Animal bones in old graves: a zooarchaeological and contextual study on faunal remains and new dated evidence for the ri
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(2020) 12:206
ORIGINAL PAPER
Animal bones in old graves: a zooarchaeological and contextual study on faunal remains and new dated evidence for the ritual re-use of old cemetery sites in Southern and Western Finland Auli Bläuer 1,2 Received: 25 March 2020 / Accepted: 16 July 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Animal remains from twelve Iron Age (ca. 500 BC–1200/1300AD) sites from Southern and Western Finland, showing a mixture of finds and features typical of both settlement sites and cemeteries, were investigated using a zooarchaeological, taphonomic and contextual approach. Rarefaction analysis of the species richness and anatomical distribution indicates that the samples included both general domestic waste type and species and element-selective deposits of cattle and horse skulls, mandibles and limb bones. According to radiocarbon dating results, there seems to be a gap between the dates of burials and those of other ritual activities, indicating that the context of such deposits is a disused cemetery. The faunal deposits could represent remembrance rituals or relate to votive offerings intended to ensure healthy or productive livestock, a practice described in later ethnographic sources. These deposits seem to be in use within a large geographical area over a long period, and some aspects of this belief system may even have survived into the Christianisation of society in the historical period. Keywords Iron Age . Finland . Zooarchaeology . Ritual . Cairn
Introduction Faunal remains recovered from archaeological sites give valuable data for the interpretation of a site’s character and activities practiced in them. The identification of various activities such as slaughter, butchery, consumption, crafts and rituals in the zooarchaeological record is a complex process and has been Highlights • Animal remains from twelve Finnish Iron Age sites were investigated. • Radiocarbon dating indicates that the context of the faunal remains deposit was usually an unused cemetery. • Zooarchaeological analysis revealed selective ritual deposition of horses and cattle remains. • Deposits include also general domestic-type waste. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01165-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Auli Bläuer [email protected] 1
Production Systems, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Itäinen Pitkäkatu 4a, FI-20520 Turku, Finland
2
Archaeology, University of Turku, Akatemiankatu 1, FI-20500 Turku, Finland
previously discussed in detail, with particular regard to the interpretation of ritual and domestic waste (Lentacker et al. 2004; Kunen et al. 2002; Broderick 2012; Magnell 2012; Hukantaival and Bläuer 2017; Macheridis 2017; Gaastra 2017). Studying the conscious decisions to select certain species, individuals of a certain age or sex, specific skeletal elements or the particular details of slaughter, and the treatment of the carcass may reveal the human selection patterns behind the material (Hill 19
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