Bryony Coles. Beavers in Britain's Past (WARP Occasional Paper 19).

Bryony Coles. Beavers in Britain's Past (WARP Occasional Paper 19). BRYONY bryony:see gourd. COLES. Beavers in Britain's Past (WARP Occasional Paper19). x+242 pages, 158 illustrations. 2006. Oxford: Oxbow;978-1-84217-2261 paperback 40 [pounds sterling]. Demographic change, settlement geography and archaeology, analysisof domestic, industrial and transportation structures, the nature ofenvironmental exploitation and impact, sociality, and material culture.Added to this there is plenty about humans too. In common with many others I was aware of Bryony Coles'interest in beavers in British prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to , but less aware of the breadthand depth of the research being undertaken. This volume brings togethermore than twenty years' thinking, research and fieldwork on thetopic and provides a wonderful range of material on the European beaver(Castor fiber). The approach is also refreshingly novel, in that it isinitially largely centred around beavers as agents in the landscape andhow their activities may have overlapped with, or even exploited, humanactivities, rather than more narrowly upon beavers as a resource{whether for food, ornamentation ornamentationIn music, the addition of notes for expressive and aesthetic purposes. For example, a long note may be ornamented by repetition or by alternation with a neighboring note (“trill”); a skip to a nonadjacent note can be filled in with the intervening or fur) used by humans, although thelatter is also more than adequately covered in later chapters. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The first chapter consists of an overview of the ecology of theEuropean beaver and its distribution through the Quaternary quaternary/qua��ter��nary/ (kwah��ter-nar?e)1. fourth in order.2. containing four elements or groups.qua��ter��nar��yadj.1. Consisting of four; in fours. . Whilerelatively short, and based largely on synthesising other sources, Isuspect that this chapter in itself will become a standard reference. Italso provides the first indication that the widespread belief thatCastor fiber is not a dam-builder, unlike its North American North Americannamed after North America.North American blastomycosissee North American blastomycosis.North American cattle ticksee boophilusannulatus. cousin(Castor canadensis) is mistaken. On this matter Chapters 2 and 3 providemore than enough evidence. With the presentation of results fromfieldwork and survey of modern populations in France, quite wonderfulinsights into the extent of beaver activity on stream systems, and theinfluence of that activity on the wider landscape, emerge. At Keriou(Brittany), for example, a single beaver territory (2 adults, maybe somesub-adults) contained 4 lodges and 14 dams. There were associated pondsand flooded areas, dam by-pass channels, underground beaver tunnels, andoverground O´ver`ground´a. 1. Situated over or above ground; as, the overgroundportion of a plant s>. beaver-built canals. All this in only a 750m stretch of riverand in the 30 years since beaver were re-introduced to the area. Insoutheastern France on the River Drome a 900m stretch contained 30 damsand ponded back around 30 times more water than would be expected undera normal flow regime, this achieved in only 15 years. The archaeologicalstyle distribution mapping of beaver structures, the planning ofrepresentative structures and of channel forms within beaver territoriesimpress as much as the factual content of the text and provide animportant baseline for the potential archaeological record of beaveractivity covered in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 focuses upon the human exploitation of beaver resourcesor beaver-modified landscapes. Here it is evident that beavers were notjust a potential source of food or fur but also that their territoriescould in addition have provided human populations with readily availablekindling, firewood, 'coppice' poles and ponds stocked withfish and waterfowl waterfowl,common term for members of the order Anseriformes, wild, aquatic, typically freshwater birds including ducks, geese, and screamers. In Great Britain the term is also used to designate species kept for ornamental purposes on private lakes or ponds, while in . Dams could also have been used as'natural' crossing points. An interesting observation is thatbeaver 'canals' just might have inspired later humanengineering works on floodplains. Chapters 5 to 12 look at the possible archaeological evidence ofbeaver activity in the British Isles over the last 15,000 years. Usingthe modern structures and plans as a guide, the case for features atsites such as at Thatcham (Mesolithic) and West Cotton (Neolithic) beingpossible beaver structures is carefully and fully explored. It isapparent that from the Neolithic to the Iron Age the evidence for beavershifts away from beaver 'structures' and toward beaverremains, particularly their striking incisors, as tools orornamentation. Throughout the possibility that archaeological excavationmight have created a bias is fully acknowledged. Interestingly evidencefor beaver is scant during the Roman period. The possibility is raisedthat this may actually be due to the relative invisibility of beaver atthat time, rather than actual decline. As is also discussed elsewhere inthe volume beaver are adaptive, and will only build lodges and dams whenstream or river conditions require deepening of water. For the historic period (Chapters 10-12) beaver place names areconsidered, as are documentary and other sources. In terms of humanperception beaver emerges here as first a source of high status food andfelt and later as a pest, for which a bounty would be paid. Thepersecution was effective, leading to the last recorded case of a bountypaid for a beaver pelt peltthe undressed, raw skin of a wild animal with the fur in place. If from a sheep or goat there is a short growth of wool or mohair on the skin. in Yorkshire in the year 1789, a final recordsubstantially later than that generally accepted as the extinction datefor beaver in Britain. This review can only cover so much ground; there is much, much moreof value in this book. The text, plans and photographs combine toproduce an impressive volume. We need similar books for other mammalstoo. PAUL DAVIES Quaternary Research Unit, Bath Spa University HistoryThe institution can trace its roots back to 1898. It was formed as Bath College of Higher Education by the merger of two colleges in 1975. In 1992, the college was granted its own degree-awarding powers and in 1999 adopted the name , UK (Email: p.davies@bathspa.ac.uk)