In this paper, we contextualise the volume: ‘Animals, and their bones, in the ‘modern’ world’ by briefly reviewing the history of modern-era zooarchaeology and discussing research themes which have shaped previous studies. We also call attention to exciting avenues for future research and highlight the value of zooarchaeology in the ‘modern’ period, especially with regard to interdisciplinarity, multi-vocality and the influence of changing theoretical perspectives.

The study of animal bones dating to the ‘modern' period (AD 1750–1950) has been perceived as neglected and undervalued by some zooarchaeologists working in Britain and Ireland, while North America is frequently held up as a beacon of good practice. Here, survey data are presented which compare practices and opinions between these two regions and the rest of the world. It is suggested that the principal difference may be one of perception and it is shown that research into the ‘modern' era is undertaken by commercial zooarchaeologists in every region; however, outside of the white settler states (USA, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay) it is very rarely published. A conclusion is reached that the gap may be bridged by raising awareness of how zooarchaeology can contribute to our understanding of the period.

The quantity and variety of animals contributing to foodways and landscapes often are overlooked in studies of urban experiences after AD 1500 in North America. Charleston, South Carolina (USA) was founded in its present location in 1680 and the Charleston faunal assemblage reviewed here was deposited between 1692 and the early 1900s at multiple sites. It contains over 134,000 specimens (NISP) and the remains of an estimated 2,174 individuals (MNI) from 152 vertebrate taxa. This large faunal assemblage demonstrates that the urban setting contained a rich mosaic of people and animals with some of these animals filling multiple roles in that landscape. Non-commensal wild and domestic animals contributed to a unique lowcountry cuisine and many of these same animals, in addition to commensal ones, lived in the city. Many aspects of the urban environment were designed to accommodate and restrict these animals. The activities of animals shaped, and were shaped by, the developing urban environment. Unlike other environmental components, though, the animals were active players in the affairs of daily life and efforts to control them varied in their success.

Archaeozoologists have long examined the relationships between butchery and consumption sites. When applied to historic sites, this distinction between the location of butchery and places of consumption can be informative regarding market economy, long-distance trade and transport using increasingly modern technologies, and the necessity for urban areas to be fed by more rural regions. This paper will explore the archaeozoological markers of participation in a long-distance market economy through the faunal remains from a bone bed deposited in the late 19th century at the Plum Grove Historic Farm, a site located in the American heartland. The faunal remains here suggest that the site's occupants were involved in a nationwide system providing meat products, likely by refrigerated rail, to an ever growing population in eastern USA.

This study employs a combination of historical documents and faunal remains to examine food procurement strategies, purchasing patterns and foodways among the residents of Hammondville, a late 19th-century, multi-ethnic, company-owned mining town located in the Adirondack region of eastern upstate New York (USA). The Crown Point Iron Company (C.P.I.Co.), which operated the only store in the village, controlled both peoples' incomes and the types of food available for purchase. Despite this, analysis of company store records and zooarchaeological data suggest that individuals and families from different backgrounds worked within the structures of company control to construct diets that met their subsistence needs and expressed their cultural identities. They accomplished this by selectively utilising the store inventory and by supplementing store-bought foods through fishing, hunting and raising small numbers of domesticated animals.

This paper examines food subsistence activity patterns in five 19th-century shore whaling stations in New Zealand and Australia. Faunal data are categorised into indigenous and exotic classes and possible explanations behind differing patterns of subsistence activities between sites and their immediate local contexts are explored. Zooarchaeological analyses show that the communities of these whaling station communities supplemented their whaling rations with indigenous and exotic domestic species to varying degrees.

The social division of anglers into ‘coarse’ (using bait) and ‘game’ (using a fly) fishermen evolved in the mid-18th century as the new workforce of the Industrial Revolution angled for coarse fish on newly created canals and local public waterways. This paper explores the history of coarse angling, the rise of fishing clubs, managed waters and competition, which together gave coarse anglers a voice in water management and freshwater fisheries, as important as that of the landowning classes with whom game fishing became associated. Historical evidence from the early 20th century is presented for the change from general bait fishing for a range of freshwater species to the specialist coarse anglers of today, who seek a particular species of record weight, perhaps best exemplified by carp.

This paper considers the faunal remains from recent excavations at the Royal London Hospital. The remains date to the beginning of the 19th century and offer an insight into the life of the hospital's patients and practices of the attached medical school. Many of the animal remains consist of partially dissected skeletons, including the unique finds of Hermann's tortoise (Testudo hermanni) and Cercopithecus monkey. The hospital diet and developments in comparative anatomy are discussed by integrating the results with documentary research. They show that zooarchaeological study of later post-medieval material can significantly enhance our understanding of the exploitation of animals in this period

The Sheffield cutlery industry is at least 700 years old. Historical descriptions of the trade have generally concentrated on the craft organisation by the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire and the manufacture of steel for the blades. Examples of knives and razors from the 17th century onwards survive in museums and private collections and are often displayed as examples of artistic craftsmanship, usually because of the material and design of the handles. Such items are attractive and form pleasing displays, but the trade in the handle materials and the methods of manufacture have often been ignored. Cutlery handles may be manufactured from costly and exotic materials such as ivory and tortoiseshell, or from bone or antler on more mundane and lower quality knives. Bone, horn and stag antler could of course be locally sourced — cattle bone and horn, and sheep and pig bone from slaughter houses while the trade's use of so-called ‘stag’ (antlers from any species of deer) could come from native herds and abroad. Other materials, such as ivories, tortoiseshell, horn from buffalo and ‘stag’ from exotic deer species, had to be imported from around the world. Not only could these materials be made into attractive handles, but some also lent themselves to carving and inlays, adding further to their desirability. This paper will highlight the documentary sources available for the Sheffield trade, which indicate the use of animal-derived materials for the cutlery industry, and will combine archaeological evidence to consider some of the methods of manufacture.

Boys and the buzzard in traditional rural areas in Lorraine.

In connection with a Lorraine tale that explains ‘why children do not walk when they are born’, the author re-examines the context of rural society before industrialization and proposes to link the activities of young boys who go around with noise instruments in the Easter period, beliefs about animals, the concerns of women about care of the farmyard and babies learning to walk. The author's analysis of these various activities follows the approach of C. Lévi-Strauss. The chains of symbolic understanding thus exposed reveal the coherence and, to a certain extent, the strangeness of our older European societies, which are so close to us temporally and so far away in their attitudes.