Why chicken was a bird of prayer to Iron Age man
FANS of Nando’s or Kentucky Fried Chicken might feel a sudden kinship with their ancestors.
For ancient Britons, it turns out, were also worshippers of chicken – only it wasn’t the taste they adored.
Research has found that the birds – along with hares – were held up as a kind of deity in Iron Age Britain, a status that protected them from being eaten.
The findings support Julius Caesar’s account of how Romans were shocked to discover on arrival in Britain that both species were shielded by ‘divine law’.
Researchers at the Universities of Exeter, Leicester and Oxford have uncovered the history of the two animals, which they believe were associated with ancient gods and goddesses.
Archaeological digs examining the skeletons of chickens and hares show the animals were buried with care, without any sign of butchery.
Radiocarbon dates for bones found on sites in Hampshire and Hertfordshire suggest brown hares and chickens were introduced to Britain between the fifth and the third century BC. But the researchers say the buried skeletons suggest neither animal was eaten until the Roman period, which began hundreds of years later.
Caesar, who led Roman invasions of Britain in 55 and 54BC, had detailed how ‘ Britons consider it contrary to divine law’ to eat hare or chicken, but rather ‘raise them for their own amusement and pleasure’.
Project lead Professor Naomi Sykes, from the University of Exeter, said: ‘Historical accounts have suggested chickens and hares were too special to be eaten and were instead associated with deities – chickens with an Iron Age god akin to Roman Mercury, and hares with an unknown female hare goddess.’
Professor Sykes added that it was only when chicken and hare numbers started to increase that they were eaten by humans.