R Madgwick
Biographic Data
| ID | 19153 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R Madgwick |
| GIVEN NAMES | R |
| FAMILY NAME | Madgwick |
| SIGNATURE | MADGWICK R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cardiff University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4396-3566 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 48 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 287 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1939 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2027 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Crops in Motion
Strontium isotope analysis offers a powerful tool for investigating mobility and provenance in prehistoric contexts, yet its application to archaeobotanical finds remains limited. This study applies 87Sr/86Sr analysis to charred cereal grains from Molino Casarotto, an Italian Middle Neolithic wetland site characterised by a foraging-oriented subsistence strategy and unusually limited cereal use compared to contemporary Neolithic farming sites. A …
Where there is an ox, there is a way
Multi-isotope evidence shows extensive free-roaming pig husbandry endured in medieval England
This study investigates regional variation in pig husbandry in 12th–16th century England and its role in sustaining woodlands, wetlands and small towns. Medieval pig management is often characterised as a transition from forest-dwelling pigs to pigs being increasingly confined in urban sites, a key stage in the evolutionary history of the European domestic pig. However, multi-isotope analysis (δ 13 C, δ 15 N, δ 34 S, 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) of dentine, bon…
The agropastoral debate in context
Historians and archaeologists of the ancient Greek economy have argued for decades over the form (transhumance vs. mixed farming) and scale (largescale specialist herds vs. small herds) of ancient Greek animal management without consensus. The development of isotope analyses that directly examine the lifeways of ancient animals, enables the production of new datasets to address this so-called “agropastoral debate”. This paper presents the results…
Exploring local and regional dynamics in the Bronze Age Kythera Island, Greece, through an analytical approach on archaeological data from Kataphygadi cave
Evidence that beekeeping and Beeswax by-products are present in the Island of Kythera since the 3rd millenia BCE. • Evidence of the importance of beeswax related products for cults and mortuary practices. • Evidence of continuous production of local pottery in Kythera throughout the Bronze Age. • Strontium and Oxygen data from Bronze Age skeletal remains from Kataphygadi cave. Interactions between islands and mainland has long been the subject of…
Maya Sequential Burials and Subsistence Change at the Prehispanic Site of Caledonia, Cayo District, Belize
From the Late Preclassic to Terminal Classic periods (300 bce– 900 ce ), the Maya people at the site of Caledonia, Cayo District, Belize, interred their dead within site architecture. Four burials containing the remains of at least 21 individuals were uncovered during excavations and were relatively dated using typologies developed from the ceramics recovered from the burial contexts. The single older adult female who may have been bundled in Bur…
Life, death and worship at his Majestie’s Tower of London
The Tower of London is the example par excellence of a royal Norman fortress and the foremost heritage attraction in the United Kingdom. The Tower is, ceremonially, a royal palace with two working chapels designated as Chapels Royal and Royal Peculiars, places of worship exempt from episcopal authority. These are the eleventh-century chapel of Saint John the Evangelist within the White Tower, and the sixteenth-century chapel of Saint Peter ad Vin…
Worlebury Hillfort, Somerset
Excavations at the Iron Age site of Worlebury hillfort during the mid-late 19th century revealed a large number of human skeletal remains, interpreted as victims of a ‘massacre’. Reanalysis of these remains, combining AMS dating, osteological, aDNA, histotaphonomy, and isotope analysis, has enabled a re-evaluation of this hypothesis. AMS dating lends support to the notion that many of these individuals may have died during a single episode, while…
Sequential multi-isotope sampling through a Bos taurus tooth from Stonehenge, to assess comparative sources and incorporation times of strontium and lead
Death and Dichotomy
Taphonomic analysis of bone microstructure, commonly known as histotaphonomy, has been used as a proxy for interpreting early post-mortem treatments in archaeological contexts with increasing frequency. This method is especially useful when evidence for varied pre-depositional practices such as disarticulation and taphonomic markers ( e.g. fracturing, gnawing, cut marks, weathering) is present in the assemblage, but is rarely used on faunal remai…
Comment on “Bacterial bioerosion of bones is a post-skeletonisation phenomenon and appears contingent on soil burial” [Quat. Int. 660 (2023) 75–83]
Tracing the path
Sheep Ahoy
Sheep and their wool were paramount to Viking Age economies. The importance of wool cannot be underestimated, especially as the woollen sail was implemented on ships in general during this period. This paper investigates sheep management and landscape use in Viking Age Löddeköpinge in Scania, southern Sweden, through a multiproxy approach, integrating multi‐isotope methods with zooarchaeological analysis. Using the marketplace at Löddeköpinge as …
NOthing goes to WAste (Nowa)
Advancements in archaeological sciences through innovative scientific techniques applied to ancient human remains have increasingly been transforming the study of the past. Destructive analyses of bioarchaeological or palaeontological specimens such as dental histology, isotopic or elemental analysis of dental mineralised tissues, 14C dating, proteomic analysis or ancient DNA are increasingly being applied to obtain ever more refined past life hi…
All Mixed Up
The Neolithic site of the Knowe of Rowiegar chambered cairn, Orkney, was excavated in 1937 as part of a campaign that saw the excavation of various chamber cairns on the island of Rousay, Orkney (Davidson & Henshall, 1989). Osteological and isotope research undertaken in recent years has reignited interest in the site. The research presented here focuses on mortuary practices, principally through histotaphonomic analysis. Human remains at Rowiega…
Between valleys, plateaus, and mountains
Seasonal altitudinal mobility has been a key practice among pastoral societies in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula to cope with the unpredictable Mediterranean climate. The existence of a massive and regulated mobile herding system in this area dates back to the 12th century. Nevertheless, early herd connections between the lowlands and the Pyrenees during the Roman period have been documented. The available information regarding the potential…
Farming and feasting during the Bronze Age–Iron Age transition in Britain (ca. 900–500 bce)
The Late Bronze Age saw the rise of a new site type in southern Britain, commonly termed a midden. These vast monumental mounds, some comprising tens of thousands of artefacts/ecofacts dominated by animal bone and ceramics, signal a societal refocus towards agricultural intensification and communal feasting on a grand scale. These sites point to agricultural produce being the mainstay of the economy, with bronze having a reduced social and econom…
Experimental investigation of histotaphonomic changes in human bone from whole-body donors demonstrates limited effects of early post-mortem change in bone
Shakenoak revisited
Shakenoak villa (Oxfordshire) is situated at the interface of the sub-Roman Cotswolds with the Early Anglo-Saxon upper Thames region. A probable sacred site, it may have been an enduring ritual focus. Place-name and topographical evidence builds an unusually strong impression of continuity across the post-Roman period. As at other Cotswold villas, some buildings were occupied well into the fifth century. A cemetery of at least 22 inhumations, mai…
Feeding the Roman Army in Britain
How did the Roman Empire supply and maintain its frontier garrisons? What was the impact on populations and landscapes of conquered territories? TheFeeding the Roman Army in Britainproject will answer these questions by establishing how soldiers were provisioned and how frontiers operated as economic as well as militarised zones
Strontium (87Sr/86Sr) mapping
A veritable confusion
The expansion of isotope analyses has transformed the study of past migration and mobility, sometimes providing unexpected and intriguing results. This has, in turn, led to media attention (and concomitant misrepresentation) and scepticism from some archaeologists. Such scepticism is healthy and not always without foundation. Isotope analysis is yet to reach full maturity and challenging issues remain, concerning diagenesis, biosphere mapping res…
Finding Oxford's medieval Jewry using organic residue analysis, faunal records and historical documents
Food is often one of the most distinctive expressions of social, religious, cultural or ethnic groups. However, the archaeological identification of specific religious dietary practices, including the Jewish tradition of keepingkosher, associated with ritual food practices and taboos, is very rare. This is arguably one of the oldest known diets across the world and, for an observant Jew, maintaining dietary laws (known as Kashruth) is a fundament…
Isotopic investigations of pastoralism in prehistory
Isotope research continues to rapidly expand in terms of the quantity of data produced, the methods employed and the archaeological questions that are addressed. However, it remains relatively rare
The Beaker People
This mighty tome represents the culmination of the Beaker People Project, an ambitious AHRC-funded programme that draws on advances in archaeological science to explore the Beaker phenomenon in unp
New evidence for diverse secondary burial practices in Iron Age Britain
Iron Age (c. 700 BCe43AD) funerary practice has long been a focus of debate in British archaeology. Formal cemeteries are rare and in central-southern Britain human remains are often unearthed in unusual configurations. They are frequently recovered as isolated fragments, partially articulated body parts or complete skeletons in atypical contexts, often storage pits. In recent years, taphonomic analysis of remains has been more frequently employe…
What makes bones shiny? Investigating trampling as a cause of bone abrasion
Diversity in foddering strategy and herd management in late Bronze Age Britain
Middens of the southern British late Bronze and Iron Age are vast accumulations of cultural debris that can be explained as refuse dumps linked with large periodic feasting events. A distinctive feature of these sites is that their faunal assemblages invariably comprise a considerably higher proportion of pig remains than contemporaneous settlement sites. This paper presents results from a programme of stable carbon (d13C) and nitrogen (d15N) iso…
On the hoof
Provisioning large concentrations of professional soldiers in Britain after the invasion in AD 43 was a major challenge for the Roman imperial administration. In a distant frontier province such as Britannia, it is generally believed that locally produced agricultural resources must have been vital in feeding and maintaining the occupying army, but direct evidence for this is limited. This study explores the potential for strontium isotope analys…
Strontium and oxygen isotope evidence for the origin and movement of cattle at Late Neolithic Durrington Walls, UK
The geographic origins of livestock found at the Late Neolithic site of Durrington Walls (Wiltshire, UK) is explored using strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (δ18OcarbVSMOW) isotope analysis of tooth enamel as an archive of lifetime movement. The analysis of 49 cattle is augmented with data for small numbers of animals from the contemporaneous monumental centres of West Kennet Palisade Enclosures (4), Stonehenge (1), and Marden (1). Unburnt human r…
Investigating Variation in the Prevalence of Weathering in Faunal Assemblages in the UK
This article presents an exploratory multivariate statistical approach to gaining a more comprehensive understanding of variation in sub‐aerial bone weathering in a British context. Weathering is one of the most common taphonomic modifications and provides a crucial line of evidence for reconstructing the taphonomic trajectories of faunal assemblages and archaeological deposits. It provides clear evidence for prolonged subaerial exposure, either …
Feasting on fore-limbs
Reconstructing depositional histories through bone taphonomy
Fallow deer (Dama dama dama) management in Roman South-East Britain
Isotopic investigations of pastoralism in prehistory
Isotope research continues to rapidly expand in terms of the quantity of data produced, the methods employed and the archaeological questions that are addressed. However, it remains relatively rare
A veritable confusion
The expansion of isotope analyses has transformed the study of past migration and mobility, sometimes providing unexpected and intriguing results. This has, in turn, led to media attention (and concomitant misrepresentation) and scepticism from some archaeologists. Such scepticism is healthy and not always without foundation. Isotope analysis is yet to reach full maturity and challenging issues remain, concerning diagenesis, biosphere mapping res…
New light on feasting and deposition
Middle Neolithic pits and a burial at West Amesbury, Wiltshire
Excavations on the south-eastern slopes of King Barrow Ridge, 1.5 km east of Stonehenge, revealed five pits, a grave and other features of Middle Neolithic date. Analysis of the pit assemblages and the partial inhumation interred in the grave has provided insights into lifeways in this landscape in the late fourth millennium cal BC. Evidence suggests that the area was visited by a pastoralist, mobile community on a semi-regular basis for a signif…
Finding Oxford's medieval Jewry using organic residue analysis, faunal records and historical documents
Food is often one of the most distinctive expressions of social, religious, cultural or ethnic groups. However, the archaeological identification of specific religious dietary practices, including the Jewish tradition of keepingkosher, associated with ritual food practices and taboos, is very rare. This is arguably one of the oldest known diets across the world and, for an observant Jew, maintaining dietary laws (known as Kashruth) is a fundament…
Experimental investigation of histotaphonomic changes in human bone from whole-body donors demonstrates limited effects of early post-mortem change in bone
Histories of deposition
The Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age midden sites of Southern Britain are amongst the richest archaeological sites in the country. The organic accumulations contain substantial quantities of animal bone, decorated ceramics, metalwork and other objects; the often deep stratigraphy allows for changes in material culture and depositional practices, food production and consumption, and shifts in social identities, to be traced through time. The well-st…
Dead or alive? Investigating long-distance transport of live fallow deer and their body parts in antiquity
The extent to which breeding populations of fallow deer were established in Roman Europe has been obscured by the possibility that the skeletal remains of the species, in particular Dama foot bones and antlers, were traded over long distances as objects in their own right. This paper sets out to refine our understanding of the evidence for the transportation of living and dead fallow deer in Iron Age and Roman Europe. To achieve this, museum arch…
The Beaker People
This mighty tome represents the culmination of the Beaker People Project, an ambitious AHRC-funded programme that draws on advances in archaeological science to explore the Beaker phenomenon in unp
Understanding Middle Neolithic food and farming in and around the Stonehenge World Heritage Site
Little synthesis of evidence for Middle Neolithic food and farming in Wiltshire, particularly in and around the Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS) has been possible, until now, due to a paucity of assemblages. The excavation of a cluster of five Middle Neolithic pits and an inhumation burial at West Amesbury Farm (WAF) has prompted a review of our understanding of pit sites of this period from the county. Bioarchaeological assemblages are used …
Feeding the Roman Army in Britain
How did the Roman Empire supply and maintain its frontier garrisons? What was the impact on populations and landscapes of conquered territories? TheFeeding the Roman Army in Britainproject will answer these questions by establishing how soldiers were provisioned and how frontiers operated as economic as well as militarised zones
Horses, Hemiones, Hydruntines? Assessing the Reliability of Dental Criteria for Assigning Species to Southwest Asian Equid Remains
Many faunal assemblages across southwest Asia contain the remains of multiple wild equid species, which may reflect individual prehistoric human populations' use of different hunting and/or landscape exploitation strategies. Accurate equid species assignments are therefore important. This paper tests the extent to which zooarchaeologists agree on equid species assignments made using commonly used zooarchaeological dental identification criteria. …
The Early History of Tasmania
Sequential multi-isotope sampling through a Bos taurus tooth from Stonehenge, to assess comparative sources and incorporation times of strontium and lead
Death and Dichotomy
Taphonomic analysis of bone microstructure, commonly known as histotaphonomy, has been used as a proxy for interpreting early post-mortem treatments in archaeological contexts with increasing frequency. This method is especially useful when evidence for varied pre-depositional practices such as disarticulation and taphonomic markers ( e.g. fracturing, gnawing, cut marks, weathering) is present in the assemblage, but is rarely used on faunal remai…
All Mixed Up
The Neolithic site of the Knowe of Rowiegar chambered cairn, Orkney, was excavated in 1937 as part of a campaign that saw the excavation of various chamber cairns on the island of Rousay, Orkney (Davidson & Henshall, 1989). Osteological and isotope research undertaken in recent years has reignited interest in the site. The research presented here focuses on mortuary practices, principally through histotaphonomic analysis. Human remains at Rowiega…
Migrations
The Early History of Tasmania
New Perspectives on Taphonomy
Diversity in foddering strategy and herd management in late Bronze Age Britain
Middens of the southern British late Bronze and Iron Age are vast accumulations of cultural debris that can be explained as refuse dumps linked with large periodic feasting events. A distinctive feature of these sites is that their faunal assemblages invariably comprise a considerably higher proportion of pig remains than contemporaneous settlement sites. This paper presents results from a programme of stable carbon (d13C) and nitrogen (d15N) iso…
Investigating Variation in the Prevalence of Weathering in Faunal Assemblages in the UK
This article presents an exploratory multivariate statistical approach to gaining a more comprehensive understanding of variation in sub‐aerial bone weathering in a British context. Weathering is one of the most common taphonomic modifications and provides a crucial line of evidence for reconstructing the taphonomic trajectories of faunal assemblages and archaeological deposits. It provides clear evidence for prolonged subaerial exposure, either …
Syndactyly in Pigs
This paper reviews evidence for the rare condition of porcine syndactyly. It describes eight archaeological examples from Britain, Northern Ireland and France. Syndactyly refers to the partial or complete fusion of two or more adjacent phalanges on the medio‐lateral border. The degree and character of fusion are variable, but phalanges frequently unite to create a single skeletal element. This condition has been identified by veterinarians, zoolo…
Fallow deer (Dama dama dama) management in Roman South-East Britain
Dead or alive? Investigating long-distance transport of live fallow deer and their body parts in antiquity
The extent to which breeding populations of fallow deer were established in Roman Europe has been obscured by the possibility that the skeletal remains of the species, in particular Dama foot bones and antlers, were traded over long distances as objects in their own right. This paper sets out to refine our understanding of the evidence for the transportation of living and dead fallow deer in Iron Age and Roman Europe. To achieve this, museum arch…
Reconstructing depositional histories through bone taphonomy
What makes bones shiny? Investigating trampling as a cause of bone abrasion
From These Bare Bones
This volume comprises twenty papers on worked osseous objects, deriving from presentations in the Raw Materials session at the eleventh ‘International Conference of Archaeozoology’. It benefits fro
Feasting on fore-limbs
Wild to domestic and back again
This paper presents the results of the first comprehensive scientific study of the fallow deer, a non-native species whose medieval-period introduction to Britain transformed the cultural landscape. It brings together data from traditional zooarchaeological analyses with those derived from new ageing techniques as well as the results of a programme of radiocarbon dating, multi-element isotope studies and genetic analyses. These new data are here …
Both introduced and extinct
New evidence for diverse secondary burial practices in Iron Age Britain
Iron Age (c. 700 BCe43AD) funerary practice has long been a focus of debate in British archaeology. Formal cemeteries are rare and in central-southern Britain human remains are often unearthed in unusual configurations. They are frequently recovered as isolated fragments, partially articulated body parts or complete skeletons in atypical contexts, often storage pits. In recent years, taphonomic analysis of remains has been more frequently employe…
Taphonomies of trajectory
New light on feasting and deposition
Horses, Hemiones, Hydruntines? Assessing the Reliability of Dental Criteria for Assigning Species to Southwest Asian Equid Remains
Many faunal assemblages across southwest Asia contain the remains of multiple wild equid species, which may reflect individual prehistoric human populations' use of different hunting and/or landscape exploitation strategies. Accurate equid species assignments are therefore important. This paper tests the extent to which zooarchaeologists agree on equid species assignments made using commonly used zooarchaeological dental identification criteria. …
Histories of deposition
The Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age midden sites of Southern Britain are amongst the richest archaeological sites in the country. The organic accumulations contain substantial quantities of animal bone, decorated ceramics, metalwork and other objects; the often deep stratigraphy allows for changes in material culture and depositional practices, food production and consumption, and shifts in social identities, to be traced through time. The well-st…
Understanding Middle Neolithic food and farming in and around the Stonehenge World Heritage Site
Little synthesis of evidence for Middle Neolithic food and farming in Wiltshire, particularly in and around the Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS) has been possible, until now, due to a paucity of assemblages. The excavation of a cluster of five Middle Neolithic pits and an inhumation burial at West Amesbury Farm (WAF) has prompted a review of our understanding of pit sites of this period from the county. Bioarchaeological assemblages are used …
On the hoof
Provisioning large concentrations of professional soldiers in Britain after the invasion in AD 43 was a major challenge for the Roman imperial administration. In a distant frontier province such as Britannia, it is generally believed that locally produced agricultural resources must have been vital in feeding and maintaining the occupying army, but direct evidence for this is limited. This study explores the potential for strontium isotope analys…
Strontium and oxygen isotope evidence for the origin and movement of cattle at Late Neolithic Durrington Walls, UK
The geographic origins of livestock found at the Late Neolithic site of Durrington Walls (Wiltshire, UK) is explored using strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (δ18OcarbVSMOW) isotope analysis of tooth enamel as an archive of lifetime movement. The analysis of 49 cattle is augmented with data for small numbers of animals from the contemporaneous monumental centres of West Kennet Palisade Enclosures (4), Stonehenge (1), and Marden (1). Unburnt human r…
Middle Neolithic pits and a burial at West Amesbury, Wiltshire
Excavations on the south-eastern slopes of King Barrow Ridge, 1.5 km east of Stonehenge, revealed five pits, a grave and other features of Middle Neolithic date. Analysis of the pit assemblages and the partial inhumation interred in the grave has provided insights into lifeways in this landscape in the late fourth millennium cal BC. Evidence suggests that the area was visited by a pastoralist, mobile community on a semi-regular basis for a signif…
Strontium (87Sr/86Sr) mapping
A veritable confusion
The expansion of isotope analyses has transformed the study of past migration and mobility, sometimes providing unexpected and intriguing results. This has, in turn, led to media attention (and concomitant misrepresentation) and scepticism from some archaeologists. Such scepticism is healthy and not always without foundation. Isotope analysis is yet to reach full maturity and challenging issues remain, concerning diagenesis, biosphere mapping res…
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (38 works) · Archaeology (35 works) · Geography (32 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (21 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (19 works) · History (17 works) · History (17 works) · Biology (13 works) · Geology (13 works) · Ecology (11 works)