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Antlers far and wide: Biomolecular identification of Scandinavian hair combs from Ribe, Denmark, 720–900 CE

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift/Konferencebidrag i tidsskrift /Bidrag til avis › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

DOI

  • Alba Rey-Iglesia, Københavns Universitet
    • ,
  • Deon de Jager, Københavns Universitet
    • ,
  • Samantha Presslee, University of York
    • ,
  • Sarah Skytte Qvistgaard, Museum of Southwest Jutland
    • ,
  • Søren Michael Sindbæk
  • Eline D. Lorenzen, Københavns Universitet

We used biomolecular methods to identify the faunal species present in hair combs and associated workshop debris discovered at the site Posthustorvet in the trading town of Ribe, Denmark, in contexts dated 720–900 CE. The finds included four unusual combs that have an uncommon but geographically characteristic ‘Scandinavian-type’ style, crafted from deer antler, and found in contexts 720–740 CE. They were identified as moose (Alces alces) and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) using a combination of peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS) and ancient DNA analysis. Our study provides the first confirmed use of moose antler combs in Denmark in the Late Iron Age/Viking Age. Neither moose or reindeer occurred naturally at that time in Denmark, and their closest habitats in the eighth century were on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Based on mitochondrial DNA, the comb identified as moose belonged to the western European mitogenome group, which has been identified in contemporary samples from Scandinavia and Poland, and in one early Holocene sample from Germany. Comparison with other comb finds and extensive workshop debris from the Posthustorvet site reflect a range of different comb-types and raw materials. Our ZooMS and DNA findings, in the context of the absence of associated workshop debris of moose or reindeer during the early phases of the site, support that the four early ‘Scandinavian-type’ combs were brought to the site as finished items by travellers. Our results confirm that visitors from the Scandinavian Peninsula were present in Ribe, a place of trade at the southern edge of the North Sea, in the early eighth century, half a century before the maritime expansion of the Viking Age.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer105773
TidsskriftJournal of Archaeological Science
Vol/bind153
ISSN0305-4403
DOI
StatusUdgivet - maj 2023

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
The excavations were carried out as the first stage of the Northern Emporium project in collaboration between researchers from Aarhus University and The Museum of Southwest Jutland. The excavation project aimed to use new documentation methods to establish a high-definition record with high chronological resolution as a basis for a detailed contextual understanding of the site (Croix et al. 2019). The work was supported by a Semper Ardens grant from The Carlsberg Foundation, and by the Danish National Research Foundation under the grant DNRF119 – Centre of Excellence for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet). This research was supported by the Sapere Aude DFF-program under grant number 9064-00025B to EDL. SP gratefully acknowledges the use of the Ultraflex III MALDI-ToF/ToF instrument in the York Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry. The centre was created thanks to a major capital investment through Science City York, supported by Yorkshire Forward with funds from the Northern Way Initiative, and subsequent support from EPSRC (EP/K039660/1; EP/M028127/1).'

Funding Information:
The excavations were carried out as the first stage of the Northern Emporium project in collaboration between researchers from Aarhus University and The Museum of Southwest Jutland. The excavation project aimed to use new documentation methods to establish a high-definition record with high chronological resolution as a basis for a detailed contextual understanding of the site ( Croix et al., 2019 ). The work was supported by a Semper Ardens grant from The Carlsberg Foundation , and by the Danish National Research Foundation under the grant DNRF119 – Centre of Excellence for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet) . This research was supported by the Sapere Aude DFF -program under grant number 9064-00025B to EDL. SP gratefully acknowledges the use of the Ultraflex III MALDI-ToF/ToF instrument in the York Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry. The centre was created thanks to a major capital investment through Science City York, supported by Yorkshire Forward with funds from the Northern Way Initiative, and subsequent support from EPSRC ( EP/K039660/1 ; EP/M028127/1 ).'

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

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