00:00.39 Cpt Granarius And we are back on episode 55 of arche animals on the zoo archeology of very small mammals so in the first part we've discussed of what a very small mammal entails. Um, I thought we take a look some examples from around the world and first on our list is the african pygy mouse um, must min toy this which is one of the smallest rodent species in the world and it's mainly found what in most parts of Africa really was so the exception of Northern Africa and it is arguably the textbook definition of very small mammals as adults usually only grow to about 1 to three inches long now like many other micro mammals the african pygmy mouse is particularly valued amongst biologists and zoo archaeologists alike for the use in reconstructing. Paleo environments. Um, but these mice are also particularly useful for understanding the development and spread of pastoralism in Africa just a form of natural ah animal husband group which is still practiced today. 01:07.95 Alex Yeah, it's some have you looked at a picture samota of the African Pgmy mouse because it is so cute. Oh okay, okay. 01:15.27 Cpt Granarius So I don't want to is to to to because I think I might have a acuteness overload and then we'll be unable to talk about any other species. You know that's. 01:30.71 Alex You know what? that's fair, but it's an interesting kind of case study of you know we talk a lot in previous episodes and we are talking about in this episode the kind of importance of these small, very small sorry very small mammals. 01:32.60 archpodnet Taxes. 01:49.45 Alex Ah, for their kind of ability. Not really their ability but their characteristics that are associated with them that are utilized for a lot of other things to archeology you know environmental reconstruction things like that that we talked about in the first part. But obviously you know. They're still very important in modern day as well because of those very same characteristics and I mean I don't know if we've really talked about applied zoarchaeology in this show. But I think we might have an episode lined up at some point about it. But Applied Zoarchieology is basically the the concept of utilizizing Zoeology. So past data of animal populations and our understanding of past species interactions and things like that and applying it to more contemporary scientific kind of. Investigations and. 02:47.97 Cpt Granarius Ah, think we have mentioned it on a fair few occasions I think it was more as case studies. But how sort of the ways in which zoo archaeologists been applied for conservation but also um, think we did some case studies of discussions with regards to sheep. 02:52.36 Alex Oh yeah, yeah yeah. 03:01.58 Alex Yes, you're right. 03:03.56 Cpt Granarius In particular and how it's been used so like for well sheep. Well not necessari only sheep husbandry but ah yeah, sheep husbandry today? Yeah yeah, know. 03:10.84 Alex Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's coming back to the rate. It's been a while folks. It's fit dev about so it's but yeah, just as a refresher then so that's what appliance archeology is and it's nice to kind of see the way those 2 interact moving on. We have the rice field rat. 03:34.23 Cpt Granarius Like rattus argentive inventor. 03:37.11 Alex Now it's found throughout Southeast Asia unsurprisingly among rice fields where it's often considered a pest now because it's associated primarily with rice fields. It's particularly useful among other rice field pests. For examining the spread of rice farming throughout Asia. So obviously the more rice-filled rats. You find at the site the more likely it is that hey there may have been rice farming going on and you can kind of trace that throughout. By combining and comparing a lot of the data from various sites across the asian continent now archaeological excavation in Southeast asia has also revealed historic instances of ricefield rat consumption. Although it doesn't seem to have been a staple of any diet. They still may have been consumed occasionally so lot of different kind of utilizations for the ricefield rats. 04:42.98 Cpt Granarius Them next up as promised is the the humble okcknivo mirato are bais or cadensis which is what it's it's a evolve everyone which lives in the Oakley islands um more specifically they're a population of the common vol. So. 04:53.24 Alex It's a it's a bowl. 05:01.14 Cpt Granarius Mirato are Valleys I guess because you have the oraenzis at the end it would classify. Maybe as as a subspecies almost I don't know whether they differ enough from the common Vol Club speciated. 05:10.77 Alex Well they they kind of do because the thing about the orkney vole is that it's 10% larger than the common vol. Yeah, and. 05:24.88 Cpt Granarius Yeah, that's filed because also that's something like sorry um goes something that you'd expect. You know if you look like especially like um in in the pleistocene you do tend to find this trend where sort of the microphonea tends to be a lot bigger on islands. 05:40.85 Alex Yeah. 05:42.55 Cpt Granarius And like and vice versa. But it's not most probably not the same thing because it's not a change that you expect to happen in such a short amount of time I mean the like the the oldest ah Oakley Vol remains uncovered where about four thousand six hundred years old. 05:59.97 Alex Yeah. 06:01.64 Cpt Granarius So Been like archeological research has suggested that the Openingley vol was introduced by humans of during the neolithic again as a bit of a ah no um, moment. Ah, so I wouldn't expect that much of a change to happen in such what it's is in the grounds key of things such a short amount of time and. 06:18.54 Alex Yeah, it's so there's a the lot thing strange. So obviously they're 10% larger than the common vo and you know the common vote themselves are strangely absent in the rest of Britain. So. 06:32.96 Cpt Granarius I mean neocrival. 06:37.94 Alex Yeah I think it's the common role I thought was actually absent in most of Britain. 06:46.56 Cpt Granarius Ah, well the couple of the the commoners in the field bowl. But you you do get bowl. 06:47.77 Alex Yeah, yeah, yeah, well then I cannot read. 06:56.69 Cpt Granarius Because just yeah, the Oakley ball is probably just come confined so the oakney islands and you don't really find them elsewhere. Yeah, um. 07:01.99 Alex Yeah, yeah, it's very strange though. That's why I was so confused. It's very. It's a very weird thing even without that. Um this is just me with the scrolls all over again folks. 07:19.37 Cpt Granarius That's okay, you've been replaced by um, ah the the the new to reptiles of Britain. 07:28.34 Alex True. Yes, this is is true. Anyway, in addition, research comparing the orkneyvole from other common Vol have also shown the way humans are able to influence and change species on a morphological and as well as a evolutionary level. So orkney vols are even more different than the common vole brethren based in their dental characteristics. So as they spread across the the various northern aisles they differ in their their tooth shape I believe it's very. Very nitty- gritty type things that frankly, if you're not looking for it I think a lot of zo archeologists especially people like me who kind of just do general zo archeology and kind of deal with a lot of different species would definitely not pick up but it's really interesting and ah you know as simmona says um and we have talked about this in previous episodes. Like the kind of island effect on species. it's it's it's weird it's definitely weird, but um, yeah, her yes. 08:34.65 Cpt Granarius I tell you what they've done this to spiders just like I tell you what we're going to do over Millennia we're going to change our tooth morphology ever so slightly just to throw people off, we're gonna look at our bones. 5000 years from now that's what's happened solved. 08:59.38 Alex Ah, yeah, like they're not difficult enough really to deal with. Also do we mention that they were most likely introduced within animal food. Yeah, so as people moved around. Obviously they. 09:09.13 Cpt Granarius All the audience. Yeah. 09:17.70 Alex Especially during theolyphic people are settling. They've realized that they can domesticate species and to do that they have to keep them fed and voles just like other rodents love to tag long. It's ah again, it's a very. 09:35.78 Alex Interesting thing about these very small Mammalian species. They are difficult to kind of pick up if you're kind of just generally looking at animal bones or even just excavating could be generally hard to pick up and retrieve they can be very frustrating for us but they they are. Kind of the hardbringers of massive change sometimes whether that's people moving to different places people settling somewhere new creating a new community. It's really interesting how kind of important their presence is at least with regards to. What they may or may not indicate but they're also really Annoying. So It's hard. 10:22.18 Cpt Granarius Should we move on to an acutter small mammal. Yeah, very small mammal I'm sorry attempt less annoying. 10:25.79 Alex Yes, a cuter potentially less annoying because again I think this is one that I've definitely never seen in my excavations. So. 10:34.86 Cpt Granarius This one I've definitely never seen my excavations. No think that's I think it's ah it's more of a a taciturn silent presence and to keep to himself. 10:46.57 Alex Yes. 10:49.46 Cpt Granarius Ah, it's the hedgehog is the european hedgehogs e natural so it pales so like um I mean it's an insectable even though a technically it's a bit more of an omnival loves dog food. Um Broadie still did back in the day. Um and us some shared ancestry with shrews. Be I can I can see that because their muzzles sort of quite elongated quite pointy and you know if you picture a shrew or if you want to like look at something really cute. You look up a pigmish shrew is one of the cutest thing you'll ever see. So now I can see about how they have some shared ancestry. 11:10.89 Alex You. 11:28.63 Cpt Granarius Um, and now during the middle ages they were sometimes used for food and there there are actually instances of recipes that call for hairgehog as you do, um, another species of hairdgehog across the world have been used for medicine and witchcraft. Um. Ah, like arguably I mean is it a very small mammal to be fair I would say it is mainly because I sometimes you get like some older males that absolute units of a hedgehog but all in North probably still put them in the very small mammal camp myself. Um. And the the humble hedgehog has been used by archaeologists to examine human mobility given that it has actually been introduced elsewhere. Probably also inadverstively. So for example, Hedgegs have been found on the islands of of the island of scotlandland among pittedware culture assemblages which they back to the middle neolithic. Adna work on the remains are ah shown that that these hedgehogs actually originated from Sweden so likely indicating human contact between Gotland and the mainland during the neolithic so yet again another species that Wes um, and we're we're here now. Even though I can also picture someone going. This is cute and taking it with me i. 12:43.80 Alex Well, yeah, that's the thing isn't it. It's you know, most likely that they just kind of tagged along because you know that's what they do and they still do today. But I guess maybe there's like maybe a 0 point 2% chance someone was just like things cute I mean we do it today too. People love to kind of just take random animals and try to make them pets so who knows they do? yeah. 13:11.90 Cpt Granarius yeah yeah I mean I think like people keep hedgehogs as pets they do? Yeah like I don't I don't know if you can in this country think you can ah think is these the african pmishrew the one that is I think we not regularly that think it's probably the most. Co of pets but is the one that you most often see being kept as a pet as opposed to a full like european hedgehog but you know people do find them cute quite a fair few like people in the Uk. Do you like tent to hegehogs and they will go like you can buy hedgehog specific food. 13:35.70 Alex And. 13:49.24 Cpt Granarius From pet shops and you can you can feed the hedgehogs in your garden and encourage them also because they're quite helpful because they get rid of a lot of your pests so of the slugs and things so not only they cause absolutely no damage to you and we'll never enter a nest in your home but will also help you get rid of ah yeah, the. Other out or the pests that you may not want. That's a win win really and the super cute. 14:14.15 Alex Yeah, and I feel like and this is me kind of thinking off the top my head I think there are some really cute hedgehog artifacts that you can look up and find I think the mets and the metropoli and museum of art in New York and believe they had some hedgehog shaped um like amulets and stuff from egypt. This is something I vaguely remember from my undergraduate so not only are they ah really interesting in this kind of osteological perspective but they are. Just kind of a thing that you could find in artifacts which is also extremely cute. So um, yeah, if you want to have ah a fun time. You can look it up. Oh I just remembered it's there is an artifact ah from the Middle East I think somewhere. It's a hedgehog and it's like on wheels I remember that going around social media. Yeah, it's like a little hedgehog like carved out of something looks I think it's like ivory or something maybe and it's like on this little like cart. 15:16.55 Cpt Granarius I The hedgehog on Wheels Yeah, like wow. 15:33.73 Cpt Granarius I Ah nice and of course, let's not forget. Ah, the headgehogs that you find in some of the Medieval Beast juries because it's priceless. 15:37.62 Alex Yes, of course there's some real accurate depictions of hedgehogs there. 15:46.36 Cpt Granarius Yeah, but we felt like just Medieval Beast cheies in general that they're a mood I think. 15:51.80 Alex I Think we have an episode that we'll do at some point in the near future about B series. 15:54.94 Cpt Granarius And I hope so I think like should probably make a distinction between sort of medieval beast cherries and medieval maps because I think like for both of those things you could do like a 10 parter. 16:04.67 Alex Ah. 16:09.40 Cpt Granarius Just the imagined zoo archaeology of what they thought a rabbit looked like and also yeah, all the creatures of like yeah Medieval maps especially the further you went away from sort of Western Europe the more they're just come up with the wildest stuff. 16:13.89 Alex Yeah. 16:27.67 Cpt Granarius Like oh yeah, there's this creature here. Yeah, sure sure you know the ones. 16:31.78 Alex Anyway, as we as we think about the fanciful I Guess we will take a break and we will come back to something a bit more grounded in reality with our case studies. 16:42.92 Cpt Granarius And let's.