Overview
- The study published in November 2026 explains a decade-old find of roughly 8,000 frog bones recovered during A14-linked digs at Bar Hill between 2016 and 2018 and radiocarbon-dates the deposit to about 1,700 years ago.
- Researchers measured frog humeri to build an age profile and found most animals were juveniles eaten in their first winter, and onsite evidence indicates the ditch filled within a single year.
- Taphonomic analysis of bone breakage and accumulation points to birds of prey as the deposit agents, with short-eared owls and hen harriers named as the most likely predators.
- Snail, pollen and charcoal records link the feeding event to Roman-period fen recession and woodland clearance that created open grassland and seasonal grazing which concentrated frogs and made them more vulnerable to raptors.
- The paper is the result of collaboration between Bournemouth University, MOLA and the University of Vienna and demonstrates how new small-bone methods and dating can tie animal remains to past human land use and landscape change.