Military Diet in the North-West Provinces
The influence of the army is an important element in any discussion of Romanization of the provinces. As far as diet is concerned, it seems clear that the classic 'Roman' pattern was the exception rather than the rule on military sites (Fig. 12), and that the Gallic/German pattern was in fact the standard for a military style of diet (King 1984, 198; King 1999). There is a good degree of conformity in the military dietary pattern, running across the provinces of Britain, Germany and Raetia. The meat diet was largely of beef, averaging 45-65% on most sites (Table 4), but with an emphasis on pork consumption in the German establishments and on mutton consumption on British sites, particularly auxiliary forts and their vici. This demonstrates the residual component of pre-existing indigenous diet as a factor in military food supply. For the most part, however, the army, particularly the legions, would have been able to operate a command economy, and exercise dietary preferences without the constraints that applied to those living nearer to subsistence level. Legionary assemblages have higher percentages of pig bones than their auxiliary counterparts, presumably because pork consumption was regarded as being of higher status. Indeed, some Augustan legionary sites in Germany have a western central Italian style of assemblage, probably reflecting the ethnic composition of the troops. The issues connected with the nature of military food supply are discussed in more detail in King (1999).
A small group of assemblages from eastern provinces are also shown on Fig. 12. They are quite different from the other military regions in having very few cattle bones. In almost every case. Sheep and goats are the ma in meat supply, but pig is also significant. The percentage of pig bones is generally higher than for other categories of site in the east (see below), and van Neer (1997) has attributed this to cultural preference by the army. Many of the military sites are in desert locations, to which all supplies had to be brought, a factor that clearly conditioned the nature of the meat diet on these sites. The general conclusion to be drawn about the eastern military garrisons is that their dietary preferences were different from the army in the north-western provinces, in part due to the circumstances of their deployment.