The humble tortoise - a popular pet with the British since Victorian times. Picture Charles J Sharp
New interpretations on an archaeological find are providing archaeologists with some historical context into Britain’s renowned love of pets.
The discovery of a bone belonging to a late19th-century tortoise from Stafford Castle, Staffordshire, is believed to be the earliest archaeological evidence of a tortoise kept as a family pet.
Zooarchaeologist Dr Richard Thomas is Head of the University of Leicester’s Bone Laboratory and is an expert in the understanding of past human-animal relationships. He believes the find offers insights into the changing attitude of British society towards family pets.
“Although we have archaeological evidence for terrapins and turtles from the 17th century, this is the first archaeological evidence we have for a land tortoise in Britain,” says Dr. Thomas.
“It seems very likely that this specimen was imported from North Africa or the Mediterranean; by the later 19th-century there was a dramatic rise in the commercial trade in tortoises from these regions to satisfy the growing demand for pet animals”.
Discovered amongst the skeletons of cats and dogs, experts believe the Stafford Castle tortoise was possibly kept as a pet by the family who were caretakers at the castle at the time. The date of the find coincides with the late 19th-century increase in the trade of live animals and with the widespread importation of tortoises in particular.
The practice of keeping pets is a relatively modern phenomenon. Strict religious doctrines during the Medieval and Early Modern periods meant that having a pet was considered highly suspect and although there was an avid fascination in exotic creatures attitudes towards pets didn’t begin to change until the 17th century. Dog-loving Stuart kings ushered in the trend and by the early 17th century the ill-fated Archbishop Laud was known to have a pet tortoise.
The discovery of the Stafford Castle tortoise bone adds to the archaeological evidence that by the late 19th century ordinary families were keeping animals as pets.
“Unfortunately, this interest in keeping exotic pet animals resulted in the capture and translocation of millions of wild tortoises each year during the 20th century,” adds Dr. Thomas.
“The animals were crated in ships and kept in appalling conditions; countless tortoises died during this journey and those that survived fared little better, given away as fairground prizes and kept by people with little knowledge of their upkeep. It was not until an EEC regulation in 1988, that this trade in wild tortoises was prohibited”.
