Germany, Raetia and Noricum
Generally, these regions have the same pattern as the Three Gauls, forming with them a large zone north and west of the Alps that was beef and (to a lesser extent) pork dominated (Fig. 10). However, beef was more common on sites in Germany, particularly in Germania Inferior and the lower Rhineland. In this area, there are many sites of all categories with 60% or more cattle bones.
An interesting sub-group is that of rural settlements, which are mainly in Germania Inferior. These form a tight grouping that is cattle dominated, but with few pig bones - significantly lower in this respect than other categories (Table 3). These rural settlements are on the fringes of the Empire and have more in common with assemblages from the unconquered parts of Germany and the Netherlands (Lepetz 1996, 125; Lauwerier 1 988; Luff 1982, 248-9) than with more Romanized sites in the interior. It is likely that they had a similar diet and agricultural economy to the former.
The villa assemblages, by contrast, are mainly from Germania Superior and Raetia, and present a picture of high cattle and pig percentages, with relatively low sheep and goat numbers. Towns and legionary sites are similar, but usually with lower sheep and goat percentages (Peters 1994, 49; 1998). It seems that a preference against mutton and goat meat was a significant element of the pattern on the higher status sites.
Some noteworthy individual sites yield additional information of relevance. Dangstetten (Uerpmann 1977) and Zurzach (Morel 1994), two Augustan military establishments, have the high-pork 'Roman' pattern, presumably as a result of the Italian ethnic origins of many of the troops on these sites. It is interesting that the contemporary vicus at Zurzach has a different, more beef dominated diet, reflecting the different social composition of its inhabitants. In addition, the pig percentage at Zurzach fort declines over time to approach that of the vicus, apparently reflecting a convergence in the diet. Nijmegen also has an Augustan deposit with a 'Roman' style high pig pattern (Thijssen 1977), and a legionary canabae with higher percentages of cattle bones; but there are also many other deposits from the same period or just after from this site that have cattle as the most common species (Lauwerier 1988), so the picture here is not so clear-cut. There are also some villas with a high pig percentage, Dietikon (Fischer & Ebnöther 1995) and early-2nd century Bondorf (Kokabi et al. 1994), showing a clear preference for a pork-rich diet. Interestingly, Dangstetten, Zurzach, Dietikon and Bondorf are all in the south-west Germany/eastern Switzerland region, possibly indicating a sub-region that favoured high levels of pork consumption on higher status sites.