A review and analysis of the state of animal bone research. It includes a substantial inter-site review comparing the sites on which Wilson has worked in and around Oxfordshire: several Iron age settlements and a 15th century manor house. There is also a section on more large scale sampling in the towns of Oxford and Abingdon. In each case the concern is to differentiate between settlement areas and activities, such as refuse, butchering and ritual, and the ways in which bone deposits change over time. The book ends with discussion of models for analysing bone evidence.