Iron Age animal husbandry in the wetlands of the western Netherlands

Abstract

During the Iron Age a subsistence economy based on mixed farming existed in the Dutch wetlands. A model based on subsistence is put forward and tested against the archaeozoological data of 27 sites in order to gain insight into the role of animal husbandry. The model confirms that cattle husbandry was the dominant form of animal husbandry but pigs and sheep were also important at some sites. Although a high number of pig bones were expected, their role is mostly insignificant. An explanation is sought in their lack of secondary products and their competition with humans for the scarce cereals in the wetlands. The mortality profiles for cattle are largely in accordance with the subsistence model. Older cattle are used for traction, milk and herd security and sheep were mainly kept for their meat but also for their milk and wool. Differences in animal husbandry between sites also exist. At two sites more cattle were killed for their meat and at three sites the proportion of older cattle was larger than expected. Although this first test renders the subsistence model viable, it needs to be tested against more sites with larger bone samples.

Keywords:

• Iron Age
• Wetlands
• Animal husbandry
• The Netherlands
• Subsistence model
• Archaeozoology

Acknowledgements

This research was undertaken as part of an external PhD research, supervised by Harry Fokkens (Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University) and Roel Lauwerier (Cultural Heritage Agency). I am grateful to Aniek Abbink for her support at the initial stages of this study. Regretfully, she is no longer with us to witness the results. I would like to thank Maaike Groot and my supervisors for providing useful comments on earlier drafts.