SC - Celtic Chickens,Corrected

[Steve Hughes]

Dear SCA-Cooks,
 Darn, spell check, heat stroke from 4 day 20th Ansteorran Anniversary
and midnight really got me this time. My Apology to all Gaulish experts
who came out as sudying the Golosh period(Could this be an archeologic
study on prehistoric rain gear?). Hope this corrected messages works
better. My degrees are not in spelling, grammar or punctuation.
Sincerely,
Pamela Hewitt, the Harper
Pamela Hewitt, the Harper


> 
> 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 (animi 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 animi 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 6th 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 with 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
> Gaulish 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 crowd 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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