Rats and the Archaeology of Trade, Urbanism, and Disease in Historic Europe: Introducing the RATTUS Project

Professor David Orton will introduce us to the Rattus Project, which is being conducted at the University of York, and give a lecture on the topic "Rats and the Archaeology of Trade, Urbanism, and Disease in Historic Europe – Introducing the RATTUS Project".

How has human history shaped the distribution and ecology of rats over the past 2500 years? What in turn can rat remains tell us about key debates in human history, such as the post-Roman reconfiguration of economic and settlement systems and the emergence of medieval towns and trade? And what roles can rats really have played in the First and Second Plague Pandemics? David Orton will present an overview and some initial results of RATTUS, an ERC/UKRI project bringing together zooarchaeology, molecular methods, historical sources and ecological modelling to address these questions.

The lecture will be held in English.

For further information please consult the Rattus Project website:

https://sites.google.com/york.ac.uk/rattus/about

© Photo used on the poster: David Orton / Ewan Chipping; Rattus Project, University of York

If you are interested in attending, we kindly ask you to register in advance via email:

veranstaltung.zentrale@dainst.de.

The lecture will also be broadcast online via Zoom. Please register for the online event using the following link:

https://dainst-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/5tZibM-GQoOYiVKWbRLBfw#/registration