Archaeologists have created a new model to help identify archaeological bear baiting assemblages in England and beyond, illuminating a practice that was still shockingly common just three centuries ago. The study, by researchers at the Universities of York and Nottingham, has brought together zooarchaeological, stable isotope and archival evidence from nine archaeological sites in Bankside, London, to define features specific to bear baiting. Animal baiting—a blood-sport which involved the pitting of vicious dogs against other animals such as bulls and bears for public entertainment—was an incredibly popular and culturally important form of entertainment in Shakespearian times. In London, baiting took place from 1540 to 1682 in formalized arenas on Bankside in Southwark, which was a key early modern entertainment hub
