PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION IN AN EARLY COMPLEX SOCIETY - ANIMAL USE IN MIDDLE SAXON EAST-ANGLIA

This paper examines the relationships between urban consumers and rura l producers of animal products during the period when the earliest pos t-Roman urban sites first appear in eastern England. The mammal and bi rd faunas from a Middle Saxon emporium (Ipswich), two Middle Saxon rur al sites (Brandon and Wicken Bonhunt) and an Early Anglo-Saxon village (West Stow) are examined in order to determine how early urban sites were supplied with animal products and the effect that this early urba n growth had on systems of rural animal production. The data indicate that the urban emporium of Ipswich was provisioned with meat from a li mited range of domestic animal species. Contemporary rural sites show evidence for increasing specialization in some aspects of animal produ ction - pork production at Wicken Bonhunt and wool production at Brand on - when compared with the faunal remains from the Early Saxon villag e of West Stow. The data suggest that there is a integral relationship between the development of the emporia as centres of craft production and trade and the appearance of increasing specialization in certain animal products at rural sites.