Bibliography - Dr. Martyn George Allen Ph.D.
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The re-identification of great bustard (Otis tarda) from Fishbourne Roman Palace, Chichester, West Sussex, as common crane (Grus grus), by Martyn G. Allen, published 1909 in Environmental Archaeology (vo. 14, article, pp.184-190)

Animals as status symbols? Pigs and cattle in Iron Age/Roman West Sussex, by Martyn Allen, published April 2008 in Sussex Past & Present (no. 114, article, p.8, ISSN: 1357-7417) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/500475] & S.A.S. library   View Online

The role of animals in archaeology has traditionally been thought of from an economic perspective, with animal bone reports highlighting 'calories consumed' or 'yields produced'. More recently, the social importance of animals, as in ritual practices, ethnic values or symbolically in art, have been emphasised.

Looking at Landscape: Report from the Society's Autumn Conference, by Martyn Allen, published December 2008 in Sussex Past & Present (no. 116, article, p.6, ISSN: 1357-7417) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/500475] & S.A.S. library   View Online

A new perspective on the Iron Age/Roman transition, by Martyn Allen, published April 2009 in Sussex Past & Present (no. 117, article, p.8, ISSN: 1357-7417) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/500475] & S.A.S. library   View Online

It was a successful year for the collaboration between SAS and Nottingham University in 2008. September's conference fantastically demonstrated how this partnership can work, providing Society members with a taste of archaeological research both within and outside Sussex. In terms of my PhD, I have now finished work on analysing the Iron Age/Roman animal bones from the Chichester District.

Animalscapes and empire : new perspectives on the Iron Age/Romano British transition , by Martyn George Allen, 2011 at University of Nottingham (Ph.D. thesis)   View Online

Human-animal relationships have long existed, across cultures, in many varied forms. The associations between the two are integral to the creation, form, use and perception of landscapes and environments. Despite this, animals are all too often absent from our views of ancient landscapes. Humans experience their diverse environments through a variety of media, and animals regularly play an important role in this type of exchange. Landscape archaeology commonly emphasises the influences of humanity upon the physical world. However, such engagement is rarely unilateral. Whether herding domesticated mammals, hunting quarry, or merely experiencing the range of fauna which populate the world, many of these interactions leave physical traces in the landscape: the form and location of settlements, enclosures, pathways, woodland, pasture, and meadows. Also, in more subtle ways, human and animal actors work together in performances through which people subconsciously generate their perceptions of landscape and environment. These physical and psychological animal landscapes have the potential to inform on human society and ideology. This thesis seeks to utilise zoo archaeological evidence to examine this concept. Animalscape research could be applied to any place or period but as a case study this project will explore, through animal bone analysis, how landscape and environment were used to negotiate cultural identity during the Iron Age/Romano-British transition, a pivotal but poorly understood period in British history. Research focuses on a c.200 km2 area of land bordering the West Sussex coast. This is a complex and singular locale, encompassing a number of Iron Age and Romano-British sites - most notably the elite settlement at Fishbourne which originated in the late Iron Age and developed, towards the end of the 1st century AD, into the largest 'Roman-style' domestic building north of the Alps. The site has been excavated a number of times in different areas since its discovery in 1960 until 2002; the various investigations producing a large quantity of animal bone. Yet this has, until now however, only been subjected to piecemeal analysis. The full re-analysis of the Fishbourne faunal assemblage is central to this project. To place these new data in their wider context, existing animal bone information from all pertinent published and 'grey' zoo archaeological literature is synthesised. The resulting datasets allow for a detailed examination of animal landscapes across the Iron Age/Romano-British transition at three nested scales: site and context; hinterland/region; and, Empire. Integrating the zooarchaeological data with evidence from landscape and environment studies, Iron Age/Roman archaeology, ancient history and, most importantly, social anthropology is key to this project. A new theoretical framework is adopted here, whereby animals are seen not simply as passive indicators of economy and environment but as active beings, providing visual, audio and physical experience, and it is through these novel approaches by considering the human-animal-landscape relationship, that a new insight into the cultural changes of the Iron Age to Romano-British transition will be obtained.

New animals, new landscapes and new world views: the Iron Age to Roman transition at Fishbourne, by Martyn Allen and Naomi Sykes, published 2011 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 149, article, pp.7-24) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 18614] & The Keep [LIB/500367] & S.A.S. library   View Online

Anthropologists and cultural geographers have long accepted that animals play an important role in the creation of human cultures. However, such beliefs are yet to be embraced by archaeologists, who seldom give zoo archaeological data much consideration beyond the occasional economic or environmental reconstruction. In an attempt to highlight animal remains as a source of cultural information, this paper examines the evidence for the changing relationship between people and wild animals in Iron Age and Roman southern England. Special attention is given to 'exotic' species - in particular fallow deer, domestic fowl and the hare - whose management increased around AD 43. In Iron Age Britain the concept of wild game reserves was seemingly absent, but the post-Conquest appearance of new landscape features such as vivaria, leporaria and piscinae indicates a change in worldview from a situation where people seemingly negotiated with the 'wilderness' and 'wild things' to one where people felt they had the right or the responsibility to bring them to order. Using Fishbourne Roman Palace as a case study, we argue that wild and exotic animals represented far more than gastronomic treats or symbols of Roman identity, instead influencing the way in which people engaged with, traversed and experienced their surroundings.