Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T00:36:18.860Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Unwelcome companions: ancient rats reviewed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Philip L. Armitage*
Affiliation:
1972 Roseate Lane, Sanibel Island FL 33957, USA

Extract

The commensal rats — notably the black rat Rattus rattus and the brown R. norvegicus — are among mankind's most destructive and dangerous enemies, and have spread relentlessly with humans across the globe. A decade after an important ratty meeting at the Natural History Museum, London, in 1981, this noxious rodent pest is again reviewed.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addyman, P., Hood, J.S.R., Kenward, H.K., Macgregor, A. & Williams, D.. 1976. Palaeoclimate in urban environmental archaeology at York, England: problems and potential, World Archaeology 8(2): 220–33.Google Scholar
Armitage, P.L. 1977. The mammalian remains from the Tudor site of Baynard’s Castle, London: a biometrical and historical analysis. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, Royal Holloway College, London & British Museum (Natural History).Google Scholar
Armitage, P.L. 1979. The mammalian remains from the Roman, medieval and early modern levels, St Magnus, City of London, Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report 2806.Google Scholar
Armitage, P.L. 1993. Commensal rats in the New World 1492-1992, The Biologist 40(4): 174–8.Google Scholar
Armitage, P.L., West, B. & Steedman, K.. 1984. New evidence of black rat in Roman London, The London Archaeologist 4(14): 375–83.Google Scholar
Audoin-Rouzeau, F. 1986. Ossements animaux du Moyenäge au Monastère de la Charité-sur-Loire. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne.Google Scholar
Audoin-Rouzeau, F. & Vigne, J.-D. (in press). The colonization of western Europe by the Black rat (Rattus rattus), Revue de Paléobiologie.Google Scholar
Baillie, M.G.L. & Munro, M.A.R.. 1988. Irish tree-rings, Santorini and volcanic dust veils, Nature 332: 344–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barraclough, G. (ed.). 1989. The Times atlas of world history. 2nd edition. Maplewood (NJ): Hammond.Google Scholar
Blackford, J.J. & Chambers, R.M.. 1991. Proxy records of climate from blanket mires: evidence for a Dark Age (1400 BP) climatic deterioration in the British Isles, The Holocene 1(1): 63–7.Google Scholar
Boessneck, J. & Ziegler, R.. 1987. Tierknochenfunde III. Serie 1983-1984, in Hrouda, Von B., Isin-Išäh Bahrlyät III: Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen 1983-1984:13750. München: Verlag Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Bruyn, T. DE. 1981. Huissrat (Rattus rattus) en Bruine rat (R. norvegicus) in archeozoologische context. Unpublished dissertation, Rijksuniversiteit Gent.Google Scholar
Butler, L. 1975. The evolution of towns: planted towns after 1066, in Barley, M.W. (ed.), The plans and topography of medieval towns in England and Wales: 3248. London: Council for British Archaeology. Research report 14.Google Scholar
Davis, D.E. 1986. The scarcity of rats and the Black Death: an ecological history, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 16(3): 455–70.Google Scholar
Gautier, A. 1984. La faune de quelques maisons d’Apamée, in Baity, J. (ed.), Apamée de Syrie. Bilan des recherches archéologiques 1973-1979: 305–37. Bruxelles: Centre Belge de Recherches Archéologiques à Apamée de Syrie.Google Scholar
Gesner, K. 1551. Historia Animalium. Zurich.Google Scholar
Graham-Campbell, J. & Kidd, D.. 1980. The Vikings. London: British Museum Publications.Google Scholar
Haywood, J. 1991. Dark Age naval power: a reassessment ofFrankish and Anglo-Saxon seafaring activity. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hengeveld, R. 1989. Dynamics of biological invasions. New York (NY): Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Hills, C. 1986. Blood of the British from Ice Age to Norman Conquest. London: Guild.Google Scholar
Isle, A. DE L’. 1865. De l’existence d’une race negre chez le rat, ou de l’identité spécifique du Mus rattus et du Mus alexandrinus, Annales de Sciences Naturelles sèrie 5(4): 173222.Google Scholar
Lewis, A.R. 1958. The northern seas: shipping and commerce in Northern Europe AD 300-1100. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Loyn, H.R. 1962. Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
Lynn, C.J. 1982. The excavation of Rathmullan, a raised rath and motte in County Down, Ulster Journal of Archaeology 44-5 (1981-82): 65171.Google Scholar
Marsden, P. & West, B.. 1992. Population change in Roman London, Britannia 23: 133–40.Google Scholar
Martin, C. 1987. The Viking world, in Throckmorton, P. (ed.), The sea remembers: shipwrecks and archaeology: 128–33. New York (NY): Weidenfeld & Nicolson.Google Scholar
Matheson, C. 1931. The Brown and the Black Rat in Wales. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales. 1939. A survey of the status of Rattus rattus and its subspecies in the seaports of Great Britain and Ireland, Journal of Animal Ecology 8: 76ȓ93.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. 1963. Animal species and evolution. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McCormick, F. 1991. The effect of the Anglo-Norman settlement on Ireland’s wild and domesticated fauna, in Crabtree, P.J. & Ryan, K. (ed.), Animal use and culture change: 4152. Philadelphia (PA): MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology. Supplement to volume 8 (1991).Google Scholar
Merrifield, R. 1983. London: city of the Romans. London: Ernest Benn.Google Scholar
Neyland, R.S. 1992. The seagoing vessels on Dilmun seals, in Keith, D.H. & Carrell, T.L. (ed.), Underwater archaeology proceedings of th e Society for Historical Archaeology Conference at Kingston, Jamaica 1992: 6874. Tucson (AZ): Society for Historical Archaeology.Google Scholar
Niethammer, J. VON 1975. Zur taxonomie und Ausbreitungsgeschichte der Hausratte (Rattus rattus), Zoologischer Anzeiger, Jena 194: 405–15.Google Scholar
O‘Connor, T.P. 1988a. The case of the absent rat, Archaeology in York Interim 13(4): 3941.Google Scholar
O‘Connor, T.P. 1988b. Bones from the General Accident site, Tanner Row, Archaeology of York 15(2): 61136.Google Scholar
O‘Connor, T.P. 1991. On the lack of bones of the ship rat Rattus rattus from Dark Age York, Journal of Zoology, London 224: 318–20.Google Scholar
Oliphant, M. 1992. The atlas of the ancient world. New York (NY): Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Platt, C. 1976. The English medieval town. London: Seeker & Warburg.Google Scholar
Plug, I. & Dippenaar, N.J.. 1979. Evidence of Rattus rattus (House rat) from Pont Drift, an Iron Age site in Northern Transvaal, South African Journal of Science 75: 82.Google Scholar
Prummel, W. 1983. Excavations atDorestad 2: Early medieval Dorestad: an archaeozoological study. Amersfoort: ROB.Google Scholar
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. 1868. Rolls Series VI: Book II.Google Scholar
Rackham, J. 1979. Rattus rattus: the introduction of the black rat into Britain, Antiquity 53: 112–20.Google Scholar
Reumer, J.W.F. 1986. Note on the spread of the black rat, Rattus rattus, Mammalia 50(1): 118–19.Google Scholar
Reynolds, S. 1977. An introduction to the history of English medieval towns. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Schwarz, E. & Schwarz, H.K.. 1967. A monograph of the Rattus rattus group, Anales de la Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, Mexico 14: 79178.Google Scholar
Sheldon, H. 1975. A decline in the London settlement AD 150-250? London Archaeologist 2(11): 278–84.Google Scholar
Sloane, R.E. & Duncan, M.A., 1978. Zooarchaeology of Nichoria, in Rapp, G. & Aschenbrenner, S.E. (ed.), Excavations at Nichoria in Southwest Greece Vol.1: Site, environs and techniques: 6077. Minneapolis (MN): University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Stanzel, M. 1991. Die Tierreste aus dem Artemis-/Apollon-Heiligtum bei Kalapodi in Bootien/Griechenland. Unpublished dissertation, Universität München.Google Scholar
Teichert, M. VON 1985. Beitrag zur Faunengeschichte der Hausratte, Rattus rattus (L.), Zeitschrift für Archäologie 19: 263–9.Google Scholar
Tchernov, E. 1984. Commensal animals and human sedentism in the Middle East, in Clutton-Brock, J. & Grigson, C. (ed.), Animals in archaeology 3: Early herders and their flocks: 91115. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. International series S202.Google Scholar
Tomich, R.Q. 1968. Coat color in wild populations of the roof rat in Hawaii, Journal of Mammalogy 49(1): 7482.Google Scholar
Tomich, P.Q. & Kami, H.T. 1966. Coat color inheritance of the roof rat in Hawaii, Journal of Mammalogy 47(3): 423–31.Google Scholar
Twigg, G. 1984. The Black Death: a biological reappraisal. London: Batsford.Google Scholar
Vigne, J.-D. & Femolant, J.-M.. 1991. Première observation de la presence du rat noir [Rattus rattus) en France septentrionale à la période gallo-romaine (Picardie, Ier siècle après J.-C), Mammalia 55(2): 319–21.Google Scholar
Vigne, J.-D. & Marin Val-Vigne, M.-C.. 1985. Le rat en Corse au 6 siècle après J.-C? Mammalia 49(1): 138–9.Google Scholar
Voigt, E.A. & Von Den Driesch, A.. 1984. Preliminary report on the faunal assemblage from Ndondondwane, Natal, Annals of the Natal Museum 26(1): 95104.Google Scholar
Yosida, T.H. 1980. Cytogenetics of the Black Rat. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.Google Scholar