PREVIOUS   NEXT   CONTENTS   ISSUE   HOME 

4.2 Faunal samples

Stable sulphur isotope data for the faunal samples are presented in Table 2 and Figure 2.

Figure 2
Figure 2: Observed δ34S values plotted against δ13C and δ15N, respectively, for all faunal samples.

The total range for the marine mammals is from +13.6 to +16.0‰ (mean +14.8, sd 0.8‰, n=6), including harbour porpoise (+14.8 ± 0.6‰, n=3), ringed seal (+14.1 ± 0.7‰, n=2) and one harp seal (+16.0‰). The only analysed specimen of fish, a marine garpike, has a somewhat higher value of +17.3‰ (but see reasoning above). One unidentified marine bird (as inferred from its carbon isotope value), has a considerably lower δ34S of +8.4. One red fox, which had a mixed marine/terrestrial diet, has a slightly higher value, +9.5‰.

Wild terrestrial species vary between +6.6 and +13.6‰ (+10.0 ± 1.9‰, n=13). These include moose (+11.4 ± 0.8‰, n=3), one roe deer (+8.7‰), one pine marten (+10.6‰), the mountain hares, which range from +7.8 to +13.6‰ (+10.4 ± 2.1‰, n=5), and the pigs from Köpingsvik (+8.2 ± 1.4‰, n=3). The Köpingsvik pigs were interpreted as wild/feral due to the lack of correspondence between human and pig δ13C and δ15N values, indicating that these animals did not feed on human food waste to any detectable extent (see further discussions on PWC pigs in Eriksson 2004; Fornander et al. 2008).

Cattle and sheep/goat range between +5.8 and +11.0‰ (+8.1 ± 1.9‰, n=7), whereas the two (possibly domestic) pigs from Resmo have values of +2.1‰ and +7.3‰, respectively. Dogs fall into two dietary groups, based on carbon isotope data. The two terrestrial dogs have uniform δ34S values (+7.5 ± 0.3‰, n=2), whereas the dogs feeding off marine resources have a wider range, from +12.1 to +15.7‰ (+13.9 ± 1.5‰, n=5).


 PREVIOUS   NEXT   CONTENTS   ISSUE   HOME 

Internet Archaeology is an open access journal based in the Department of Archaeology, University of York. Except where otherwise noted, content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC BY) Unported licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that attribution to the author(s), the title of the work, the Internet Archaeology journal and the relevant URL/DOI are given.

Terms and Conditions | Legal Statements | Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy | Citing Internet Archaeology

Internet Archaeology content is preserved for the long term with the Archaeology Data Service. Help sustain and support open access publication by donating to our Open Access Archaeology Fund.

File last updated: Thu Nov 13 2014