Rattus goes to Rome!

 

The EAA conference is next week! This is the 30th annual conference of the European Association of Archaeologists, and this year takes place in the Eternal City – lovely, sunny Rome. Three members of the RATTUS team are presenting, about a variety of subjects. Ele and Michelle are presenting about their previous research projects, and David will present some early results from our project. All our talks will take place on Thursday afternoon.

In Session #1061 — Appreciating the archaeological value of preserved faeces using multifaceted methods — Ele will be getting her hands dirty as she digs through Viking latrines! Amalgamations of waste disposed of in cesspits can mineralise and form, so-called, faecal concretions. For Ele’s PhD research, she investigated the biomolecular content of faecal concretions from Coppergate, York, UK (York Archaeology). This talk will focus mainly on ancient DNA results, including metagenomic and population genomics. Ele used the human DNA present in the concretions to estimate the minimum number of individuals contributing DNA to a Viking cesspit!

Reconstructed Viking using a cesspit at Jorvik Viking Centre. Photo: © Anthony Chappel-Ross

During session #151 — The Beasts Among Us: A Closer Look at Synanthropic Human-Animal Relations in the Past — Michelle will present the research which earned her a PhD about distant cousins of the rat: The house mouse (Mus musculus). This diminutive rodent was one of the first species to take advantage of human settlements, finding a comfy niche in human homes, pestering their hosts and stealing their food as early as 15,000 years ago! Michelle’s fieldwork brought her to Anatolia, to the sites of Pınarbaşı, Boncuklu Höyük and Çatalhöyük. She’ll be telling us all about the mice that made these settlements their homes, whether humans tried to control their numbers, and how their bones can tell us about trade and exchange at these early sites of human settlement.

House mouse in a house at Çatalhöyük. Illustration: Kathryn Killackey

At the same panel, David will zoom into the conference to tell us about black rats (Rattus rattus) in the late Iron Age and Medieval northern Europe. Black rats spread into Europe with the Romans, and when the Roman Empire declined, so too did the black rat population. Black rats slowly returned to the region slowly throughout the Middle Ages. David explores how black rats may have colonised and recolonised northern Europe, where they came from, how stable their populations were, and how they related to other small human-dependent rodents such as mice. Finally, David asks how the spread of black rats might tell us more about trade networks and ecologies in human settlements. 

If you’re coming to EAA and have the time, make sure to pop by and say hello!