{"id":150266,"date":"2018-07-04T10:52:26","date_gmt":"2018-07-04T10:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/lost-history-of-brown-bears-in-britain-revealed\/"},"modified":"2018-07-04T10:52:26","modified_gmt":"2018-07-04T10:52:26","slug":"lost-history-of-brown-bears-in-britain-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/lost-history-of-brown-bears-in-britain-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost history of brown bears in Britain revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"TheImage copyright Hannah O'Regan
Image caption The jaw of a bear from Foxhole Cave, Derbyshire <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new study reveals the hidden history of brown bears in Britain, suggesting they still roamed wild 1,500 years ago.<\/p>\n

The research raises two scenarios. Either "native bears" went extinct around the early Middle Ages, or they disappeared some 3,000 years ago in the Bronze Age or in Neolithic times.<\/p>\n

Live bears were also imported by the Romans for fighting or displays.<\/p>\n

Little is known about the animal's history, despite talk of "re-wilding", says archaeologist Dr Hannah O'Regan.<\/p>\n

Her trawl of museum archives and published records is the most detailed examination yet of the brown bear in Britain.<\/p>\n

"The brown bear has been very closely associated with people for thousands of years in Britain - either wild or captive," says Dr O'Regan, from the department of classics and archaeology at the University of Nottingham.<\/p>\n

"Brown bears and people have been inter-linked through time. We see that today with our teddy bears."<\/p>\n

Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption The brown bear was once found across Eurasia and North America <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is not possible to say exactly when and where bears died out in the wild, as there is little evidence from natural sites, such as caves, fens and bogs.<\/p>\n

One scenario, based on evidence from a cave in the Yorkshire Dales, suggests the brown bear went extinct in the early medieval period - between about 425 and 594 AD.<\/p>\n

However, there is a slim chance that the Yorkshire cave bears were descendants of bears imported into Britain from elsewhere in Europe by the Romans.<\/p>\n

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In this version of events, bears went extinct much earlier, in the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, with other finds coming from imported bears, alive or dead.<\/p>\n

Whichever turns out to be true, bears have left their mark on British history through artworks, grave stones, bones, skins and museum specimens.<\/p>\n

Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Bears have long had cultural importance <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bears in Britain: A brief history<\/h2>\n

Before the Ice Age<\/strong><\/p>\n

The brown bear (Ursus arctos) was once widespread across Britain, found in the wild from Devon in southern England to Sutherland in northern Scotland.<\/p>\n

However, by the end of the last Ice Age, populations had dwindled and it had become rare. <\/p>\n

After the Ice Age<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the Ice Age onwards, Dr O'Regan found evidence of bears (alive or dead) at 85 places in England and Scotland, from the Stone Age to post-Medieval times. <\/p>\n

Bears were scarce in Scotland, Wales and the East Midlands, but more frequently found in Yorkshire, the east, the south and London.<\/p>\n

There is little data from Wales, possibly because specimens have not yet been analysed.<\/p>\n

Numbers started to decline further during the Stone Age, falling to very low numbers in the Iron Age.<\/p>\n

Bears in Roman Britain (AD 43-410)<\/strong><\/p>\n

There appear to have been more bears in Roman Britain - suggesting live animals were imported from continental Europe.<\/p>\n

Image copyright Image courtesy of Great North Museum, Tyne & Wear
Image caption Roman Cameo found at South Shields in 1878 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fact that museum specimens from Roman times contain lots of body parts suggests live bears were probably present and used in entertainment, including bear dancing and baiting.<\/p>\n

Early medieval times (AD 410-1066)<\/strong><\/p>\n

During Anglo-Saxon times, bear claws were found in cremation urns. And in the Viking Age, large carved stones called hogbacks, used to mark graves, have been found carved with bears.<\/p>\n

Image copyright Durham Cathedral
Image caption Hogback stone on display at Durham Cathedral <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr O'Regan says people may have associated the bear with certain traits, such as power.<\/p>\n

The discovery of tiny bear figurines at children's graves suggests they might have been put there to guard and protect the occupants.<\/p>\n

AD1066 onwards<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the end of medieval times, the only evidence for bears was found in London - because of bear-baiting arenas on the south bank of the Thames - and in Edinburgh, where specimens were kept at a medical school, possibly for teaching students.<\/p>\n

Image copyright Pre-Construct Archaeology
Image caption Roman bear skull from London <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bears were present in the Tower of London and continued to be imported into Britain until well into the 20th century. <\/p>\n

Dancing bears were a common form of entertainment. Bears were also widely used for their body parts, with bear grease still being sold in Britain in the early 20th century as a putative treatment for hair loss.<\/p>\n

The work is published in the journal Mammal Review.<\/p>\n

Follow Helen on Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Hannah O'ReganImage caption The jaw of a bear from Foxhole Cave, Derbyshire A new study reveals the hidden history of brown bears in Britain, suggesting they still roamed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}