A biometrical database of cattle, sheep and pig from Roman and medieval Switzerland and adjacent areas of France

This database compiles the biometrical data of cattle, sheep and pig, gathered from Switzerland and adjacent areas of Central-Eastern France. The data is dated between the Roman times and the High Middle Ages. This database was produced in relation to the MSCA-IF funded project "ZooRoMed: Supplying ancient empires and medieval economies: Changes in animal husbandry between the Late Roman period and the Early Middle Ages in the Rhine Valley" (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/793221); the project was hosted by the University of Basel between 2018 and 2021.

Biometrical abbreviations appear according to: Von den Driesch A (1976) A guide to the measurement of animal bones from archaeological sites. Harvard: Peabody Museum, Bulletin 1.

Many of these compiled datasets had previously been published individually as part of older site monographs, not easily accessible to people based outside of Switzerland, and this is the first time they have been brought together in an Open Access database.

Measurements were collected from a number of different sources:

1. from databases at the institute of Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science (IPAS) in Basel, Switzerland
2. from the literature (see bibliography in the document "Sites+references")
3. from unpublished databases belonging to the person who recorded the data (all of these people are co-authors here)

Both postcranial and tooth measurements are included in the database, but not every single measurement from the original reports was included, as a selection of the most common and useful measurements was made. The selection of measurements was made based on a number of parameters:

1. Their availability in databases and reports (generally linked to their prevalence in assemblages due to taphonomic processes, etc.)
2. The ease in which they can be taken consistently by different researchers
3. The ease of their use (for example, only phalanges that could be assigned as either fore or hindlimb were included

This dataset was compiled during the course of a European Commission Horizon 2020 Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (Grant Agreement no. 793221), which was held by Idoia Grau-Sologestoa from 2018-2021, and hosted by the institute of Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science (IPAS) the University of Basel.