Zooarchaeological evidence of large-scale cattle metapodial processing in the 18th century in the small town of Rauma, Finland

Bläuer, Auli; Harjula, Janne; Helamaa, Maija; Lehto, Heli; Uotila, Kari

doi:10.1080/00794236.2019.1654737

Cited by 5 publications

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“…The identification of various activities such as slaughter, butchery, consumption, crafts and rituals in the zooarchaeological record is a complex process and has been 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 1995;Magnell 2012;Morris 2012;Russell 2012;Hukantaival and Bläuer 2017;Gaastra 2017;Bläuer et al 2019). Combined with archaeological contextual data and compared with other faunal deposits, patterns in acts of deposition can be discerned.…”

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confidence: 99%

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

Bläuer

2020

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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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.

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