SC - Re: Celtic Chickens

[Steve Hughes]

Dear SCA-Cooks,
 Here is more information on Celtic chickens and about  about Miranda J.
Green. After reading this message, you may see why if you were going to
quote from one a single source about the Celtic World you might want to
chose her.
 Miranda J. Green resides in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and is
a Lecturer in Celtic studies at the University of Wales College of
Cardiff, and a senior Lecturer in History and Archaeology at Gwent
College of Higher Education.  She has written extensively: The Gods of
the Celts (1986), Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art (1989),
Dictionary of Celtic Myth and legend (1992), Animals in Celtic Life and
Myth (1992) and Celtic Myths (1993),and  The Sun-Gods of Ancient Europe
(date not given). She is also the editor of the encyclopedic work_ The
Celtic World_(1995). I own copies of _Animals In Celtic Life and Myth_
and _The Celtic World_.
 Here begins the first chicken reference from _The Celtic World_ Chapter
11, from the section  entitled "Rural life and Farming"  written by
Peter J. Reynold who writes on p. 190 about chickens:
 "Bone evidence for poultry is meager. Caesar remarks that geese were
kept for pleasure (anim. causa) but makes no reference to chickens.
Since chickens were widespread throughout the Mediterranean countries,
their presence in Britain probably warranted no special mention. Geese,
however, held a special place in what for Caesar was contemporary Roman
history. Exactly what is meant by anim. causa is difficult to interpret
since the real meaning is about spiritual pleasure. Our knowledge of the
importance of birds in the Celtic spiritual world barely ranks the goose
as especially significant. Nonetheless the image of a Celtic Farmyard
must be populated by free-range chickens and geese. As for specific
types it is attractive to think of the chickens as being Old English
game fowl. These birds have a reputation for hardiness and aggression.
The cocks have been much sought after as fighting birds. It is
interesting to speculate whether some of the circular buildings were not
house but cock pits. That would, indeed, have been anim. causa and fits
into a long tradition of the sport. The geese could well have been the
grey lag, an elegant, medium-sized bird also given to a degree of
territorial aggression but not against its own kind as the case of
fighting cocks."
 Ok, so we have a number of possibility for chicken bones. Were they egg
layers or fighting cocks. Were they Old  English game fowls, or India
Chickens. Read on. 
 Note to the person  could you find an English translation and give us
the editor and page number where Caesar says the Gauls did not eat
chickens.
 In regard to Miranda Green's _Animals In Celtic Life and Myth_ her
footnotes and bibliography in small print cover p. 243 to 273 of the
book. The bibliography contains Irish Gaelic, German and French language
sources. References to chickens are made on page 6, 22-24, 34, 82, 96,
107, 110, 125-6, 142, 182, 196.
 P. 6 refers to chicken eggs.
P. 22-24 is part of a chapter titled "Food and Farming: Animals in the
Celtic Economy" a section starting on page 22 is  titled "Chickens and
Other Birds." Here it states that the earliest remains of chickens were
from the Th c temperate Europe. P. 23 states: "The chicken of the Celtic
Iron Age were Red Jungle Fowl imported from India or the Far East." It
states that the chickens were kept for their eggs and their flesh
particular during the later iron Age in Gaul and Britain. It remarks on
the fragility of chicken bones and how they are easily destroyed by
domestic animals such as dogs and pigs. Some chicken bones were found in
graves in Gaul. Green confirms that Caesar states that geese and
chickens were shunned as food by the Britons. She goes on to state that
domestic fowl are still found in Britain among Iron Age food debris. She
names a site, late period at Iron Age at Danbury and mentions that
chicken keeping increased during the Romano-Celtic period. 
P. 34 deals with eggs. It indicates that the archeological record
suggests that chickens, ducks and geese were kept for their eggs. Eggs
were in the grave-goods of the Celtic warrior chieftain and his chariot
at La Gorge Millet (Maine).
P. 82 refers to the above grave again and states there were eggs, a
fowl, joints of pork and a knife to eat them while a superb
Etruscan-made flagon held his wine.
P.96 Chapter 7 deals with sacrifice and ritual and states that animals
play an important part as intermediaries/messengers to the God
especially birds. It states that humans were rarely used as sacrifices.
It was more common to use animals. Domestic animals were most common.
(Note: I can locate a period description of a Viking funeral for you
that mentions the sacrifice of a cock.)
P. 107 in the Free Galosh period, domestic fowls were a popular
offerings in graves.
P. 110 burial of cockerels at shrines were probably related to an emblem
of a the god honored by that animal. (IE: Mercury's particular
companions are  the goat and the cock.)
P. 125 mentions Caesar and the geese/chicken aversion of the Britons,
but also states that both geese and chickens appear as food-offering in
Galosh graves. It states "Chickens in graves show signs of having been
prepared as food, the heads and legs missing or the heads split in
two."  Her foot note refers to "P. Mendel, 1984. "Contributions a
l'histoire de l'elevage en Picardie: du Neolithique a la fin de l'age du
fer" Revue Archeologique de Picardie, numero special." (Sorry, about not
having the correct French accent marks.) My poor and hasty translation
with a BA in English from Rice University, Houston, Texas (my MA in
English lit is from Trinity University San Antonio. My Thesis was
written on the Science Fiction Novel by Ursula K. LeGuin _The Left Hand
of Darkness_) and my 4 years college of the title would be:
Contributions to the Digging at Picardie: Concerning the Neolithique at
the end of the Iron Age.)
P.142 Mentions a coral-inlaid brooch from the Reinheim princess's grave
in the form of a hen. It also states that domestic chickens were found
at the Hallstatt stronghold of the Heunreberg in Germany.
P. 182 shows a drawing of Romano-Celtic figurine of a cockerel from
Nijmegen, Netherlands.
The last reference to chickens just mentions that mythologically Birds
were considered keen sighted, able to fly leaving behind the bonds of
earth.
 So this is the low down on the Celtic Chicken according to Miranda J.
Green's research.
 Many Medievalist also read the books written at the turn of the century
concerning travelers experiences on the Irish Islands. This is because
the culture remained relatively unchanged on this islands from the
Middle Ages. In Synge's book on the Aran Island mentions the crowd a
couple of loudly quarreling neighbors drew a crow and held them for a
couple of hours as the invectives flew. Seems the Celtic tradition of
taunting the enemy before battle carried down to this example of the
admiration of the invective as an art form. Seems the inhabitants of
Aran at the turn of the century also operated on SCA time.  As you can
see, my area of interest, if not expertise at this time is the Celtic
World and Ireland. As a newcomer to e-mail discussions, I had hoped to
get a discussion going in an area of interest too me. Well, I certainly
have managed that. I would like to add that some of the artfully couched
irony and sarcasm in regard to my message was not lost on me. If the
intent is to discourage a newcomer from participating in discussions,
then I fear I have disappointed you. 
 I am happy to announce that one benefit of this message is that as
Chronicler for the Shire of Tempio, I now have another article to add to
my upcoming issue.
 I would like to thank all of you who commented on my message once again
for your courtesy and instruction.It would also be nice if people
actually identified themselves with more than one name quoted sources.
I  hope that in future messages all of us will be more consciences and
consistent in citing our sources.
Sincerely,
Pamela Hewitt, the Harper
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