Fjädrar i det arkeologiska materialet

Jerrark
Inlägg: 528
Blev medlem: 7 oktober 2015, 15:20

Fjädrar i det arkeologiska materialet

Inlägg av Jerrark » 17 april 2023, 13:00

I gamla Arkeologiforum så fanns det en tråd om fjädrar i det arkeologiska materialet. Sedan dess har det framkommit fler fjäderfynd värda att nämnas.

https://www.arkeologiforum.se/forum/ind ... 480.0.html

Ett intressant fynd är ett gravfynd från Finland där små fragment av fjädrar hittats. Här är en artikel från 2022 om fyndet.
The burial site of a young child who lived 8,000 years ago has been discovered in Eastern Finland, providing a rare glimpse into how Stone Age humans treated their deceased.

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About 24 tiny feather fragments were found, and seven of them were associated with waterfowl. They represent the oldest feather fragments ever found in Finland. It’s possible that the child was laid to rest on a bed of down feathers, or the child was wrapped in clothing made from waterfowl, like an ancient parka or anorak.

A falcon’s feather was also found in the grave, thought to be part of an arrow likely once attached to an arrowhead, or used as decoration on the child’s clothing.
Stone Age child’s grave site in Finland reveals surprises
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/02/worl ... index.html

En mer detaljerad rapport om fyndet:
The study of animal and plant fibers related to grave furnishing, garments, and grave goods in thousands-of-year-old burials provides new insights into these funerary practices. Their preservation presupposes favorable conditions, where bacterial and fungal activity is at a minimum, as in anaerobic, wet, salty, arid, or frozen environments. The extreme acidic-soil environments (i.e., podzols) of Finland pose a challenge when it comes to studying funerary deposits, as human remains are rarely found. However, its potential to preserve microparticles allows us to approach the funerary event from a totally different point of view. Here, we present the first multiproxy analyses of a Mesolithic deposit from Finland. A red-ochre burial of a child found in Majoonsuo is studied by analyzing 1) microscopic fibers, 2) fatty acids, and 3) physical-chemical (CIELab color, pH, grain size) properties of 60 soil samples and associated materials. The microscopic fibers evidenced the remains of waterfowl downy feathers, a falcon feather fragment, canid and small rodent hairs as well as bast fibers. These could have been used in furnishing the grave and as ornaments or clothes. Canid hairs could belong to a dog inhumation, or more likely to canid fur used as grave good/clothes. Samples with microparticles have more long-chain and unsaturated fatty acids, although animal species identification was not possible. Soil properties indicate that the burial was made in the local soil, adding homogeneous red ochre and removing the coarser material; no bioturbation was found. The highly acidic sandy soil, together with a slight increase in finer particles when ochre is abundant, probably resulted in micro-scale, anoxic conditions that prevented bacterial attack. This study reveals the first animal hairs and feathers from a Finnish Mesolithic funerary context, and provides clues about how their preservation was possible.
Preservation of microscopic fur, feather, and bast fibers in the Mesolithic ochre grave of Majoonsuo, Eastern Finland
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0274849

Jerrark
Inlägg: 528
Blev medlem: 7 oktober 2015, 15:20

Re: Fjädrar i det arkeologiska materialet

Inlägg av Jerrark » 22 april 2023, 19:32

I en annan tråd tas fynd av dun från Valsgärde upp.

Kort inslag från SVT om fjäderfynd i Valsgärde:

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/vetenskap/ja ... atgravarna
Järnålderns elit begravdes på bäddar av dun i de spektakulära båtgravarna

Det stora gravfältet Valsgärde utanför Uppsala rymmer fler än 90 gravar från århundradena innan vikingatid, och särskilt kända är de spektakulära båtgravarna. Nu har forskare analyserat de fågelfjädrar som hittats i gravarna.

I de rika båtgravarna låg stormän och hövdingar begravda, i båtar som var omkring 10 meter långa och med dyrbara gravgåvor, bland annat dekorerade hjälmar, vapen och sköldar.

Men man var också noga med att låta de döda vila skönt på sin sista resa – på bäddar av fjäder och dun.

– Dunbäddarna i båtgravfältet utanför Uppsala är unika och de äldsta kända i Skandinavien, säger arkeologen Birgitta Berglund från Norges Tekniska och Naturvetenskapliga Universitet.
När forskare analyserade innehållet hittade de bland annat fjäder av gås, höns- och andfågel, fåglar som fanns i den omgivande naturen och på gårdar i järnåldersbygderna. Mer förvånande var upptäckten av fjädrar av berguv, skriver forskarna bakom studien i tidskriften Journal of Archaeological Science.
Mer om fjädrarna i Valsgärde
Microscopic identification of feathers from 7th century boat burials at Valsgärde in Central Sweden: Specialized long-distance feather trade or local bird use?

The warriors in the well-equipped, high-rank 7th–8th century boat burials at Valsgärde in Central Sweden were lying in feather stuffed beds. Feathers, especially from Common Eider, are known as trade commodities from the coast of North Norway from the 15th century onwards, but written sources indicate that it started much earlier. The main goal of this investigation was thus to see if the feathers from two of the boat burials, Valsgärde 7 and 8, showed any indications of such specialized long-distance trade of certain bird species. Various levels of bird identifications were obtained through microscopic analysis of the ancient feathers. Some of these identifications were corroborated with avian bones in the two burials and from a contemporary farm close to the burials. In this way a remarkably large variety of birds, among them Eagle Owl, was identified. The birds are likely to have been present in the surrounding areas including the nearby coast of the Baltic Sea. Therefore, the feathers do not suggest long-distance trade, but appear as a new source of knowledge of local bird fauna in archaeological sites. Scandinavian folklore and Islandic Sagas indicated that the feathers had a special meaning, in connection with death and shamanism. The investigations could not confirm long-distance trade with feathers, but gave new perspectives on the use and cultural significance of birds in the Late Iron Age in Scandinavia.
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... l_bird_use

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