Bird exploitation in Viljandi (Estonia) from the Late Iron Age to the early modern period (c. 950–1700)

Ehrlich, Freydis; Rannamäe, Eve; Valk, Heiki

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2020.07.018

Cited by 10 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Daugiausia dėmesio sulaukusios gyvulių rūšys šiuo metu yra priešistorinių ir istorinių laikų galvijai ir ožkos, kurių genetiniai ir morfologiniai tyrimai atliekami Tartu ir Turku (Suomija) universitetuose. Nuo 2014 m. dėmesio pagaliau susilaukė ir paukščių liekanos -Tartu universitete gerokai praplėsta palyginamoji jų kolekcija, o pirmieji analizių rezultatai atskleidžia, kokie paukščiai, kaip ir kam Estijoje buvo naudojami priešistoriniais ir istoriniais laikais (Ehrlich et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

“…Since 2014, bird bones have gained a long-awaited attention. Together with the vast development of the bird reference collection, studies on Late Iron Age, medieval, and early modern bird utilisation have revealed a variety of consumption patterns and opened new discussions on the role of birds in the past (e.g., Ehrlich et al 2020).…”

Section: Zooarchaeological Research In Estonia In the Last Decadementioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigating Animal Remains in Estonia

Lõugas

Rannamäe

2020

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In Estonia, faunal remains have been an important part of archaeological material since the 19th century. During the 20th century, the interest in faunal history was rather volatile, but gained some stability during the 1990s. Since then, zooarchaeology in Estonia has developed substantially, focusing on a variety of topics. Together with methods from traditional zooarchaeology, interdisciplinary methods like the studies of ancient DNA and stable isotopes are increasingly used. However, despite the growing understanding of the importance of faunal remains in archaeological and historical research, there are still problems with collecting animal remains during the fieldwork and documenting and organising them. On the other hand, interest in scientific methods and destructive sampling of the osseous remains have become increasingly popular in science projects and international collaboration. In order to use osteological collections reasonably and ethically, proper systemisation is essential.In Estonia, there are two research centres for zooarchaeology, where scientific collections are administered – Tallinn University and the University of Tartu. Tallinn collections comprise material mostly from the northern part of the country, plus an extensive reference collection for fish has been developed there. In Tartu, mostly material from southern Estonia is managed, together with continuously expanding reference collection of mammals and birds. To improve the gathering and management of the osteological material in Estonia and reduce the shortage for storage space, a new central repository for osteological collections (both human and animal) was established in 2019. Concurrently, a new central database for the osteological data was created.In this paper, we introduce the zooarchaeological collections and some of the latest research topics in Estonia with an aim to broaden the understanding and potential of zooarchaeology in the Baltic region.

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Section: Discussionunclassified

Section: Zooarchaeological Research In Estonia In the Last Decadementioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Animal Remains in Estonia

Lõugas

Rannamäe

2020

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“…Additionally, cut marks were registered and traumas noted. For galliforms, sex was identified based on medullary bone for females and presence of spurs (usually) for males (for more detail, see Ehrlich et al, 2020). Measurements were taken after standards by von den Driesch (1976).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Usually, geese and ducks (Anatinae) have been the second and third most recorded birds in zooarchaeological material, like in the 14 th to 16 th century Vilnius Castle (Rumbutis et al, 2018, tab. 7;Blaževičius et al, 2012, p. 316) or in the medieval and early modern Viljandi Castle in Estonia (Ehrlich et al, 2020). However, in case of Klaipėda, eagles were the second most numerous group after the chicken, while geese and ducks were in the third and fourth position, respectively.…”

Section: Geese and Ducksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although based on small numbers, an elaborated analysis of Klaipėda material significantly complements the information about the lifestyle of the castle inhabitants and the overall usage and meaning of birds during the study period. New qualitative data is important not only for the history studies of Klaipėda and Lithuania, but in a much broader sense, because bird remains in the Baltic region have been studied only in small extent (as discussed in Rumbutis et al, 2018, p. 104, 108;Maldre et al, 2018Maldre et al, , p. 1229Ehrlich et al, 2020). In the three Baltic countries -Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia -there is a considerable amount of bird bones stored in the osteological collections, but they are usually not analysed in detail and are only briefly mentioned in the publications.…”

Section: Importance and Aims Of The Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Meaning of Eagles in the Baltic Region. A Case Study from the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Klaipėda, Lithuania (13th–14th Century)

Ehrlich

Piličiauskienė

Urbonaitė-Ubė

et al. 2020

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In this paper, we examine archaeological bird remains from Klaipėda Castle (Ger. Memel), western Lithuania. The castle was built in 1252, and during the Middle Ages, it was the northernmost castle of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. The castle together with its adjacent town were subjected to wars and changing political situations over the centuries, but nevertheless represented a socially higher status. The studied bird remains were found during the excavations in 2016 and have been dated by context to the Middle Ages – from the end of the 13th to the beginning of the 14th century. Our aim is to introduce and discuss the bird remains with an emphasis on two species – the white-tailed sea-eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) and golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). Most of all, we are interested in their role in expressing people’s social status, use in material culture, and significance as a food source. Our analysis showed that in Klaipėda, the eagles were probably used for raw material and possibly for feathers, but not for hawking and food. Alternatively, they could have been killed for scavenging. Other species identified in the assemblage such as chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus), grey partridge (Perdix perdix), geese (Anser sp.), ducks (Anatinae), and great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) were mainly interpreted as food waste. This article presents the first concentrated study on bird remains from Klaipėda and is one of the first discussions about the meaning of eagles in the Baltic region.

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Application of morphometric and stable isotope analyses for distinguishing domestic and wild geese

Ehrlich

Aguraiuja-Lätti

Lõugas

et al. 2022

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Investigating the origins of goose domestication relies on successful identification of this species and, specifically, distinguishing it from its wild, morphologically similar, form. Here we present the first attempt to separate wild and domestic geese recovered from Estonian archaeological assemblages using a combination of morphometrics and stable isotope analysis. To this aim, measurements from 159 archaeological bones were compared with modern specimens. Twenty-five archaeological samples were chosen for stable isotope analysis based on their morphometrics. The results of this paper show that bones identified as "domestic" by their size and shape had significantly higher δ 15 N values compared with those identified as "wild." The higher δ 15 N could be a result of dietary differences, for example, the role of manured crops and/or animal protein in the diets of domestic geese.

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Bird exploitation in Viljandi (Estonia) from the Late Iron Age to the early modern period (c. 950–1700)

Cited by 10 publications

References 14 publications

Investigating Animal Remains in Estonia

Investigating Animal Remains in Estonia

The Meaning of Eagles in the Baltic Region. A Case Study from the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Klaipėda, Lithuania (13th–14th Century)

Application of morphometric and stable isotope analyses for distinguishing domestic and wild geese

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