Wild Cattle: Red Deer in the Religious Texts, Iconography, and Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland

Humans use animals as a means of creating and manipulating relationships with other human beings. This process occurs both through the use of animals for food or raw materials and through the use of animals as literary and artistic symbols. Cervus elaphus is Ireland's only indigenous deer species. It is also unique in being the only native Irish, wild animal to appear frequently in medieval texts, iconography, and archaeological deposits. This paper brings together diverse sources of information to illuminate how early medieval monasteries used red deer to establish an identity for themselves and to conceptualize socioeconomic relationships with others.