CATTLE HUSBANDRY AND HUMAN/ANIMAL RELATIONS IN THE BRONZE AGE - EXAMPLES FROM SOUTHERN DENMARK
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-10-31

Despite the general consensus about the importance of beef in the Bronze Age diet, many fundamental questions about the relationship between animals and humans, and about the treatment of cattle and the way, they were kept within the settlements are still unsolved. The relationship seems to have been complex. Did the Early Bronze Age longhouses indeed house cattle? Is this a common aspect, or is the “housing of cattle” an expression of a special relationship between some animals and their owners? Is this aspect fully investigated, or is possible to identify features which could be related to the handling of cattle in another way? In this paper, I will suggest the interpretation of cattle pens for certain features which have traditionally been interpreted as houses. The features could indicate a certain mobility of cattle, that contradicts the common concept of having cattle in the houses. Was pastoralism the common way of keeping and feeding cattle? How is this shown in the archaeological evidents- and is it possible to see trades of the pastoralism and the fodder used for cattle in other archaeological contexts as usually? A research project at the Danish Museum Sønderjylland investigated botanical material from cooking pits, which were interpreted as a gathering place, and it showed, that the relationship between settlements and local resources, the mobility and role of the cattle appears to have been much more complex then presumed.


Author(s): Matthes, Lilian (Museum Sønderjylland, Haderslev)