ENGLAND: There were no roast chickens or rabbit stews on the tables of Iron Age Britons. Chickens and brown hares, which are not native to the British Isles, only arrived sometime between the 5th and 3rd centuries B.C. Carefully buried intact bird and small mammal skeletal remains found in Hampshire and Hertfordshire suggest that when chickens and hares did appear, they were not viewed as a food source, but instead as exotic species. They may even have been revered and associated with deities. It was not until hundreds of years later, under Roman rule, that chickens and hares began to be farm-raised and eaten.