00:00.93 Cpt Granarius Hello everyone and welcome to episode 55 but archae animals the show about zoo archaeology with me sbona falanga and. 00:12.86 Alex I'm Alex Fitzpatrick 00:12.98 Cpt Granarius And in this episode we're going to talk about mice and rats the zoo archeology of very small mammals. 00:23.56 Alex Was that the cold open sorry. 00:25.51 archpodnet I Yeah I think that's that's what we're goingnna get i' did sorry did you say the episode number. Yeah sorry even I missed that? sorry no yeah, that' be it. Can you say on with the shore something someone to. 00:27.15 Cpt Granarius Cold sorry yes that yeah, um, sorry did you say the effort number. Yes sorry 9 miss that sorry nope yeah, that will be a can you say on with the shore something someone to and now. On with the show. 00:44.10 archpodnet Perfect. 00:46.10 Cpt Granarius Perfect. Okay so I guess from here we start with the introduction. Yeah. 00:49.71 archpodnet You yep. 00:55.72 Cpt Granarius Hi again, everyone? um on today's episode we're looking at yet another group of terrifying animals for zoo archaeologists that are just looking to have a nice and easy time doing an animal bone report that the very dreaded very small mammals. Bonus points for the amount of vary you can shove in a sentence. Um, but what do we actually mean by very small mammals. It depends who you ask is the answer. Um, so normally um as a zoo archeologist if you can't identify an animal to species. You tend to assign it to a size category to just you know. Give an indicator of size. So for example, say you get um, a fragment of a shaft of something you know could be a horse could be a cow more often than not that will go down as ah, unidentified large mammal which brings us to the question. What does a very small mammal. Entail. Ah this in a way can be subjective because ah you know what is small. Um, for instance, the North Atlantic biocultural organizations recording system defines very small terrestrial bambless as anything mouse of bull sized. Historic england on the other hand ah in the animal bone guide ah use the terminology microphoneuna which refers to all small vertebrates which will include reptiles amphibians and all small mammals the sort of squirrel size and smaller as well as fish and bird so now for the purpose of this episode. 02:27.88 Cpt Granarius By very small mammal Alex and I will henceforth mean anything rat sized or smaller. Yeah. 02:33.81 Alex Yeah, so it's that weird problem and I think zoo archeologists have been having this kind of discussion for a pretty long time now. But there's not really a standardization in zoo archeology particularly for things like this. So I have mainly worked in the North Atlantic and North Atlantic sites so we usually use nabone and so for me, you know I've always used um stm so small terrestrial mammals vstm very small terrestrial mammals. That's always been kind of how I've approached it. But obviously especially nowadays I've worked with lots of other zo archeologists and met a lot of other zoo archeologists and you know everyone kind of uses their own thing I mean it's never like too drastically different. But if you don't really know the kind of context. And you read something that says again like very small terrestrial mammal. You know that could be a squirrel that could be a vole. It. It really depends I mean Simona what's your kind of experience with stuff like this. 03:42.51 Cpt Granarius Ah, um, yeah I mean it does tend to be quite variable but I think it's not the end of the world because normally sort of when you do have size identifies or size categories is something you normally include in your methodology anyway. 03:55.90 Alex Um, yeah. 03:56.74 Cpt Granarius So hopefully you should get a key of some description if you're reading a report of what ve authorro actually means by sort of small mammal, large mammal and Tristan as a question. What happens if the the sizes were what you. 04:01.64 Alex Are. 04:07.69 archpodnet And what happens if the the size isn't what you expect at what do you do with roded self unusual size and. 04:17.45 Alex I Knew this is gonna happen. 04:20.78 archpodnet So might as well get it way Rid of the start of the episode. Okay I just want to know. But so unusual. So it's. 04:21.43 Cpt Granarius I get way rid of it. The stuff. 04:29.29 Cpt Granarius It's defined unusual size. 04:32.20 archpodnet And unusual not usual. 04:35.51 Alex They're like in princess bride they're like dog-sized right. 04:40.12 archpodnet they yeah yeah no they are they're really big. They're kind of like Capy Barra size I would say but that that this highlights the issues doesn't it like I you say dog size I say Capy Barra size it's it's it's it's sometimes difficult to find a correct standard. 04:43.95 Alex Yeah, so. 04:59.25 archpodnet I Don't think there is a standard rat is there. 05:00.72 Alex Well, yeah I Guess that's kind of it. Obviously we do have somewhat biometrical standards. There's ways of which you know you can do measurements to kind of help with identification of things but that's really. Kind of for the Nitty Gritty I feel like and even then you know you always work with a bit of error on both sides. It's I mean yeah, there's there's reasons why we don't necessarily have like massive standardization because there's obviously variances but on the other hand you know. Might be nice to have some kind of stronization. It's I Guess it's the age old debate in Zo archeology that we don't really talk about because it's kind of boring. It's all about numbers and stuff and who cares. 05:49.53 Cpt Granarius And with her I Guess a Capibara I'll probably put it safely in the medium-sized mammals. 05:57.30 Alex Yeah I Guess anyway to get back on on track. We're talking about anything Rat size or smaller from this episode and why are they important? Why should we care about these teeny tiny little animals that frankly, give us. 05:59.42 Cpt Granarius Yeah, anyway, yes, anything rats. 06:16.18 Alex More discomfort than comfort as archaeologists because the bones are very tiny and very annoying in times. Well they can be indicative of environment. They are often representative of commensal species. For example. They live among humans in a largely opportunistic manner like eating their grain stores but they're not entirely reliant on human activities or survive so that that teaches us a lot about the human activity that may have been happening at this particular site. And it sheds lights on introductions we've discussed in earlier episodes How several commensal rodents have accidentally been introduced to places over time. So They're pretty big transitionary species almost they. Seen to come and go with pretty big ah events in history whether that's you know a settlement being created or migration happening. You know they're they're They're incredibly important Indicator species. 07:26.13 Cpt Granarius Yeah, so um, so sorry everyone my headphones were making sounds Okay I'm back? Um, yeah, um. 07:35.33 Alex I mean I'd hope they were. 07:40.77 Cpt Granarius So ah, well because Alex and myself. Ah mainly deal with british zoo archeology what sort of very small mammals. Do we find in Britain but arguably you know the mostly mice rats vols and then a variety of other like small insectivvals. Um. Terms of mice ah Britain has 4 different species. We have the wood sort of field mouse um, apo thenusilvaticus the house Mouse Mus musculu the harvest mouse mikro mis minutus and the yellownecked mouse apoymus flaviolli. Although. And all fairness really wood mouse and house mouse is most of what you'll be finding archaeologically um, as for rats. Um Britain is home to 2 species so you have the brown slash common rat rat was nor vicals which I believe is the latest addition to Britain think came around the eighteen hundreds. 08:20.96 Alex Yeah. 08:38.31 Cpt Granarius Eighteenth century. Um, yeah, mainly like on ships but you know like as far as just the introduction of brats in general is concerned. It tends to be a bit of a unknown moment and that was definitely the case for the brown rat. 08:39.11 Alex Something like that. 08:56.85 Cpt Granarius Um, the black rat ratto ratus terms of voles we have again 3 species you can imagine. This is all and a delight to look at from like ah under archaeological conditions. Ah the 3 ah native species of vole. 09:10.60 Alex Okay. 09:14.17 Cpt Granarius Um, ah the bankful meo this clip glennaious the field bowl Miroto saresis and the water bowl are vehicle amphibious I wonder wife call that. 09:26.90 Alex And of course it's not just about the mice the rats and the voles. There are other small insectivore aka insect eatingating mammals like shrews of which there are 3 native to Mainland Britain so you have the common true. 09:43.20 Cpt Granarius I Sore sarannaus and sorex minutus and na misforians. 09:46.40 Alex The P Merew and the watershro and I guess technically we could probably include hedgehogs. We might be pushing it a bit but hedgehogs. 10:01.85 Cpt Granarius Um, ah it's small enough I'd put that as a very small mammal. Um Eddie natural so it'll pay us by the way. 10:04.60 Alex Yeah. Yeah, they're they're pretty small and you know frankly when else are we going to be able to talk about them on this podcast unless we do a whole hedgehog episode which again you know if people want it we we can do it. But yeah. I think that's ah, a pretty good list of examples here in Britain. But of course there are many many other mammaan species out there that can be considered very small mammals. Obviously it's just Britain we have um, not literally a lack of diversity but in comparison to other places obviously a bit wanting. For it's small species. 10:48.36 Cpt Granarius Um, all larger species really just species I mean. 10:51.40 Alex Yeah I guess I mean so the other thing is obviously I was going to ask you know what is your experience with these tiny little creatures Zo archaeologically or archaeologically. 11:05.35 Cpt Granarius Um, they're annoying. Um, well I think from an osteological point of view like ah to be fair, of course it's not something you'll be able to find hand excavating on site I mean like. 11:11.49 Alex Ah, get it out. Just get it all out. 11:25.15 Cpt Granarius You'd have to be like with your face in the ground. Um for quite some time So It's something um that you're probably more likely to recover through environmental soil samples. But it's just one of those things like that they can like preserve well enough, but in terms of like anatomy like comparing the anatomy between say that. Several like different species of mouse and fall it can be like incredibly difficult to identify even sort of complete elements to species because I find more often than not unless you have something like jaws or Maxillaillas or a pelvis. It's tricky. 11:51.70 Alex A. 12:01.77 Alex Yeah, because obviously the Maxilla and the Mandibles the the pretty you know, characteristic of what you think of like a rodent or something but they do get small I mean I think realistically you're you're quite lucky. If you're getting a lot in you know a soil sample or something even I think people kind of noticing it in the field. It really depends and yeah, it's it's It's a bit tricky I think I've only really. Like once or twice. Maybe it's very few for sure and obviously you know it. It is also dependent on the kind of sites you're working on although I will say a shockingly small amount of rodents for someone who has worked in say Cave sites and things like that which obviously might speak for. Ah, there are kind of differences and things happening at those sites. But yeah, um, although I will say um I have experienced ah voles because there's the Orkney vole which I think we might talk about a bit later on this episode. 13:04.10 Cpt Granarius But yeah, although I will say. 13:15.76 Alex And when I worked in the orkney is they're very famous for just kind of always being around and you always had to be kind of careful not when it came to excavating per se but mostly when it came to setting up the camp. You know for the site we had. We'd have um these big tents because it obviously poured all the time on site. And we needed a place to put our stuff to kind of just unwind have lunch without getting soaking wet and when you would put those up and obviously push the poles down you had to make sure you weren't you know, accidenting gate crashing a full house person. So There were some unfortunate accents I feel like with voles but usually we were pretty good at making sure that we didn't disturb them too much. 14:04.90 Cpt Granarius Yeah, yeah, I going back so of from like identification I think you're probably jaws and Maillaillas are going to be the easiest of telltales. Um sort of even between sort of the various mouse species like. If. You've got jaws or or a baxil or something you should be able to tell the difference between sort of like the various species of mouse if you get a humorous here. Ah hi. That's where it gets a little trickier. Um, one thing that like um strikes me normal in particular is that with the bowls sort of the. Not too sure how to describe it but like the if you look closer so at the acclusal view of the jaw or the maxillailla the tooth pattern looks like jagged or like very how you imagine a roent to look like it's not that dissimilar from rabbits either. But in mice. Um the cusps. 14:46.26 Alex Is it. Yeah. 14:56.58 Cpt Granarius Sort of when they're in where they look like they're shape like with the love hearts. So India the your likely event that you come across a mouse Jow please like keep an eye out for the love hearts. 15:01.88 Alex Ah, yeah I see it. 15:11.72 Alex You know, speaking of their their jaws and their teeth I think realistically the the most experience I have with kind of rodents in archaeology or in zoo archeology is they're gnawing like I probably. Write down and observe more like rodent gnawing than I do the actual rodent bones which obviously makes sense especially because a lot of annoying could potentially be more modern and contemporary. But yeah, otherwise not that much experience with kind of looking at you know, big volumes of. Small Mammaian bone like that. 15:48.47 Cpt Granarius Which actually reminds me 1 thing. That's probably worth mentioning as well because yes we did discuss you know like that this very small mammals and especially so like mice and rats they can be indictive or you know of introductions and the relationship they had alongside humans or if they were in or around a settlement. But of course what I forgot to mention is that that it's all provided. They're not intrusive because I should expect bison rats like to burrow so you do get ah rodent remains and indeed the holes that they've left behind. Basically trashing through archeology and the rodent remains are probably not that old at all. They just ended up in your ditch. So there's that just to make it fun. 16:35.79 Alex So yeah, you know what? a wonderful fun time. Rodents are in archaeology and we'll take a quick break now I come back. We will talk a bit more about very small mammals. In Britain but around the world. 16:59.42 archpodnet So right, Good stuff.