Flying through history: human-raptor relationships in Britain

猛禽是英国风景的象征。几千年来，它们与人类有着各种各样的关系;从鹰猎中的俘虏同伴，作为地位和权力的象征，到废物和尸体的清道夫。然而，尽管他们的文化象征和环境的重要性，有一个明显缺乏全面的学术研究猛禽作为一个集体，特别是从生物考古学的角度。作为宠物和害虫，猛禽提供了一个绝佳的机会来探索生物和文化因素如何影响人鸟关系。这项研究将提供一个系统的研究猛禽在英国从新石器时代到目前，特别关注很少调查的物种和边缘时期，以建立一个广泛的时间基线。研究结果不仅对了解过去人类对自然世界的态度具有影响，而且对现代保护工作的背景也具有影响。在动物考古学和人类与动物关系领域的主要研究人员的监督下，该项目旨在：-调查人类与猛禽的关系如何从史前时期演变到现代早期？- 探索骨骼遗骸的空间分布，鹰猎设备和图像表示，以阐明人类与猛禽关系的丰富性和范围。讨论猛禽管理在目前和了解猛禽的生活史的重要性，以告知野化辩论，灭绝和圈养繁殖立法的缓解策略。为了实现这些目标，将在三年内使用四种互补方法进行原创研究：1。动物考古学：这篇论文将是第一个全面记录猛禽骨骼遗骸的主要证据，调查不断变化的猛禽-人类关系。传统的动物考古学分析，包括记录所有可用的猛禽遗骸的指标，病理学和创伤，以及从出版和灰色文献中预先存在的数据集进行整理。专家技术，包括几何形态测量学（GMM）和稳定同位素分析也将被考虑。2.空间分析：将绘制骨骼遗骸分布图，以分析猛禽物种在时间和定居类型上的分布情况，并将其与生态模型和地名研究进行比较。同时，将分析图像和物质文化，以检查鹰猎用具（特别是鹰环和vervels）的分布，当与历史，语言和动物区系数据结合分析时，将创建一个全面的空间时间轴的猛禽和鹰猎在英国。3.历史分析：动物考古学，生物分子和图像学数据将与猛禽的历史奖学金相结合，借鉴狩猎条约等关键来源，以提供对人类与猛禽关系变化的更细致入微的理解。特别是检查记录的eyries的位置，在早期维多利亚圈养繁殖制度和国际猛禽贸易的尝试。目前的管理和生物多样性：目前和历史的猛禽立法将审查和汇编考古数据，以评论猛禽在英国的现状与过去。此外，这些深度时间数据将用于检查和解决当前的重新野化策略。最后，本研究将探讨目前流行的鹰猎和观鸟文化，并将讨论鹰猎作为一个活的人类遗产在英国的指定。

Raptors are icons of the British landscape. For millennia they have held a variety of relationships with humans; from captive companions used in falconry, as symbols of status and power, to scavengers of waste and excarnated bodies. Yet despite their cultural symbolic and environmental importance, there is a distinct lack of comprehensive scholarship examining raptors as a collective, particularly from a bioarchaeological perspective. As both pets and pests' raptors present a fantastic opportunity to explore how human-bird relationships are influenced by both biological and cultural factors. This research will provide a systematic study of birds of prey in Britain from the Neolithic to present with particular focus on little investigated species and marginal periods to establish a broad chronological baseline. The results will have implications not only for understanding past human attitudes to the natural world, but to contextualise modern conservation efforts. Working alongside and under the supervision of leading researchers in the field of zooarchaeology and human-animal relationships this project aims to:- Investigate how human-raptor relationships evolved from the prehistoric to Early Modern period? - Explore the spatial distribution of osteological remains, falconry equipment and iconographical representations to illuminate the abundance and scope of human-raptor relationships.- Discuss raptor management in the present and the importance of understanding the life-histories of raptors to inform on rewilding debates, mitigating strategies of extinction and captive breeding legislation. To contextualise these aims, original research will be conducted using four complementary methods over three years:1. Zooarchaeology:This dissertation will be the first to comprehensively record raptor osteological remains as the primary evidence for investigating changing raptor-human relationships. Traditional zooarchaeological analysis, including the recording of metrics, pathologies and traumas will be recorded for all available raptor remains, as well as collated from pre-existing datasets in both published and grey literature. Specialist techniques including geometric morphometrics (GMM) and stable isotopic analysis will also be considered. 2. Spatial Analysis:Distribution maps of osteological remains will be created to analyse raptor species distribution through time and settlement types and will be compared to ecological models and place name studies. While iconographic depictions and material culture will be analysed to examine the distribution of falconry paraphernalia (specifically hawking rings and vervels) which when analysed in conjunction with historical, linguistic and faunal data, will create a comprehensive spatial timeline of raptors and falconry in Britain. 3. Historical Analysis:Zooarchaeological, biomolecular and iconographical data will be integrated with historical scholarship on raptors, drawing upon key sources such as hunting treaties to provide a more nuanced understanding of changing human-raptor relationships. Particularly examining the location of recorded eyries, attempts at early Victorian captive breeding regimes and international raptor trade.4. Current Management and Biodiversity:Current and historical raptor legislation will be examined and compiled with archaeological data to comment on the current situation of raptors within Britain in relation to the past. Furthermore, this deep time data will be used to examine and address current re-wilding strategies. Finally, this research will explore the current popular culture of falconry and bird watching, and will discuss the designation of falconry as a living human heritage within Britain.