shell provide important information about the local environment. Excavations at 75–77 High Street produced an abundant bird bone assemblage, indicating the importance of domestic fowl and geese, and a relative lack of evidence of domesticated ducks. Wild anatids – geese, ducks and swans, although present in relatively small numbers, do however indicate the exploitation of wetland resources, such as the estuary and its littoral. Further habitats, such as moorland and woodland were also exploited, as the presence of wild galliform species such as black grouse and their raptor predators attests (Smith and Clarke 2011). Excavations in upland areas where species such as ptarmigan originated have to date failed to provide similar information on avian remains, due probably to unfavourable burial conditions (acid soils; cremation of remains, whether accidentally or deliberately).

Large wild mammals such as red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) are found in low but persistent levels within burgh assemblages and are further evidence of the exploitation of hinterland species. Fallow deer (Dama dama), a later introduction, have so far not been identified. Medium-sized wild mammals such as badger (Meles meles) are present but uncommon; one example of badger has been found at Meal Vennel (Smith 1996, 793). Foxes (Vulpes vulpes), caught for their fur, are probably present at many sites in Perth, but fragments are almost indistinguishable from those of small dogs, which were also exploited for fur/skins.

Evidence of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is also scant in Perth and so far dating their remains has been problematic due to their habit of burrowing. However, recent radiocarbon analysis of a rabbit bone from South Street, St Andrews has shown a late medieval date of AD 1320–1392 (Hall and Smith 2017, 177). Verification of a medieval date of introduction of this species to Perthshire may therefore be possible from samples already excavated. Rabbit warrens were part of the economy of religious houses such as the abbey of Coupar Angus but as yet there is no direct archaeological evidence for the practice (Coupar Angus Rental Book).

Fish bones do survive well in Perth but have probably been under-represented at sites other than 75–77 High Street (Jones 2011), in part to a lack of targeted sieving strategies. This should be considered if further large-scale excavation is carried in the future.

Oyster shells are as abundant in late medieval Perth, as other north-east coast burghs such as Montrose, Arbroath and Aberdeen itself. Inland burghs such as Kinross and Auchterarder are less well represented in terms of their past excavation but may yield results in future. So far, we are unaware of the origin of the oysters. It may be the Forth, which was home to a flourishing shellfish industry in the later 18th and 19th centuries, but the Tay may well also have been home to oyster beds (Heppel et al 2011). Future excavation/analysis may provide further information on their origin particularly if isotopic analysis can be applied to museum assemblages such as those that still exist for Perth watching briefs (Smith et al 2016). Other marine species found in Perth are mussels, wulks, buckies and limpets. Freshwater pearl mussels have also been found at 75–77 High Street and at Horse Cross (Heppel et al 2011, 62; Smith 2007, 186), presumed to originate in the Tay or its tributaries.

Rural

In contrast to the excellent condition of urban waterlogged material, sites in rural upland areas, where the soil is thin and acidic, have produced far fewer animal remains. Typically the survival of unburnt bones in upland areas is poor and most of the information comes from bones which have been subjected to high temperatures. Cremation of both human and animal bone leads to a restructuring of the remaining inorganic material into a crystalline form more able to survive burial conditions (Mays 1998, 207–9). However, there is always so much fragmentation that only the most compact elements survive in a recognisable form. Animal bones recovered from, for example Castle Craig (Poller forthcoming), are typical of such cremated bone assemblages but which are nevertheless important indicators of livestock husbandry in the rural rather than the urban sphere.

Rare exceptions do however occur, however, as at Lair, Glen Shee (Strachan et al 2019). While these are of earlier date period, they do indicate the potential for survival outside of the urban centres.

Evidence of the interaction of the rural with the urban economy, for the moment, serves as a proxy for the species present within the environment of the hinterland (see Environmental Conclusions, Perth High Street Fasc 4: Smith 2011).

Zoonotic diseases

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the importance of animals as hosts for novel viruses sharply into focus, but other classes of micro-organisms shared between humans and animals have in the past had equally catastrophic consequences. The plague bacillus (Yersinia pestis) is the best known, and its DNA has recently been identified in early medieval human remains from Edix Hill, Cambridgshire (Keller et al 2019). Plague has yet to be identified in skeletal material from Perth and the relationship with rodent vectors established. To date, very little real evidence of black rats (Rattus rattus) has been recovered from medieval Scotland. In the future, sampling strategies that are designed to recover small mammal evidence should be considered.

Tuberculosis (TB) may also have animal as well as human vectors: cattle, and less frequently sheep, are affected by Mycobacterium bovis which is easily transmissible to humans via droplets found in animal breath. This may have been a factor in medieval dwellings shared by humans and animals, or via infected milk (Mays 2005). A possible route for investigation would be DNA analysis of human bone displaying potential palaeopathological evidence of TB. Several human bone assemblages exist in museum storage which could be re-examined.

Research Priorities

Burgh of Perth: There needs to be an agenda for research into future urban development areas, eg Skinnergate, which is not yet excavated, but likely to be the subject of development; There are also likely future developments in South Street possible in light of reconfigured shopping streets. While the Thimblerow development  was cancelled/postponed it is likely to re-emerge. Future excavations have the potential to produce large artefact and ecofact assemblages.

Other burghs: evidence for important burghs in Perth and Kinross besides Perth itself is sparse. Scone could provide useful information: the late Dr Oliver O’Grady carried out survey and excavations that recovered a faunal assemblage, which is as yet unpublished

Rural hinterlands: Few sites of this date ‘without the burgh’ have produced animal bone. Deer parks might prove interesting in future.

Existing data and archives: There is no complete digital database of faunal material from Perth. There is also an ongoing demand from research students and others to know quickly and easily whether particular assemblages exist, where they are held and how to access them.

Unpublished sites: Some important sites remain unpublished where the funding stream has failed. Such assemblages are not yet archived and are therefore not available to researchers.

Scientific techniques: Isotopic analysis of urban bone material in order to determine origin of animals (burgh hinterlands or further afield?). Analysis of lipid deposits on/in ceramics has been used successfully on pottery from Perth High Street, but this technique has since been under-used. DNA testing of leather to determine species of origin has not yet been attempted.

Human health and zoonotic diseases, eg tuberculosis/brucellosis. This is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. DNA analysis of human remains may offer evidence of TB infection via animals.

Rabbits: Radiocarbon dates may be possible in future and may be used to resolve the vexed question of their introduction to Scotland.

Research Questions

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