Cat bones
Medieval, 13th-15th century
Found during excavations by Winchester Museums Service Archaeology Section at Victoria Road, Winchester in the mid- to late 1970s
Some of the medieval pits at the Victoria Road site produced large quantities of cat bones like these. The animal remains specialists could tell from the degree of development in the bones what ages the cats were when they died, mainly six to eleven months, and have suggested that cats foraging a living in the medieval northern suburb were frequently captured and killed for their skins and fur.
At this age the cat would be more or less fully grown and its fur would be in good condition, but it would be unwary of people, and not cunning enough to evade capture as an older animal might. The absence of proper butchery marks on the bones, as opposed to cut marks on the head from skinning, suggests that poor puss did not make a tasty meal afterwards.
