New evidence for deer valorisation by the TRB farmers from Poland using ZooMS and micro-CT scanning

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103230
• Publication Date: 2021-10-28T02:42:34Z
• Authors: Kamil Adamczak; Łukasz Kowalski; Petra Urbanová; Katerina Douka; Samantha Brown; Andrzej Piotr Kow...; Stanisław Kukawka; Jarosław Wilczyński; Grażyna Szczepańska; Paweł Zawilski
• Keywords: ZooMS; Late Neolithic; osteoarchaeology; micro-CT scanning; deer; 0601 history and archaeology; 06 humanities and the arts; 15. Life on land; TRB

Throughout the long history of the Funnel Beaker (TRB) culture in the region of modern Poland (4100–3100 BCE) we can observe how local farming communities interacted with the wild world and how deer species became an important ideological resource for the TRB people. Biomolecular and histomorphometric evidence from two archaeological sites in central Poland add new information for a better understanding of these multilayered interactions. Our findings fuel a discussion of deer valorisation during the TRB era in Poland, showing that the dagger from Sławęcinek was made from the bone of a red deer or elk and may have served as a clan accessory. Furthermore, the results indicate that a likely candidate for the bone used to temper the ceramic vessel from Kałdus is red deer, which allowed us to speculate that the utilisation of bone-tempered pottery by the local TRB farmers may possibly reflect the magical domestication of cervids.