Faunal remains from Dutch medieval towns. A survey

This paper presents a survey of the present state of affairs of archaeozoological research in medieval towns in the Netherlands, and deals with the quantitative as well as the qualitative aspects. Much of the information is not easily accessible. A signalling system for archaeozoological data could salve the problem. The total information accessible comprises 49 studied bone assemblages from 22 towns. Although this information is extremely varied, its value is in many cases limited by, among other things, the small size of the bone assemblages studied. Since the excavated soil was not usually sieved, comparison of complexes is difficult and the information is mainly restricted to the larger mammals. The article concludes with a survey of the part played by these animais in meat production in the towns.