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The excavation of an antiq villa in Ris-Orangis (Essonne, France) makes it possible to carry out the different methods of reading (zootechnical, phosphorus mapping and analysis of fecal lipid biomarkers) leading to the interpretation of a building as a sheepfold.
During the excavation work carried out at Château du Haut-Clairvaux (Vienne) in 2018 and 2019, a previously unseen 12th-century building was excavated to the north of the courtyard. Buried following a fire and the installation of new buildings at the end of the 12th century, the building preserves several structures and pits, including one filled with fifteen perfectly preserved dog skeletons. According to archaeozoological analysis, these were probably individuals belonging to a pack of hunting dogs buried on site. In addition, several clues suggest that this building may have been used as a kennel, a sort of lodge within a lodge.
When excavating areas that could be interpreted as animal homes, bio- and geoarchaeological approaches are increasingly used to support interpretation based on built structures. Palynological analysis is not necessarily the most common, as the good state of preservation of pollen grains requires conditions that are generally found in the wet and organic infilled of hollow structures. However, pollen grains, like other non-pollen microfossils such as the spores of saprophytic and/or coprophilous fungi, can be good direct or indirect indicators of the presence of animals. In recent years, several preventive archaeology projects in the Paris region have provided an opportunity to test palynological analyses on structures of various kinds, such as the floors of sheepfolds, cowsheds and hen houses. The results we obtained showed very positive contributions when the conservation conditions were suitable, namely undisturbed organic sedimentary layers that were quickly sealed after abandonment.
