Animal Bones from an Early Bronze Age Midden Layer at Torslev, Northern Jutlan

Nyegaard, Georg

English

Tidsskrift.dk (Det Kongelige Bibliotek)

journal of Danish Archaeology vol. 11, 1992-93, pp 108-110 Animal Bones from an Early Bronze Age Midden Layer at Torslev, Northern jutland by GEORG NYEGAARD INTRODUCTION There are to date only a few known samples from Den-mark of animal bones from settlements dating to the Early Bronze Age. This is a natural consequence of both the relatively small number of sites from the period which has been excavated, and of the preference for siting such settlements on well drained, sandy subsoil. The latter provides generally unfavorable conditions for the preservation of organic refuse. In the collections at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen there are only four such finds, including that from Torslev. All of them consist of rather small numbers of bone fragments (1). In 1982, Aalborg Historical Museum excavated a midden layer preserved beneath a small burial mound, which was situated on a hilly moraine a short distance from the Limfjord, and about 30 km west of AI borg Go-hansen 1985; Rasmussen 1995, this volume). The layer is presumed to have accumulated over a rather short period of time during the first half of the Early Bronze Age. It lay over a sandy subsoil and contained typical settlement debris such as pottery, flint, animal bones, oyster shells and charcoal. The preservation of the ani-mal bones was partly due to the presence of oyster shells in the southern part of the deposit. Outside that area the bones had more or less decomposed Qohansen 1985:118). MATERIAL In all, 112 animal bone fragments, with a total weight of 342 grams, were retrieved from the midden. Only one fragment, an os anale of a flatfish, belongs to the marine fauna (2). Of the remaining 111 mammalian bones, 42 have been identified either to species (20 fragments) or two alternative genera (22 fragments), see Table 1. The identified bones include the following anatomical parts for each animal group: Dog A canine from right lower jaw. Pig The root of a milk tooth incisor from lower jaw; a rib fragment; greater part of a right ulna; a small fragment of fibula. - Minimum number of individuals: 1. Red deer Four antler fragments; a molar from upper, left jaw; a diaphysis fragment of a metapodium. - Minimum number of individuals: 1. Sheep/goat A skull fragment (piece of temporal bone); an upper right molar (fragmented); an incisor; one left and two right molars from lower jaw (none of them complete); two rib fragments; a fragment of ulna; lateral half of the proximal end of a right metacarpus; a diaphysis frag-ment of metacarpus; a diaphysis fragment of femur; middle part of the shaft of a right tibia; three diaphysis fragments of tibia; a fragment of the proximal end of a left metatarsus; middle part of the shaft of metatarsus; a diaphysis fragment of metatarsus; three diaphysis frag-ments of metapodials. - Minimum number of individu-als: 2. Cattle Fragments of a molar from upper jaw; fragment of a milk tooth from lower jaw (dp4); a left molar from lower jaw (M1/M2) (from a juvenile); fragment of sac-rum; middle part of left ulna; lateral part of the proxi-mal end of a left metacarpus; a diaphysis fragment of metacarpus; middle part of the diaphysis of left tibia (from a juvenile); a diaphysis fragment of a right tibia; distal part of a proximal phalanx. - Minimum number of individuals: 2. The majority of the recovered bones has an orange-grey or orange-brown patina, and their state of preser-vation is fairly good. Ten fragments have either been burned or otherwise damaged by fire, while a single bone has been gnawed by dogs. Seven fragments show traces of having been deliberately worked, these in-clude: No. 946 X 97 (see johansen 1985, Fig. 4, middle): Sec-tion of a tine of red deer antler (L = 8,0 em) with an old breakage towards the root, at an 1,8 em wide, cylindrical shafthole, half of which is preserved. At the tip the tine has been worked from two sides to form a narrow, verti-cal edge, which is now missing (partly recent breakage). No. 946 X 102 (see johansen 1985, Fig. 4, top): Outer part of a tine of red deer antler (L = 7,2 em), with smoothed surface, and an old, irregular fracture to-wards the root. The tip has been worked from two sides, probably by grinding, to form a narrow edge, the point of which is broken. It is likely, that there has been a shafthole on the missing part of the tine. Implements of this type occur now and then in South Scandinavian settlements dating to the Late Bronze Age (e.g. Stjernquist 1969:129, Fig. 48). In particular, there is a rich bone find from Angdala at Sallerup, near Malm0, which includes several antler tines that have been worked in exactly the same way (unpublished) (3). As single stray finds, this type may easily be con-fused with the so-called antler "chisels" belonging to the Erteb!Z)lle Culture (Andersen 1981:12). No. 946 X 88 (Fig. 1): Middle section of the diaphysis of a right tibia of sheep or goat (L = 6,4 em) sawn off dis-tally and with irregular breakage proximally. A ring of cutmarks, perhaps stemming from incipient sawing, encircles the diaphysis just below the breakage. Further-more, a line of cutmarks is seen running lengthwise, and finer marks on the surface show that the bone has been smoothed. At the distal end the marrow cavity has 109 Fig. 1. Worked middle section of the diaphysis of a right tibia of sheep or goat showing cutmarks. Photo: Gert Brovad. 1 :1. Fig. 2. Distal end of the bone shown in Fig. 1. The marrow cavity has been enlarged by drilling. Photo: Gert Brovad. C. 1 :1. been enlarged a little by drilling (see Fig. 2). The upper third has been damaged by fire, indicating that the bone may have been used as a mouthpiece for a kind of bellows. A splinter of a long bone (L = 9,9 em) from an animal of the size of a cow has been shaped from two sides into a blunt point (no. 946 X 10). A long bone fragment (L = 3,3 em), probably from either a sheep or goat, forms part of a carefully made awl or needle (no. 946 X 2). A small fragment of metatarsus (L = 2,2 em), also belong-ing to a small ruminant, has been split longitudinally through the natural furrow that runs along the diaphy-sis (no. 946 X 96). Finally, this artefact group also in-cludes a further small fragment of worked antler (no. 946 X 96). CONCLUSION In spite of the small size of this bone sample, it gives a glimpse of a varied faunal exploitation. The inhabitants of the Torslev site kept a range of livestock, that inclu-ded the most common domesticated animals. Com-pared to bone collections from the Late Bronze Age, only the horse is missing. Yet this animal may very well have been a member of the domestic livestock, as its 110 remains occur on other sites dating to the Early Bronze Age, for instance Bjerre, near Hanstholm, in North West Jutland (1). Red deer were hunted in the sur-rounding countryside, and the apparently frequent use of their antlers for tool production indicates harvesting of the yearly shed antlers. Fishing took place in the Lim-fjord, as well as the gathering of shell fish (oysters), which seems to have been a common activity. Georg Nyegaard, Qaqortoq Museum, P.O. Box 154, DK-3920 Qaqor-toq, Greenland. NOTES In addition to Torslev, the following three finds dating to the Early Bronze Age have produced animal bones: Bjerre (Thisted Museum, file no. 2728) (Bech 1991); Rumohrsgard (Haderslev Museum file no. 1659); Vester K<erby (Fyns Stiftsmuseum file no. 181/72). 2 Identified by Inge Bodger Enghoff, The Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen. 3 The site was excavated by Ulf Safvestad, Malmo Museum (file no. MHM 6120). REFERENCES ANDERSEN, S.H. 1981: Erteb0llekunst. Nye 0s~yske fund af m0nstrede Erteb0llesager (Erteb0lle Art. New Finds of patterned Erteb0lle Artefacts from East Jutland). Kuml 1980 (1981), 7-59. BECH, J-H. 1991: Et bronzealderlandskab ved Bjerre i Nord-thy. Om ark;eologiske udgravninger forud for en planlagt motorbane. Miv, Museerne i Viborg Amt 16, 1991, 41-48. JoHANSEN, E. 1985: A Burial Mound with Culture Layers from the Early Bronze Age near Torslev, Northern Jutland. jour-nal of Danish Archaeology vol. 4, 1985, 115-120. RAsMUSSEN, M. 1995: Settlement Structure and Economic Va-riation in the Early Bronze Age. Journal of Danish Archaeology vol. 11, 1992-93, 87-107. STJERNQUIST, B. 1969: Beitrage zum Studium von Bronzezeit-lichen Siedlungen. Acta Archaeologica Lundensia Ser. in 8°, N° 8, 1969. PISCES: Fragments Flatfish, Heterosomata 1 MAMMALIA: Fragments Dog, Canis familiaris 1 Pig, Sus domesticus 4 Red deer, Cervus elaphus 2 Sheep/goat, Ovis aries/ Capra hircus 22 Cattle, Bos taurus 10 Sum 39 Antler pieces: Red deer, Cervus elaphus 3 Unidentified 2 Unidentified mammalian bones 66 Sum 110 Table 1. Animal bones from Torslev. (Pet.) Weight MNI (3) 2g 1 (10) 20 g 1 (5) 22 g 1 (56) 51 g 2 (26) 128 g 2 (100) 223 g 50 g 4g 65 g 342 g 

Animal Bones from an Early Bronze Age Midden Layer at Torslev, Northern Jutland

https://tidsskrift.dk/jda/article/download/127646/173905/269608

Animal Bones from an Early Bronze Age Midden Layer at Torslev, Northern Jutland

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Tidsskrift.dk (Det Kongelige Bibliotek)