Wietske Prummel

Three ossa frontalia of newborn calves (Bos taurus) from
three terps in the western part of the province of Friesland (the
Netherlands) show signs of bone working. The terps are Arkum,
Groot-Saksenoord en Wijnaldum-Tjitsma. The worked calf
ossa frontalia of Arkum and Groot-Saksenoord are both almost
round, centrally holed bone discs, cut from the arched part of the
bone. There are no traces of handling of the objects or of suspension
on a cord. The two objects, both found in ditches, obviously
lacked a practical application. The finds have identical dates,
respectively 1st century BC and 200 BC - AD 50, and there is
only a short distance between the sites, 13 km. An explanation
as magic objects, deposited in ditches, is possible.
The worked os frontale from Wijnaldum-Tjitsma was a
spoon, dating to the Merovingian period (AD 550-750). A spoon
out of red deer antler from this terp dates to the same period.
They are unique finds for the terp region, stressing the high status
of the inhabitants of the terp during the Merovingian period.
Ossa frontalia of newborn calves seem to have an ideal arched
shape to work them into discs, spoons or small dishes, but
nevertheless were only rarely used for bone working in the terp
region and perhaps only in the Westergo region of Friesland.

During the excavation in the terp of Achlum, in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, faunal remains were recovered from the iron age (400 BC- AD 50), the Roman period (AD 50-250/300), migration period (AD 400-500/550), the early middle ages (AD 500-1000), the Ottonian period (AD 900-1000) and the late middle ages (AD 1000-1300/1400). Until the  12e-13e century the site was situated in an unembanked salt marsh environment. Cattle husbandry was by far the most important activity during the iron age. Sheep husbandry became more important during the Roman period. Sheep were the most important livestock during the early middle ages, presumably to produce wool for export (the Frisian pallia). After the embankment cattle were again the most important species of livestock. Fishing and fowling were or little importance in all periods. A vertebra of a sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, was used as a tool, perhaps a weight.

The book chapter presents the faunal remains from a late medieval terp (artificial dwelling mound) in Schagen, province of Noord-Holland, the Netherlands. The inhabitants were active in animal husbandry , mainly of cattle and sheep. Marine fishes and molluscs were consumed as well. No bird bones were found.

Bird remains from two 17th century whaling stations at the Bellsund on Spits- bergen (Svalbard) have been studied. Birds were fowled in summer, although presumably mainly in autumn or winter when the food supplies ran short. This seasonal fowling in autumn or winter may account for the scarcity of bones of the Little Auk, which is only on Spitsbergen during summer. Another factor that may have caused the low representation of Little Auk bones in the whalers' garbage pits is a possible preference for larger birds than the Little Auk. The scarcity of Little Auk bones in the studied whaling stations' gar- bage pits does not necessarily mean that the Little Auk was a rare bird in the 17th century.

Abstract The purpose of this short exposition is to pin-point some problems which arise when we demand that all animal remains should be sampled during excavation, and to point out some of the difficulties that arise in the interpretation of the data obtained.

... 2) in the early Middle Ages matches similar customs in Anglo-Saxon England (Bond 1996; Crabtree 1995) and Scandinavia ... A parallel find from Anglo-Saxon England are the sheep /goat foot bones in female burialS of the ... In conclusion, no cremated remains of horse or ...

The faunal remains of six houses in this town were studied. Animal husbandry and mollusc gathering (25 species) were both important. Game hunting (red deer, roe deer, fox, badger, hare) was of small importance. Astragali of sheep, goat and cattle were taken from the butchered animals and used as knucklebones, in pasture games and in magic, for instance divination . The many charred knucklebones that were found together with charred red deer and roe deer antlers suggest that knucklebones and antlers featured in myths and divination in which fire played a role. The underrepresentation of cattle skulls suggest that cattle were killed/sacrificed at a central place/a temple, from meaty parts in legs, vertebrae and ribs were taken to the houses to consumed the meat at home.

A survey was held by Groningen University at the small Early and Middle Neolithic site of Karatsádhaghli, not far from Magoúla Zerélia. The site was situated on the foothills of Óthris mountains. This part of the whole paper in Pharos 5 (1997, pp. 85-143) deals with the animal remains (studied by Wietske Prummel). Pig, cattle, sheep, goat and dog were kept as domestic animals at the site. Roe deer and red deer were the game animals. The inhabitants transported spiny oysters, oyster and red-nosed cockle from the coast (10 km distance). The metacarpus of a juvenile sheep or goat was made into an awl. A spatula was made from a part of a red deer antler. Pig and cattle husbandry were more important at this site than at other neolithic sites in Thessaly, presumably due to environmental factors (many acorns, rather moisty climate)

The animal bones from the excavations at Midlaren-De Bloemert, handcollected and sieved material, were studied. Although the preservation conditions for unburned bone are bad in the sandy soil of the site, some unburned bone was preserved in deeper features, such as sunken huts, pits and wells. Nevertheless, 49% of the handcollected material and 99% of the sieved material are burned bones, that are much better preserved than unburned bones in sandy soils.
Cattle, sheep and/or goat, pig, horse and dog were identified for most of the phases covered by the bone material, ranging from the Iron Age till and including the Carolingian period. Cattle and sheep were the most common species. Pigs were quite common (9% - 25%) due to forests in the surroundings of the site. Horses became more numerous in the Merovingian period. An unburned red deer antler fragment and bones of freshwater fishes are the only information on the wild fauna.
Animals also had ritual functions at De Bloemert. Cattle skulls were deposited in waterkuilen, pits and perhaps a well during the Roman period and the Migration period. Cremated bones of possibly domestic animals were found in a human cremation grave of the Migration period. Finally, the cremated remains of cattle, pigs, sheep and/or goats and dogs were deposited in a probably ritual pit of the Carolingian period.

Animal remains dating from the Late Iron Age/Early Roman period, Middle Roman period and the Early and Late Middle Ages from this terp are discussed in this paper. Sheep husbandry, most probably for wool production increased in the Early Middle Ages. Horses and dogs were kept in small numbers.

Sheep husbandry was very important on this terp during the Early Middle Ages and in the 10th and 11th century, when the salt marshes around the terp were still unembanked, and thus brackish and saline. Wool production was especially important in the 9th century AD. The area around the terp became a fresh water area after the building of dikes in the 12th century. Cattle husbandry became much more important from that period, partly because of the change in salinity, and perhaps also because of economic reasons (more milk production for  the urban populations). No hunting for wild mammals were done. Fowling and fishing were not very important. This seems strange in the view of the nearby Wadden Sea. That cattle were used in traction is demonstrated in several pathologically changed bones (a thoracic vertebra, a sacrum, a metatarsus (fused with centrotarsale) and a astragalus.

Part of the butchered Late Mesolithic skeleton of a remarkably small female aurochs (height at the withers 1.34 cm) were found in the bed of the river Tjonger (Southeast Friesland) together with an unretouched flint blade.The metapodia were transversily broken to get at the bone marrow. This same phenomenon was also the case at the nearby site of Jardinga-Johannahoeve.

Animal remains from the excavation at the terp Wierum in the province of Groningen, Netherlands; chapter 5, pp. 31-45, in A. Nieuwhof, 2006, De Wierde Wierum (provincie Groningen). Animal remains from the Late Iron Age, Roman period, Merovingian period and Karolingian period. Dog meat was eaten in the Late Iron Age/Early Roman period; bone working (combs) in the Karolingian period; discussion on preference for cattle husbandry on Groningen terps and for sheep husbandry on Frisian terps; increase of sheep husbandry on terps from the Iron Age to the Roman period.

Whale bones are generally found in terp excavations in the provinces of Friesland and Groningen of the Netherlands. Chop and cut marks show that the meat and fat were used and that many whale bones were used as chopping-blocks or to make bone tools. Seven whale species are represented: sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), killer whale (Orcinus orca), right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) and harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena).

The bone remains of domestic and wild animals from the neolithic site of Hekelingen, the Netherlands, belonging to the Vlaardingen Group (Vlaardingen Cultuur) were studied, period c. 3000 BC - c. 2600 cal. BC. The Hekelingen III people kept domestic mammals kept by were dog, perhaps horse (if not wild), pig, cattle and sheep/goat. The hunted for beaver, bottle-nosed dolphin, wolf, brown bear, pine marten, polecat, otter, Mustelidae, wild cat, grey seal, red deer and roe deer; as well as for red-throated diver, bittern, mute or whooper swan, wigeon, mallard, white-tailed eagle, goshawk and crane. Bone processing was an important activity at the site as well.

The volume contains the archaeozoological study of the animal bones of the slavonic stronghold Starigard/Oldenburg (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), dated AD 700-1300. Animal husbandry was the most important source of animal food, but game, wild birds, fish and molluscs were regularly eaten as well. The study of the bird bones demonstrated the use of goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) and sparrow-hawk (Accipiter nisus) as hawks, trained birds of prey, to use in falconry. The archaeologist Ingo Gabriel (Schleswig) wrote an introduction on the various occupation phases of the stronghold.

Swifterbant, paradise for beaver and
mankind.
Beavers, the neighbours of the Neolithic Swifterbant
people in Oostelijk Flevoland (Netherlands) influenced
the local environment by their digging,
gnawing and building activities. Large ponds were
created by damming creaks and these bodies of
water proved to be profitable. Not just for themselves
but also for humans because fish, waterfowl
and otters prospered there. The felled wood that
the beavers left behind was useful for humans and
the animals were killed for their thick fur, flesh and
castoreum. The beavers made the local environment
to a paradise for mankind and themselves.

Animal remains: stockbreeding in late-medieval and Early Modern times
A total of 1,197 animal remains were recovered during the excavations (n = 720) and the survey (n =
477) in the peatland of Matsloot-Roderwolde in De Onlanden. Animal remains were recovered at 20
out of the 62 farmstead sites where test-trenches were dug. The local environment in the polder was
a peaty soil, not very conducive to bone preservation. Nevertheless, the animal remains are fairly
well-preserved. Most animal remains were recovered by hand, a smaller part by wet-sieving in the
field. They represent three phases of habitation: phase 1(-2): late 10th to (early) 12th century (n = 1);
phases 2-3: 12th-14th century (n = 229); and phase 4: late 15th-18th/19th century (n = 277). More than
half of the animal remains are undated (n = 690). Many bone fragments are burnt or calcined, owing
to house fires and the burning of waste.
Cattle was by far the most important livestock species during phases 2-3 (74% of the identified remains
of domestic mammals) and phase 4 (95%). Sheep and perhaps goats (although no goat bones
were demonstrated) were reared during phases 2-3 (14%), but probably not during phase 4. Possible
reasons why sheep husbandry came to an end after the late-medieval period are that the area became
too wet and therefore less suitable for rearing sheep, or that wool and woollen cloth could now
be bought easily in the nearby town of Groningen. Pigs were kept in small numbers in phases 2-3 and
4 (5 and 3%, respectively). Donkey was demonstrated only for the Early Modern period. Dogs were
kept, as bite marks on different bones indicate. Bones of cats and poultry are lacking, as are bones of
wild mammals, birds and fish – even in the sieved samples.
The kill-off patterns for cattle demonstrate that cattle were kept for meat, milk and hides in both
the late-medieval and Early Modern periods. Although no items of pottery or wood provide proof,
butter- and cheese-making probably were important activities. Horses were used for riding and traction;
at death they were skinned. Sheep would have been kept for meat and wool, and pigs for meat.
Some ceramic spindle whorls and loom weights are proof of small-scale wool (or flax) processing at
the farmsteads.
A comparison of the animal remains with those from contemporaneous rural sites in (clay-on-)
peat and clay areas in the northern and western Netherlands shows that livestock composition at
the time could be quite variable, depending on the local environment and economic factors. In the
Matsloot-Roderwolder area the focus was clearly on cattle breeding; cheese, butter and hides were
probably sold at markets in the nearby city of Groningen.

The criteria of how to decide that falconry was practiced at an archaeological site are discussed.
They are: 1) falconry devices, 2) the bones of hawks, 3) a preponderance of female goshawks and
sparrowhawks and 4) bones of the birds and mammals that were captured with trained birds of prey.
Bones of hawks in graves are certain evidence that falconry was practiced. A combination of several of
the four criteria is recommended to decide that falconry was practiced at a settlement. Falconry was
practiced in Central and Western Europe and in eastern Sweden since the 6th century. Goshawks and
sparrowhawks were the most important hawks until at least the 16th century.Falconry with peregrines
became more important in the 15th–16th centuries, especially among the high nobility. This is at least
clear for the Netherlands. Historical records make it clear that many of these peregrines, but also goshawks,
were imported from Norway. Bones demonstrate that falconry with goshawks was practiced at
the 15th–16th century castle of Sint Maartensdijk on the island of Tholen (the Netherlands). Historical
records state that the owner of the castle, Frank II van Borselen, imported falcons (peregrines?) and
goshawks from Norway in the second half of the 15th century. A worked reindeer antler and bones
of fish species only living in northern waters confirm the connection of the castle with Norway.The
peregrines found at the 15th–17th century falcon house of the Counts of Hainaut, Holland, and Zeeland,
and later of the stadtholders (Dutch: stadhouders) of Holland and other Dutch provinces in The
Hague (the Netherlands), were most probably also imported from Norway. 17th century Norwegian
records state that falconers employed by the Princes of Orange, then the stadtholders, captured falcons
in Norway and brought them to Holland.

This paper discusses the types of evidence by which falconry can be demonstrated in settlement
layers: (1) falconry devices, (2) bones of hawks, (3) the sexes of the hawks, and (4) the bones of
prey animals. Falconry was known in continental Europe from about 500 AD. Archaeozoological evidence
makes clear that falconry was practised at strongholds of Slavonic peoples from the 6th century
AD, at trading and other sites in northern Europe from the 8th century, at strongholds in Germany
from the 9th century, at high status sites in France from the 7th century, and at castles, strongholds and
towns in the Netherlands from the 11th century. The low flight, with goshawk and sparrowhawk on
large and small birds and mammals, was the most common type of falconry before the 13th century
AD. The high flight, with peregrines on large birds, became vogue in the 13th century AD.

This chapter of a book on the Swifterbantculture in Oostelijk Flevoland, the Netherlands, 4300-3900 cal. BC, gives an overview of the use people of the Swifterbantculture made of animals. These people lived in a freshwater tidal system. They  had domestic animals (pig, cattle and some sheep and dogs) and were hunters (mainly for beaver, wild boar and red deer), fishermen and to a small extent fowlers at well.  The book, in Dutch, is meant for the general public.
The title of the book is: Swifterbant, Pionieren in Flevoland 6500 jaar geleden. Editors: W. Prummel, J.P. de Roever & A.F.L. van Holk

Bones of common crane (Grus grus) from Dutch and
German terps
Eighteen (Common) crane (Grus grus) bones have been found
in Dutch and German terpen. Twelve are dated: to the Iron Age,
the Roman period and the Middle Ages; six are undated. The
bones are two radii, three ulnae, two tibiotarsi, a fibula and
ten tarsometatarsi. This distribution is most probably caused
by the higher stability of these bones in comparison with other
crane bones. Six crane bones, all from the Dutch province of
Friesland, had been worked into bone tools: five needles and
an awl. A crane bone from the German site Feddersen Wierde
shows traces of bone working as well.
Historical data inform us that the crane used to breed in
the Netherlands until the 17th century AD. From that period
until 2001 it was only a migrant species of the Netherlands. It
would halt in the larger peatland areas during its autumn migration.
The crane has again been breeding in the Netherlands since 2001, be it in small numbers. Increasing numbers of cranes
stop at halting-places in the Netherlands during the autumn migration.
The crane all the time continued to breed in Lower Saxony
and Schleswig-Holstein, but showed a heavy decline. The numbers
of breeding cranes have been increasing in these parts of
Germany since the 1990s, also in the western parts of these federal
states. Here too, increasing numbers of cranes stop over at
halting-places during the autumn migration.
Cranes occurred in the terp region during the Iron Age,
Roman Period and the Middle Ages in larger numbers than they
do nowadays. They visited the arable fields and the meadows in
the salt marsh after breeding in the large peatbogs bordering the
terp area. They also halted in the terp area during their autumn
migration. Terp dwellers captured a crane every now and then,
consumed the meat, made needles and awls from the bones and
maybe used the feathers for ornamental purposes.