O'Connor, T.P. (2000) Human refuse as a major ecological factor in medieval urban vertebrate communities. In: Bailey, G., Charles, R. and Winder, N., (eds.) Human Ecodynamics. Symposia of the Association for Environmental Archaeology . Oxbow Books , Oxford , pp. 15-20.
Abstract
Organic refuse, such as food and butchery waste, was commonly deposited in dumps andpits in medieval towns throughout northern Europe. These deposits of refuse attracted and supponed a diverse communily of scavengers and their predators. The organic refuse can be seen as a source of energy that maintained food-webs of donor-controlled populations, giving them potentially high population densities, foundercontrolled response to perturbation, and perhaps a strongly stochastic element in determining which species became dominant at any particular location. The red kite is an example of a scavenger which was strongly dependent on refuse deposition, and it is argued that cats in medieval towns may have lived largely as predators within the refuse-supported food-webs.
Metadata
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | Reproduced with permission from Oxbow Books. |
Keywords: | towns,organic refuse,scavengers,food webs |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (York) > Archaeology (York) |
Depositing User: | Repository Officer |
Date Deposited: | 16 Jan 2006 |
Last Modified: | 10 Feb 2025 00:05 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxbow Books |
Series Name: | Symposia of the Association for Environmental Archaeology |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:935 |